The two men locked each other in a stare across the courtroom. It lasted a second, but it felt as though they had been staring at each other ever since they last met 10 years ago at Srebrenica, the site of Europe’s worst massacre since the World War II.
As they went in, the Dutch colonel, Robert Franken, nodded at the survivor, Hasan Nuhanovic, with breezy, military confidence. But in court, the former soldier whom Nuhanovic accused of sending his family to their deaths looked awkward.
Nuhanovic and the colonel had last met as thousands of Bosniak Muslims sought refuge at the Dutch UN battalion headquarters outside Srebrenica. They were expelled in an operation overseen by the colonel, and 8 000 Bosniaks were subsequently massacred by the Serbs.
Nuhanovic, now 34, is unstoppable in his determination to get at the truth. The colonel has retired to his farm, where he keeps horses. It seemed unthinkable that they should ever meet again. But on Thursday, at the Palace of Justice in The Hague, Nuhanovic was given leave to cross-examine the soldier.
Thursday’s hearing was part of a series of preliminary sessions to clear the way for civil action against the Dutch government by Nuhanovic and another family.
Earlier in the morning Franken had been asked to describe the evacuation of the UN base by the survivor’s lawyer, Liesbeth Zegveld. The colonel claimed the refugees had simply ”stood up and left”.
Then as the court hearing resumed, Nuhanovic got the colonel to admit that the refugees had wanted to remain, but had no choice but to leave and face their fate.
The colonel admitted seeing Nuhanovic and his family in the late afternoon of July 13 between the UN office and the gate. He admitted telling Nuhanovic to tell his father that he could stay inside the base because he was one of three representatives at a meeting with the Serbian general Ratko Mladic, two days before.
Nuhanovic then challenged the colonel about the fate of his mother and younger brother. He asked the colonel whether it was true that they chose to leave the protection of the UN base voluntarily.
”Did my family have a choice?” Nuhanovic asked.
”Your father,” the colonel replied. Nuhanovic’s father elected to die with this wife and younger son rather than part with them and stay alive in the compound.
”Did my mother and brother have a choice?” Nuhanovic asked again.
”No,” the colonel admitted.
Then came the issue of what it was that people were afraid of, and whether they had simply ”stood up and left”.
”Did you know why people wanted to be on that list?” Nuhanovic asked of an inventory of local authority and UN employees intended for safe passage.
”I assume people wanted to go on the list to get out safely,” came the reply.
”Did you at any moment hear or see that people wanted to remain on the base?”
”I once heard that. That is correct. Someone came to me and said that people … did not want to be evacuated.”
The case grates an exposed nerve in Dutch society, which has lived with variations of unease, guilt and denial over its soldiers’ role in the bloodbath.
”I am here now,” Nuhanovic said before the hearing. ”But this is not only about my family — this is to establish truth, and the complicity of individuals in what happened … We are opening the door for thousands of others.”
Professor Mient Jan Faber, former director of the Dutch Interchurch Council for Peace (IKV), said: ”The Dutch have constructed a fantasy narrative about Srebrenica — the idea that, at the expense of some men, we saved thousands of women and children.”
After the fall of Srebrenica to the Serbs under Mladic on July 11 1995, the terrified population of the enclave split into two. About 15 000 made off over the mountains towards Bosnian-held territory. Another 25 000 streamed to the Dutch UN base at Potocari, seeking protection from troops charged by the UN security council with providing it. About 5 000 got inside the base, which the Dutch then closed, leaving 20 000 outside.
On July 12, the Serbs began sporadic killing of people outside. The following day, the Dutch ordered those cowering inside the base to leave.
Their commander, Colonel Tom Karemans, left his deputy, Franken, to oversee the expulsion, or ”evacuation” as it is known. Under the eyes of Dutch soldiers, the Serbs then separated women, children and the elderly from men and boys — the latter taken away for summary execution.
”I have waited 10 years for this”, said Nuhanovic. ”This has never happened before.”
Outside in the lobby, Franken walked past Hasan Nuhanovic. This time, the former officer did not nod. – Guardian Unlimited Â