The Dutch Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Netherlands was liable
for the deaths of three Bosnian Muslim men during the 1995 Srebrenica
massacre, even though its forces there were part of a U.N. peacekeeping
mission.
The decision upheld a 2011 appeals court
judgment that was seen as setting a worrying precedent for countries
providing troops for United Nations peacekeeping forces, because it held
the Dutch state responsible for events that happened during a UN
mission.
The case was brought by Hasan Nuhanovic, an
interpreter who lost his brother and father, and relatives of Rizo
Mustafic, an electrician who was killed. They argued that all three men
should have been protected by Dutch peacekeepers. Mustafic and Nuhanovic
were actually employed by the Dutch, but Nuhanovic’s father and brother
were not.
The victims were among thousands of Muslims
who took shelter in the UN compound as Bosnian Serb forces commanded by
Gen. Ratko Mladic overran Srebrenica on July 11, 1995. Two days later,
the outnumbered Dutch peacekeepers bowed to pressure from Mladic’s
troops and forced thousands of Muslim families out of the compound.
Bosnian
Serb forces sorted the Muslims by gender, then trucked the males away
and began executing some 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Those bodies were
plowed into hastily made mass graves in what international courts have
ruled was genocide.
The slaying was the worst massacre on European soil since World War II.
Read more: Netherlands liable for deaths of three Bosnian Muslims killed at Srebrenica: supreme court - The Globe and Mail
