The Dutch are responsible for the slayings of 300 Bosnian Muslims in the Srebrenica massacre carried out during the Bosnian war nearly 20 years ago, a civil court in The Hague ruled Wednesday according to the Associated Press.
Over 8,000 Muslims were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995 during the bloodiest part of the war in the Bosnia-Hercegovina town of Srebrenica. Among the victims were 300 men seeking refuge at a Dutch UN compound near the town.
Those men were later handed over to Bosnian Serbs and eventually killed, an act that Dutch UN peacekeepers should have foreseen, the court ruled.
"It can be said with sufficient certainty that, had Dutchbat allowed them to stay at the compound, these men would have remained alive," the court said according to the BBC. "By cooperating in the deportation of these men, Dutchbat acted unlawfully," the court added, referring to the Dutch UN battalion.
The court also ordered the Netherlands to pay compensation to the families of the 300 victims, who along with other relatives brought the lawsuit under the name "Mothers of Srebrenica."
But the court did not find the Netherlands liable for the thousands of other men killed in Srebrenica. Instead of fleeing to the UN compound, the men "fled into the woods in the vicinity of Srebrenica" where they were found and killed by Serb forces, the court said according to the BBC.
"Dutchbat cannot be held liable for their fate," the court said.
Though the ruling offers closure to some of the families, most of the relatives are still left without recognition from the court for the deaths of their loved ones.
"How is it possible to divide victims and tell one mother that the Dutch state is responsible for the death of her son on one side of the wire and not for the son on the other side?"
Some 100,000 Muslims were killed by Serbs in what is considered Europe's worst war since World War II. Thousands of men were offered a safe haven at the Potocari compound, but Dutch soldiers gave in to Serb troops who threatened to kill Dutch hostages and made the refugees leave the compound, the BBC reported.
The men were separated from the women, trucked to a different location and killed, the AP reported.
The court did not specify how much compensation the relatives will receive.
