Dutch state ‘liable’ for 300 Srebrenica deaths

BBC

A Dutch court has ruled that the Netherlands was liable for the killings of more than 300 Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys at Srebrenica during the Bosnian war in July 1995.

It said that Dutch peacekeepers had failed to protect the Bosniaks when the town fell to the besieging Bosnian Serb army. More than 7,000 were killed.

Bosniaks who had taken refuge with the Dutch were handed over to the Serbs.

Srebrenica is considered Europe’s worst massacre since World War Two.

Last year, a Dutch court ruled that the Netherlands was liable for the deaths of three Bosniak men at Srebrenica.

Compensation

In the latest ruling, launched by relatives of the victims under the name “Mothers of Srebrenica”, the court said that Dutch peacekeeping forces, Dutchbat, did not do enough to protect 300 of the Bosniaks and should have been aware of the potential for genocide to be committed.

It said that the Dutch state must accept some degree of responsibility for what happened and pay compensation to the families of the 300 victims.

The BBC’s Anna Holligan, in the courtroom, says it was a hugely significant ruling but a heart-breaking verdict for the women because the Dutch state was only found partly responsible for the deaths of 300 of the more than 7,000 men killed.

This, she continues, means many of the relatives of the victims will not be entitled to compensation.

A battalion of Dutch peacekeepers was stationed at Srebrenica in 1995

The Muslim-majority town was a UN-protected area besieged by Serb forces throughout the war

During the 1992-1995 war, Bosniaks from the surrounding area sought refuge in the town of Srebrenica as the Bosnian Serb army carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing, expelling non-Serb populations.

The UN declared Srebrenica a “safe area” for civilians in 1993. It fell in July 1995, after more than two years under siege.

Thousands of Bosniaks went to the UN base just outside Srebrenica at Potocari, where the Dutch peacekeepers were stationed.

However, the Dutch soldiers told them they would be safe and handed them over to the Bosnian Serb army.

While the women and young children were transported to a Bosniak-majority area, more than 7,000 men and boys were taken away from the UN base by the Bosnian Serbs, and killed.

Many of their remains still lie in mass graves around eastern Bosnia.

The two key figures of the wartime Bosnian Serb leadership – one-time President Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic – are on trial for war crimes at the UN tribunal in The Hague.