THE HAGUE: A Dutch court ruled yesterday that the state was liable for the deaths of over 300 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the Srebrenica massacre, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II. Families of the victims had sued the Dutch government over the 1995 killings, accusing Dutch UN peacekeepers of failing to protect the 8,000 people slaughtered by ethnic Serb forces just a few months before the end of the Bosnian war.
The incident has been a source of national shame for the Netherlands, and was seen as a major failure on the part of the United Nations — whose missions around the world could be affected by yesterday’s ruling.
The decision was greeted with dismay by relatives after it found the Dutch state was liable for those killed after being expelled from a UN safe haven — but not for all of the deaths.
“Today we got justice for one group, that’s good,” said Munira Subasic, one of the representatives of the Mothers of Srebrenica group who were in court.
“But how do you explain to a mother that the Dutch are responsible for the death of one son that stood on one side of the fence, and not for the one on the other side?” she said
through tears.
The judgement follows a Dutch court’s landmark ruling last year that the state was liable for the deaths at the UN’s Potocari compound, the first time a government had been held responsible for the actions of peacekeepers operating under a UN mandate.
The tiny Muslim enclave was overrun by forces under the command of Ratko Mladic, who is currently on trial on genocide and war crimes charges over the war in Bosnia, including Srebrenica.
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.
The Dutch judge, Larissa Elwin, said the state was liable for the loss suffered by relatives of the men deported by the Bosnian Serbs from the Dutch battalion (Dutchbat) compound on July 13, 1995. In the subsequent days, almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered. AFP
