CSE News Updates

Dutch court rules state liable over 300 Srebrenica victims THE HAGUE, July 16, 2014 (AFP) - A court in the Netherlands ruled Wednesday that the Dutch state was liable for the deaths of over 300 victims of the Srebrenica massacre, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II.Families of the victims had brought a case the Dutch government over the 1995 killings, accusing Dutch UN peacekeepers of failing to protect the 8,000 Muslim men and boys slaughtered by ethnic Serb troops just a few months before the end of the Bosnian wa.

"The state is liable for the loss suffered by relatives of the men who were deported by the Bosnian Serbs from the Dutchbat (Dutch battalion) compound in Potocari in the afternoon of 13 July, 1995," the court said.

"Dutchbat should have taken into account the possibility that these men would be the victim of genocide and that it can be said with sufficient certainty that, had the Dutch bat allowed them to stay at the compound, these men would have remained alive," it ruled.

Dutchbat was the name for the Dutch force under the nominal control of the United Nations in the former Yugoslavia.

"By cooperating in the deportation of these men, Dutchbat acted unlawfully," it added.

The tiny Muslim enclave was under UN protection until July 11, 1995 when it was overrun by ethnic Serb forces under the command of Ratko Mladic, who is currently on trial on genocide and war crimes charges over the war in Bosnia, including the Srebrenica slaughter.

- Seeking justice for years -

Mladic's troops brushed aside the lightly-armed Dutch peacekeepers in a "safe area" where thousands of Muslims from surrounding villages had gathered for protection.

In the subsequent days, almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered and their bodies dumped in mass graves.

The Mothers of Srebrenica, representing some 6,000 widows and victims' relatives, have been seeking justice for years for the massacre, which the UN's highest International Court of Justice has ruled was genocide.

In April, the Dutch government said it would pay 20,000 euros to relatives of three Bosnian Muslim men murdered after peacekeepers expelled them from the UN compound at Srebrenica in 1995.

That move followed a Dutch court's landmark ruling last year that the state was liable for the deaths, the first time a government had been held responsible for the actions of peacekeepers operating under a UN mandate.

Wednesday's ruling come just days after thousands of people gathered in Srebrenica to mark the 19th anniversary of the killings.

So far, the remains of 6,066 people have been exhumed from mass graves in the Srebrenica region for reburial.

The massacre took place just a few months before the end of Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, which claimed some 100,000 lives in total.

Both Mladic, dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia", and Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, considered masterminds of the massacre, are now being tried by a UN court for war crimes and genocide.

View the original article here

Two dead in Buddhist nationalist violence in Myanmar: police YANGON, July 3, 2014 (AFP) - Two people have been killed during Buddhist-Muslim violence in Myanmar's second-largest city, police said Thursday after security forces fired rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of rioters.Myanmar has been shaken by several waves of sectarian conflict in recent years that have cast a shadow over its emergence from decades of repressive military rule.

At least 250 people have been killed and tens of thousands left homeless since 2012 by inter-communal violence that has largely targeted Muslims.

Police fired rubber bullets during the night on Tuesday into Wednesday to disperse hundreds of rioters, some armed with sticks and knives, who took to the streets and attacked a Muslim teashop after an accusation of rape, the authorities said.

"There are two dead," a police officer, who did not want to be named, told AFP by telephone from the central city of Mandalay, without providing further details.

In a monthly radio address, Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein called for an end to religious hatred.

"As our country is a multi-racial and -religious nation, the current reform process will be successful only when stability is maintained through the co-operation of all the citizens by living harmoniously with one another," he said according to an official transcript.

"For the reform to be successful, I would like to urge all to avoid instigation and behaviour that incite hatred among our fellow citizens," he said.

The former general has been credited with pushing through dramatic reforms since the former junta handed power to a nominally civilian government in 2011.

But the sectarian conflicts have provided a major test for his administration and prompted warnings that the country's fragile transition towards democracy could be at risk.

Radical monks have been accused of stoking religious tensions with fiery warnings that Buddhism is under threat from Islam.

A prominent hardline monk, Wirathu, posted a link to online allegations against the teashop owners on his Facebook page just hours before the latest unrest flared up.

Rioters smashed or set fire to several cars and threw bricks and bottles at some houses, according to the state-controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

It said that about 450 rioters with sticks and knives took to the streets, despite an increased security presence.

"We are investigating this riot and will take action against those involved in the mob attack," Mandalay police chief Zaw Win Aung was quoted as saying.

He said extra security forces would be deployed to restore order.

Myanmar's Muslims account for an estimated four percent of the roughly 60 million population in a country where for many people Buddhism forms an intrinsic part of national identity.

View the original article here

Two dead in Buddhist nationalist violence in Myanmar: police YANGON, July 3, 2014 (AFP) - Two people have been killed during Buddhist-Muslim violence in Myanmar's second-largest city, police said Thursday after security forces fired rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of rioters.Myanmar has been shaken by several waves of sectarian conflict in recent years that have cast a shadow over its emergence from decades of repressive military rule.

At least 250 people have been killed and tens of thousands left homeless since 2012 by inter-communal violence that has largely targeted Muslims.

Police fired rubber bullets during the night on Tuesday into Wednesday to disperse hundreds of rioters, some armed with sticks and knives, who took to the streets and attacked a Muslim teashop after an accusation of rape, the authorities said.

"There are two dead," a police officer, who did not want to be named, told AFP by telephone from the central city of Mandalay, without providing further details.

In a monthly radio address, Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein called for an end to religious hatred.

"As our country is a multi-racial and -religious nation, the current reform process will be successful only when stability is maintained through the co-operation of all the citizens by living harmoniously with one another," he said according to an official transcript.

"For the reform to be successful, I would like to urge all to avoid instigation and behaviour that incite hatred among our fellow citizens," he said.

The former general has been credited with pushing through dramatic reforms since the former junta handed power to a nominally civilian government in 2011.

But the sectarian conflicts have provided a major test for his administration and prompted warnings that the country's fragile transition towards democracy could be at risk.

Radical monks have been accused of stoking religious tensions with fiery warnings that Buddhism is under threat from Islam.

A prominent hardline monk, Wirathu, posted a link to online allegations against the teashop owners on his Facebook page just hours before the latest unrest flared up.

Rioters smashed or set fire to several cars and threw bricks and bottles at some houses, according to the state-controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

It said that about 450 rioters with sticks and knives took to the streets, despite an increased security presence.

"We are investigating this riot and will take action against those involved in the mob attack," Mandalay police chief Zaw Win Aung was quoted as saying.

He said extra security forces would be deployed to restore order.

Myanmar's Muslims account for an estimated four percent of the roughly 60 million population in a country where for many people Buddhism forms an intrinsic part of national identity.

View the original article here

Two dead in Buddhist nationalist violence in Myanmar: police YANGON, July 3, 2014 (AFP) - Two people have been killed during Buddhist-Muslim violence in Myanmar's second-largest city, police said Thursday after security forces fired rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of rioters.Myanmar has been shaken by several waves of sectarian conflict in recent years that have cast a shadow over its emergence from decades of repressive military rule.

At least 250 people have been killed and tens of thousands left homeless since 2012 by inter-communal violence that has largely targeted Muslims.

Police fired rubber bullets during the night on Tuesday into Wednesday to disperse hundreds of rioters, some armed with sticks and knives, who took to the streets and attacked a Muslim teashop after an accusation of rape, the authorities said.

"There are two dead," a police officer, who did not want to be named, told AFP by telephone from the central city of Mandalay, without providing further details.

In a monthly radio address, Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein called for an end to religious hatred.

"As our country is a multi-racial and -religious nation, the current reform process will be successful only when stability is maintained through the co-operation of all the citizens by living harmoniously with one another," he said according to an official transcript.

"For the reform to be successful, I would like to urge all to avoid instigation and behaviour that incite hatred among our fellow citizens," he said.

The former general has been credited with pushing through dramatic reforms since the former junta handed power to a nominally civilian government in 2011.

But the sectarian conflicts have provided a major test for his administration and prompted warnings that the country's fragile transition towards democracy could be at risk.

Radical monks have been accused of stoking religious tensions with fiery warnings that Buddhism is under threat from Islam.

A prominent hardline monk, Wirathu, posted a link to online allegations against the teashop owners on his Facebook page just hours before the latest unrest flared up.

Rioters smashed or set fire to several cars and threw bricks and bottles at some houses, according to the state-controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

It said that about 450 rioters with sticks and knives took to the streets, despite an increased security presence.

"We are investigating this riot and will take action against those involved in the mob attack," Mandalay police chief Zaw Win Aung was quoted as saying.

He said extra security forces would be deployed to restore order.

Myanmar's Muslims account for an estimated four percent of the roughly 60 million population in a country where for many people Buddhism forms an intrinsic part of national identity.

View the original article here