Former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok was questioned Monday in court here on NATO's 1999 bombing of Serbia as part of a hearing by victims and relatives.Dutch law allows a preliminary hearing of a certain number of witnesses before a case has to be filed.
Over a dozen Serbian bombing victims wanted to question Kok about human rights violations in the bombing of Serbia's radio-television tower on April 23 and the May 7 bombing of the southern city of Nis as part of NATO's campaign to force Belgrade to end its anti-Albanian crackdown in Kosovo.
In Nis NATO cluster bombs landed near a marketplace and hospital, killing 15 people, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, with NATO saying the bombs had been targeted to hit an airfield a mile (less than two kilometers) away.
Kok said the deaths and injuries from the Nis bombing, due to a technical problem, were regrettable, but that use of the bombs which spread small explosives over a wide area was not banned.
The former prime minister said the Dutch government was not informed in advance of the attack on the radio-television tower, but had given NATO its agreement on attacks on Serbian communications facilities.
Kok and former foreign minister Jozias van Aartsen, who was also questioned Monday, said the tower was also part of the military communications network under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic.
The bombing vicitims and their lawyers were to decide later whether to file a case.
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