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Srebrenica survivor Hasan Nuhanovic and the family of victim Rizo Mustafic have filed a request before the Military chamber of the Appeals court in Arnheim, in the Netherlands, demanding that three senior Dutch soldiers be charged with war crimes in Srebrenica.
Nuhanovic, who was an interpreter for the Dutch battalion in Srebrenica in 1995, said that commander Thomas Karremans, his assistant Robert Franken and officer Berend Oosterveen should be held responsible for not protecting Bosniak civilians in a place that was supposed to be a UN safe area.
Nuhanovic said he was disappointed that the Dutch prosecution did not decide on its own to prosecute the men.
“We are talking about criminal responsibility and why it is that 19 years after the crime I must insist on this and put pressure on the Dutch prosecution to actually investigate these men, when there is clear evidence that they should be prosecuted?”, asked Nuhanovic.
The criminal complaint was filed after the Hague Appeals court ruled in 2011 that the Netherlands was liable for the death of Nuhanovic’s brother and father and Rizo Mustafic.
Nuhanovic’s relatives and Mustafic sought refuge in the Dutch base in Potocari near Srebrenica after Bosnian Serb forces overran the enclave, but were handed to the Serbs by Dutch soldiers and were subsequently killed.
“We asked for them to be criminally prosecuted, this is logical since the Netherlands was already found guilty. However, the Prosecution in Arnheim refused to file an indictment, so we have appealed against this decision and the appeals will be held in November,” said Nuhanovic’s lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld.
Franken however has argued that he did what he could to save the Bosniaks. He testified at the trial of former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic that he made a list of the Bosniaks seeking refuge at the Dutch peacekeepers base when he saw that the situation was deteriorating.
“My idea was to make a list to make sure those people have names and it was a list of 251 men. They were in the hands of Bosnian Serbs and I wanted to publish this,” said Franken.
Karremans has also said he reported any violence to his superiors, while Oosterveen has said that he thought the Bosniaks were being taken away from the Dutch compound to a safe place, rather than to their deaths.
Nuhanovic said meanwhile that 19 years after the massacres, he does not have great hopes of success in the case.
“I expect nothing. Nothing can surprise me anymore,” said Nuhanovic.
But despite this, he insisted that he would keep on seeking justice.
