Dutch share blame for 1995 deaths of Muslims
Print Edition
A Dutch appeals court ruled yesterday the Netherlands was partly to blame for the deaths of some 350 Muslim men in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, and in a landmark move ordered the state to pay limited damages.
“The court finds that the Dutch state acted unlawfully,” judge Gepke Dulek said in an hour-long ruling, which largely upheld a 2014 decision by a lower court.
“The conclusion is that the Dutchbat (Dutch peacekeepers) knew that during the evacuations by the Bosnian Serbs to separate the Muslim men and boys there was a real risk they could face inhumane treatment or execution,” she said.
The Dutch soldiers had also “facilitated the separation of the men and the boys” among the refugees, she said, adding they should have been “warned of the risks and given the choice whether to stay in the enclave while their families were evacuated.”
Letting the men leave the base, meant they “were deprived of a chance of survival.”
Almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the 1995 genocide, Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II.
It occurred on July 13, 1995 when lightly armed Dutch United Nations peacekeepers were overrun by Bosnian Serb forces.
The peacekeepers sought to protect tens of thousands of refugees who had sought safe haven at their base, which had been encircled by the Bosnian Serb forces.
The Mothers of Srebrenica, representing the victims, had demanded that the Dutch be found responsible for most of the deaths.
The judge insisted the ruling only applied to 350 men and boys who left the Dutch base with their families to be evacuated.
Tuesday’s ruling also found that the Dutch state is liable for some 30 percent of any damages awarded, stopping short of awarding full compensation as it found it “was uncertain” whether the men would have survived if they had remained inside the compound.
Both parties can further appeal to the Supreme Court, and the Dutch defense ministry said it would carefully read the judgement, the ANP news agency said.
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