First lawsuit against NATO ready: Compensation sought for people ill with cancer because of bombing

Photo: S. Pikula

On Wednesday, January 20, the Aleksic law firm from Nis will file the first lawsuit seeking compensation from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), on behalf of cancer patients who became ill as a consequence of the bombing of our country in 1999, when the alliance used ammunition with depleted uranium.

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The first lawsuit will be filed before the litigation department of the Higher Court in Belgrade, lawyer Srdjan Aleksic told Tanjug.

After that, other lawsuits will follow before courts in Vranje, Nis, Kragujevac and Novi Sad.

The filing will seek compensation for cancer patients, i.e., for specific clients who got sick due to depleted uranium poisoning. They are mostly soldiers, police officers and members of the military reserves, who were in Kosovo and Metohija or in southern Serbia in 1999.

Italian lawyer Angelo Fiore Tartaglia was also involved in the preparation of the lawsuits and court proceedings. He took part in similar cases in Italy and managed to win 181 cases for his clients, Italian soldiers who were deployed in the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and Metohija

Tartaglia, who was enrolled in the Nis Bar Association at the end of last year, managed to prove before Italian courts the cause-and-effect connection between depleted uranium and the soldiers later developing cancer, on the basis of which they received compensation.

Aleksic pointed out that with the help of Italian court practice and expertise in cases in which the Italian lawyer participated, but also with other evidence, he will show before the courts in Serbia the existence of a causal link between depleted uranium poisoning and cancer cases among Serbian soldiers and police officers.

The amount of damages to be sought will be specified during the court proceedings, but lawyer Aleksic believes that the minimum is 100,000 euros and more.

Aleksic's law firm will ask that their clients be released from paying court fees in these proceedings, because they suffer from the most serious illnesses.

Italian courts did just that and released their soldiers from paying court fees.

Aleksic believes that his clients were in an identical situation as the Italian soldiers who received damages before the courts in their country.

NATO bombing of Serbia; Photo: Profimedia

"They didn't have protective equipment, they consumed food, water and everything else in the field and, like Italian soldiers, they came into contact with heavy metals and depleted uranium when our army withdrew from Kosovo and Metohija," the Nis lawyer specified.

According to him, about 2,000 clients have approached the firm so far, and all of them have submitted medical documentation, which is being checked by a team of experts.

He pointed out that the lawsuits will be filed on behalf of those who have adequate medical documentation, which shows that their malignant disease is a consequence of the effects of depleted uranium.

The defendant will be the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO, since it is an international organization, founded by specific member-states, which has its own bodies and decision-making processes.

In case the court awards compensation to the plaintiffs, it should be paid by NATO because, according to the Aleksic law firm, NATO as an international organization that has its own independent legal entity in relation to the member-states, and its own budget.

Along with the lawsuits, the court will receive written evidence that domestic authorities previously collected in our country for the cases conducted against NATO leaders and the leaders of the countries that participated in the bombing.

These are, above of all, the evidence presented in the proceedings conducted in 2000 before the District Court in Belgrade, and before the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2004, the Italian verdicts in the cases of their soldiers who were deployed in peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia, domestic courts' practice, expertise and medical records.

For now, the plan is to file so-called "pilot" lawsuits, which means initiating a limited number of proceedings, in order to even out court practice in the territory of the entire country.

Italian soldiers received between 700,000 and a million euros per person from the Italian Ministry of Defense, because it sent them to Kosovo and Metohija and to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they got ill with cancer.

(Telegraf.rs)