A Bosnian human rights court has ordered Bosnian Serb authorities to pay more than $2 million in compensation over the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica.
After a legal action by relatives of more than 7,000 Muslims killed by Serb forces, the court said the Bosnian Serb government must pay half the money within six months and the rest over the next four years.
The massacre was the worst on European territory since World War II. After overrunning the UN-protected Muslim enclave of Srebrenica on July 11th, 1995, Serb forces separated women and men who were then killed in mass executions the following days. About 6,000 bodies have been found in over 20 mass graves around the eastern town.
A total of 582 bodies that have been identified so far are to be buried in a memorial cemetery near Srebrenica on March 31.
The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague has indicted several Serbs for alleged genocide committed in Srebrenica, including former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic and the two most wanted fugitives - Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander Ratko Mladic.
Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic was convicted to 46 years for his leading role in the massacre. Post-war Bosnia is split into two highly autonomous entities - the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbs' Republika Srpska.
AFP