The Dutch state is responsible for the deaths of three Muslims after the fall of Srebrenica during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a Dutch appeals court ruled on Tuesday, paving the way for paying compensation to the victims' families, Agence France-Presse reported.
The Dutch state is responsible for the deaths of those men, the court said, rejecting the ruling of a trial court in The Hague.
The Dutchbat, the Dutch contingent within UN troops, was in charge in 1995 of protecting the Srebrenica enclave, which had been declared a safe area, and should not have handed those men over to the Serbs, the appeals court found.
The case against the Dutch state seeking damages was brought by a local interpreter who worked for the Dutch troops and whose father and brother were killed, and by the relatives of an electrician who worked for the Dutch and was killed in Srebrenica, said Reuters.
"The Dutchbat had been witness to multiple incidents in which the Bosnian Serbs mistreated or killed male refugees outside the compound. The Dutch therefore knew that ... the men were at great risk if they were to leave the compound," the court said in its ruling, adding the Dutch had violated several national and international agreements.
When Bosnian Serb troops overran Srebrenica on 11 July 1995, the poorly armed Dutch soldiers did not resist. The Bosnian Serb army killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys, committing the worst atrocity in Europe after World War Two.
