Bosnian Serbs must pay €2m over massacre

BOSNIA’s top human rights court yesterday ordered Bosnian Serb authorities to pay more than 2 million in compensation over the Srebrenica massacre, the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

The panel of international and local judges also ordered them to provide information about the 1995 slaughter, where more than 7,000 Muslims were killed at the hands of Serb forces during the Bosnian war.

In its first such ruling, the court responded to a lawsuit by 49 families against Bosnian Serb authorities, charging their rights have been violated because they have not received information about their missing relatives. More than 1,700 such claims are still pending.

"In the light of exceptionally high level of trauma caused in part by the lack of information" about the missing relatives, the failure of the Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska to provide answers is "particularly egregious", the court said.

Around 6,000 bodies have been found so far in more than a dozen graves around the city, but fewer than 600 have been identified.

Republika Srpska the autonomous Bosnian Serb entity carved out after the war retains control over the former UN enclave of Srebrenica, where the massacre helped give rise to the term "ethnic cleansing".

The massacre also led to last year's resignation of the government in the Netherlands after a report found Dutch peacekeepers in the UN force assigned to protect the Muslim enclave had failed to stop the killing.

The rights court ordered the RS to pay four million convertible marks (2.05m) to the Srebrenica memorial foundation for "collective benefit of all the applicants".

Half must be paid within six months and the remainder over the following four years, the court said.

It also ordered the RS to "conduct a full, meaningful and detailed investigation" into the killings and provide information on those missing as well as on the location of mass graves that have not yet been found.

A foundation stone for a memorial was laid last year and the remains of 582 bodies identified so far are to be buried in a joint funeral on March 31.

The compensation is enormous by Bosnian standards, but relatives said nothing could ease their pain.

"No money in the world could make me feel better. Unfortunately, I have survived and I am now forced to live without my loved ones," one of the plaintiffs, Mevlida Sulejmanovic said.

Her two sons, husband and three brothers disappeared during the fall of Srebrenica.

Another woman, Hata Ahmetovic, who lost three sons and husband, said the ruling would "at least help the efforts to bury those identified". RS government spokesman Cvijeta Kovacevic voiced concern about the cash-strapped entity's ability to pay but said the court decision was "binding".