Court confirms Dutch UN peacekeepers partly liable for Srebrenica massacre
The Hague Appeals Court says the peacekeepers should have known the men seeking refuge would be murdered if forced to leave
The Hague — On Tuesday, a Dutch appeals court confirmed that the Netherlands was partly liable for the deaths of some 300 Muslim males who were expelled from a Dutch UN base after the surrounding area was overrun by Bosnian Serb troops. The ruling by the Hague Appeals Court upholds a 2014 decision that Dutch peacekeepers should have known that the men seeking refuge at the base near Srebrenica would be murdered by Bosnian Serb troops if they were forced to leave — as they were. States participating in UN peacekeeping missions have rarely faced legal action over their performance. Lenneke Sprik, an international security lecturer at Amsterdam’s VU University, said the ruling was "very important for future peacekeeping missions and the law on state responsibility", adding the decision might deter countries from contributing peacekeeping troops to future missions. Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb troops under the command of former General Ratko Mladic at Srebr...
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