Bosniak people

Netherlands ruled responsible for Srebrenica deaths

THE HAGUE -- A Dutch court has ruled that the Netherlands was responsible for the deaths of more than 300 people in Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1995.

A Dutch court has ruled that the Netherlands was responsible for the deaths of more than 300 Bosniaks from Srebrenica in 1995 because its peacekeeping troops failed to protect them.

Bosniaks marched through the Macedonian capital on Monday from Skopje’s old town, near the Murat Pasha mosque, to the Stone Bridge, one of the city’s biggest landmarks, where participants called for peace and tolerance and said that Srebrenica should never be forgotten.

Thousands of people gathered on July 11 in Srebrenica for the 19th anniversary of the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim males by ethnic Serbs forces, Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II.

Mourners gathered to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacres with a ceremony at which the bodies of 175 victims who were identified over the past year will be buried.

BELGRADE - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic will attend a donor conference dedicated to repairing the damage from the floods in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the event will be held in Brussels on July 16, Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Wednesday.

Former special policeman Zeljko Ivanovic, who guarded a warehouse where Bosniaks were massacred, was given the maximum sentence of 20 years for assisting the Srebrenica genocide.

Five former Bosnian Serb policemen were given reduced sentences of 20 years each for aiding genocide in Srebrenica following a retrial after their previous convictions were annulled.

SARAJEVO – Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) Bakir Izetbegovic says he does not understand the reasoning behind Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic’s plans not to go to Sarajevo for an event marking 100 years since the outbreak of World War One (WWI) and his stating that he cannot go to a place where someone will accuse his people.

The state court ordered the release of former Bosnian Serb special policeman Zeljko Ivanovic, jailed for assisting the Srebrenica genocide, because the wrong criminal code was used at his trial.