Dutch UN peacekeepers have been found legally responsible for the deaths of three Bosnian Muslim men in the Srebrenica massacre.
Judges in the Netherlands ordered the government to compensate the men's relatives, which could open the way to other claims by relatives. It could also have repurcussions for countries sending troops on UN peacekeeping missions, as it sets a precedent for national governments being taken to court for the actions of their troops even when under UN control.
The ruling said even though the Dutch soldiers were acting under a UN mandate, they were under the "effective control" of top Dutch officials in The Hague when they ordered hundreds of Muslim men and boys out of their compound.
The ruling said the three men were among the last to be expelled and by that time the "Dutchbat" peacekeepers already had seen abuses and should have known they faced a serious threat of being killed.
"Dutchbat should not have turned these men over to the Serbs," a summary of the judgment said.
The Hague Appeals Court has not yet set a compensation figure. Victims' lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld said the sum would "not be in the millions." |