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A COURT IN the Netherlands has ruled that the Dutch state was liable for the deaths of over 300 victims of the Srebrenica massacre, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II.
Families of the victims had brought a case against the Dutch government over the 1995 killings, accusing Dutch UN peacekeepers of failing to protect the 8,000 Muslim men and boys slaughtered by ethnic Serb troops just a few months before the end of the Bosnian war.
“The state is liable for the loss suffered by relatives of the men who were deported by the Bosnian Serbs from the Dutchbat (Dutch battalion) compound in Potocari in the afternoon of 13 July 1995,” the court said.
“Dutchbat should have taken into account the possibility that these men would be the victim of genocide and that it can be said with sufficient certainty that, had the Dutchbat allowed them to stay at the compound, these men would have remained alive,” it ruled.
Dutchbat was the name for the Dutch force under the nominal control of the United Nations in the former Yugoslavia.
“By cooperating in the deportation of these men, Dutchbat acted unlawfully,” it added.
The tiny Muslim enclave was under UN protection until 11 July 1995 when it was overrun by ethnic Serb forces under the command of Ratko Mladic, who is currently on trial on genocide and war crimes charges over the war in Bosnia, including the Srebrenica slaughter.
Seeking justice for years
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.
In the subsequent days, almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered and their bodies dumped in mass graves.
The Mothers of Srebrenica, representing some 6,000 widows and victims’ relatives, have been seeking justice for years for the massacre, which the UN’s highest International Court of Justice has ruled was genocide.
In April, the Dutch government said it would pay €20,000 to relatives of three Bosnian Muslim men murdered after peacekeepers expelled them from the UN compound at Srebrenica in 1995.
That move followed a Dutch court’s landmark ruling last year that the state was liable for the deaths, the first time a government had been held responsible for the actions of peacekeepers operating under a UN mandate.
Wednesday’s ruling come just days after thousands of people gathered in Srebrenica to mark the 19th anniversary of the killings.
So far, the remains of 6,066 people have been exhumed from mass graves in the Srebrenica region for reburial.
The massacre took place just a few months before the end of Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war, which claimed some 100,000 lives in total.
Both Mladic, dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia”, and Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, considered masterminds of the massacre, are now being tried by a UN court for war crimes and genocide.
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Eh, I think it’s the Serbs who are liable?
It doesn’t say they aren’t.
Fact is, they died because the Serbs murdered them. Implicating the Dutch mitigates the Serbs’ responsibility and guilt. I can’t help but think they’re after the €20K knowing the Dutch are wealthy a bit of a soft-touch (unlike the Serbs).
The Dutch handed these people over to a bunch of murderers. Someone ordered them to hand them over, I doubt an Irish Contingent would have handed them over!
It was an act of gross cowardice, betraying not only the people that died but the UN and the Dutch State. One they will never live down!
Shame on them!
As a soldier, you follow orders. More than likely an Irish unit would have done the exact same had they been given the orders from their UN commanders.
Perhaps that is the case, I would like to see those that gave the order named and……shamed.
I would like to believe that our Army with it’s proud and brave soldiers would have stood firm, from what I have heard they have done so in the Lebanon on a regular basis.
The main murderers for this sit in NYC in the UN building wearing fancy suits and talk alot amongst themselves.
Its easy to blame Dutchbatt for this as they were under orders not to open fire unless directly approved by the UN Security council,which was “discussing the matter”.Meantime on the ground the Dutch commander knew he was outgunned,out numberd and was warned by the Serbs that they wouldnt show his men any mercy either if they resisted and would shell the UN camp and over run it with tanks. Those were his stark choices.As a CO he has a mandate to look after his men too and not put them unnecessarily in harms way either on a peace keeping mission.Alot different to an active combat role, So heres your op situation;
You are in charge of a refugee centre with 8000 plus people and you have appx 500 personel to protect them.You have zero heavy artillery ,tanks or re enforced positions. A battalion strength with armoured vechicles and tanks are parked outside your door with hard bitten combat troops and a blood thirsty commander who has given you an ultimatium of 4hours to stand aside or suffer the consequences if you dont.
You have been ORDERD not to make any defensive measures or build defensive positions by your Govt and your higher ups in the chain of command.The politicans are pandering to the most useless organisation mankind ever created in NYC as to what might be sorted politically and peacefully…FUK ALL good to the guy on the ground looking down a few hundred AK47 and tank gun barrells with a clock ticking…
Blame anyone,blame the UN as it stumbled from disaster to disaster in the Balkans ,as usual it took professional fighting men and women of NATO to sort it out,mostly supported by the evil war mongering Americans as usual.
Ragnar, very true. Not many people (Igloo included) know that UN Peacekeepers are there in an observational role. They need authorisation not from their commanding officers but by the UN Council in New York.
To say the Dutch are cowardly is absurd, they were in Afghanistan until recently and actually managed to turn their sector round into an area that has faired better than others.
The Dutch operated within the rules given to them by the UN. People like Igloo need to turn their attention to them, not to the Dutch on that day.
Gentlemen I accept your points, having visited and seen the devastation caused I’m probably too emotional and shocked at what happened.
I with draw my comments about them being cowardly
It was the suits in the UN building in New York who sat on their hands ‘holding talks’ that allowed this that happened. Rwanda was the exact.same.The UN troops there were screaming to engage but got nothing but ‘were discussing it’. It is the UN that should pay for this and not the Dutch State and of course those who murdered these civilians should be tried for war crimes.
8000 men and boys! You won’t see any of the ‘Gendered Violence’ lefty-bollocks brigade on this post.
They deny that it happened.
What’s a lefty?
They can’t blame the US for it without grasping at straws, hence why you won’t see them.
No Jews…. No Americans….. No lefty outrage.
Business Cat, so true. Same with other conflicts. Literally millions have been killed, mutilated, become victims of extreme sexual violence in the Great Lakes region and DRC alone over the past 16 years yet not near as much outrage. Maybe it’s a money thing with the Jews and Yanks that makes them so much worse…
Indeed.
Still waiting of the Dublin city council to pass that motion of boycott against Serbia.
Tick tock councillors.
Sheldon do you really think that € 20 000 is going to make up for what happened. Whole families lost, mothers still looking for their sons and hoping that they will find the whole body not just parts. Lots of those buried in Srebrenica are missing arms, legs, heads. They killed a woman who was 9 months pregnant and do you really think her family thinks 20 000 will replace her? I am not saying that Serbs are not to blame, they are and I hope they pay but those UN troops sold those people and they knew what was going to happen to them. There’s a video of their major drinking with Mladic and laughing and while Bosnian men are killed outside.
Of course the money’s not going to bring back the dead. Nor was it their immediate concern I’m sure; more an after-thought. Enough time has passed and now they’re thinking ’20k, why not?’. Why aren’t they asking Serbia for money? Why are Western countries held to account more than the others? The Dutch were there to help while the rest of the world looked away. The Bosnians should be grateful for that. Granted, they messed up on that particular occasion but what’s the message here, try to help someone out when no one else can be bothered but risk getting sued if it doesn’t work out? The Serbs and the Serbs alone murdered those men and boys. Bottom line.
Yes Sheldon. They were murdered by the Serbs after Dutchbat handed them over.
Bosnians should be grateful because UN protected them are you serious! The world let it happen in the middle of Europe! If by protecting you mean letting Serbs kill over 100 000 people than they indeed did. UN didn’t protect Prijedor, around 400 people found in a mass grave are going to be buried on Saturday. Could you put a price on your childs life?! €20 000 000 is not enough!
It’s like blaming the person who tried and failed to save someone who’s drowned while not blaming the one who pushed him in and held his head under. Again, the Serbs and the Serbs alone are responsible for those deaths. But the Serbs couldn’t care less so let’s all just blame it on the generous, good-meaning, conscience-stricken Dutch instead.
In the name of all that’s gracious I have to say that things cannot ever improve in THIS country, let alone others, whilst people hold the attitudes just demonstrated by “Sheldon Sheridan”. Everything is about money, and people are never aggrieved or bereft, they just pretend to be to get money. It is clear to anyone that the Serbs are of course, primarily responsible for the slaughter. The Dutch are secondarily responsible for failing to protect the victims of slaughter – as was their remit, and the UN or whatever body are similarly responsible for not providing the means to the peace-keeper group to enable them to carry out their remit. Now what is so difficult to understand about that? I would say further, fair play to the Dutch Court for this Judgement. Our own Government is currently before the UN and “notting is our fault, ever”.
Why they bomb Serbs and not Israel
Shameful event for the Dutch Army! Poor support from the higher brass & a government with no back bone, let’s hope lessons like these are learned & prevented from happening again..
Eh, surely it is Serbia that is liable?
The dutchbat are complicit though
No, it was Serbian terrorists who killed this innocent people. The Dutch failed to defend them but they were not the executioners; they are still alive and well in Serbia.
“The state is liable for the loss suffered by relatives of the men who were deported by the Bosnian Serbs from the Dutchbat (Dutch battalion) compound in Potocari in the afternoon of 13 July 1995,”
Over 300 people. That’s specific responsibility by Dutchbat for handing over 300 out of the 8000+ killed in Srebrenica.
In regard to the comments regarding irish troops doing the same. We dont have to imagine what they would have done. Irish troops were in the exact same scenario in the congo and withstood air attack and heavy weapons fire until they ran out of ammo and supplies. They then surrendered to their fate. The dutch troops should have done the same and the un should have ensured they could complete their mandate of protecting the civvies. At least now the roe for peacekeeping has been changed for the real world.
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