Bosnian War: Dutch Peacekeepers Liable for 300 Bosniak Deaths in Srebrenica

The Netherlands was responsible for the deaths of more than 300 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in 1995, a Dutch court has ruled.

Dutch peacekeepers failed to protect the Bosnian Muslims – known as Bosniaks - when the town of Srebrenica was besieged by the Serb army during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.

During the conflict, Bosniaks had taken refuge with the Dutch soldiers at a UN base in Potocari, outside Srebrenica.

However the Dutch soldiers handed the refugees over to the Bosnian Serb army, which killed them.

"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 in The Hague ruled.

"Dutchbat should have taken into account the possibility that these men would be the victims of genocide and that it can be said with sufficient certainty that, had Dutchbat allowed them to stay at the compound, these men would have remained alive."

Munira Subasic, whose son was among those expelled from the Dutch compound, welcomed the verdict but said that the judges should have ruled that the Netherlands was responsible for all the Srebrenica deaths.

She told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN): "We are not satisfied that they didn't recognise all the victims [died because the Dutch troops did not protect them]."

Bosnian Serb forces carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign against Bosniaks and Serbian Croats in Srebrenica and Žepain in 1995.

Between 7,000 and 8,000 Bosnian Muslims are believed to have been killed in Srebrenica in July 1995. Another 30,000 were forced to flee.

Bosnian genocide trials are ongoing.