Shameful decision by the European Court: Karremans will not be prosecuted for complicity in genocide

The Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide and the Movement of Mothers of the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Žepa strongly condemn the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which decided that the commander of the Dutch battalion in Srebrenica, Thom Karremans, will not be prosecuted for complicity in the genocide in Srebrenica in 1995.

With this decision, the European Court of Human Rights has once again inflicted an injustice on us that is difficult to describe. After 21 years of fighting for truth and justice, we have once again been let down by the international community and the court that represented our path to justice.

- We cannot forget Karremans' role and his complicity in the murder of our children, husbands, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and all those we loved. We cannot forget his acceptance of gifts from Ratko Mladić and the celebrations during the fall of Srebrenica. We cannot forget the ordeal we witnessed as they murdered the little dignity we had left – as our girls and women were raped and newborns killed. We are aware today, as we were in 1995, why our children and loved ones were killed. Today, we are aware that justice has been denied to us because we are Muslims.

The line between justice and politics is thin, but that is no reason to stop fighting against shameful court decisions. This is further proof that victims and survivors are a secondary concern for international actors, and we must fight with our last breath because the truth must not be covered up by shameful decisions.

These two Associations will continue to fight for just court decisions so that future generations do not learn a distorted history of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina – it is stated in the press release.