Mothers of Srebrenica on Dutch compensation: Money cannot replace our loved ones

The Supreme Court of the Kingdom of the Netherlands last year upheld an earlier ruling limiting the responsibility of the Dutch Battalion at the United Nations (UN) in Srebrenica in July 1995 to the deaths of 350 people.

These are persons who, after the fall of Srebrenica on July 11, sought rescue in the vicinity of the UN base. The Dutch battalion, instead of providing them with protection, which was the mandate of the UN in the until then protected zone, drove the citizens of Srebrenica out of the base, after which the separation of men from women and children began.

Based on the confirmed verdict, the victims’ families will be able to seek compensation, and a counter for receiving documentation will be opened in March next year in Sarajevo.

Members of the “Women of Srebrenica” association, who to this day have not fully found the remains of their loved ones, state that they have received an invitation from the Dutch Embassy in BiH for a meeting, which will be held soon, regarding the opening of a counter in Sarajevo where the appropriate documentation for the payment of compensation will be submitted.

“The Dutch Ministry of Finance has formed a commission that will decide on the payment of compensation, but we still do not have more detailed details in terms of the amount of compensation and the like. Most women from Srebrenica do not agree with this act of the Netherlands because there is no money with which to pay for the loss of our loved ones. The only justice would be for them to be returned to us alive. We know that they were killed and in what way,” Nura Begović, vice president of the “Women of Srebrenica” Association, told Klix.ba.

According to the Supreme Court’s decision, the Netherlands is “10 percent to blame for the fall of Srebrenica,” a conclusion that the mothers of Srebrenica disagree with.

“They are to a much greater extent responsible for the genocide that took place in Srebrenica. The decision to compensate for the damage was made in a bizarre way and I think it was done intentionally to create chaos among the families who decide to pay,” said Begović, who until last year was searching for her brother’s remains.

For 25 years, Hajra Ćatić has been searching for the remains of her son Nihad, a war journalist who sent his last report the day before the fall of the UN-protected enclave in which he appealed to the international community to prevent the genocide in Srebrenica.
Ćatić primarily tells us that she is not satisfied with the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Netherlands is only ten percent guilty of the genocide in which her son was killed.

“The Netherlands is not only responsible for those who died in the hall, but also for the genocide that was committed in other parts of Srebrenica. None of my people was in the hall, and there is already information that certain people were added to the list, even though they were not there. There are also cases where some men stayed in the hall, but were not allowed to sign because of fear of what might happen to them,” says Ćatić, who is also the president of the “Women of Srebrenica” Association.

And Ćatić also points out that the members of her association cannot be satisfied with the payment of any kind of monetary compensation, stressing that the mothers of Srebrenica have only known immense sadness and pain since July 11, 1995.