Karremans surprised by process request

Ex-Dutchbat commandant, Thom Karremans, is confused at his being summoned to court once again by the surviving relatives of the three victims of the Srebrenica massacre, his lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops says. Karremans points out that it is only 13 months since the Public Prosecution Authority (OM) decided not to prosecute him. The OM is doing this in response to the surviving relatives of the three Bosniaks who were killed in 1995 by the Bosnian-Serbians. They started a procedure under Article 12, and hope to be able to bring Karremans as well as two others to court. Knoops says that his client hoped that the attempts towards prosecution had come to an end, "for the men as well as the women of Dutchbat." The lawyer says that Karremans is confident in the face of the procedure. "He just hopes that it will be over quickly, because he is already confronted with investigations for more than twenty years", Knoops adds. Last year, after investigating, the OM concluded that Karremans and the two others were not able to be blamed for criminal involvement in the atrocities in Srebrenica. The Bosnia-Serbian troops under general Mladic chased thousands of boys and men out of the enclave to their deaths. The surviving relatives are of the conviction that the Dutchbat should have protected the muslims. In their eyes, Karremans and the other two perpetrated war crimes and genocide.