Srebrenica: Dutch Liable For 300 Deaths

Srebrenica: Dutch Blamed For Three Deaths

Updated: 2:51pm UK, Wednesday 06 July 2011

An appeal court in the Netherlands has ruled the Dutch state is responsible for the deaths of three Muslim men during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The ruling could pave the way for other compensation claims by victims who say their male relatives should have been protected by the Dutch UN peacekeepers in charge of the UN's "safe zone" near Srebrenica during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

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 the men should have been protected by Dutch peacekeepers. Mustafic and Nuhanovic were employed by the Dutch peacekeepers, but Nuhanovic's father and brother were not.

One of the relatives, Damir Mustafic, said outside court that the ruling came just days before he was to bury his father's remains in a Srebrenica cemetery.

Some 600 bodies exhumed from mass graves around the town in the past year have been identified using DNA tests, and they will be interred on Monday as part of commemorations for the 16th anniversary of Europe's worst massacre since World War II.

"I am very happy, finally," Mr Mustafic said. "It has been a long case and it feels especially good because on the 11th, I have to bury my father."

The victims were among thousands of Muslims who took shelter in the UN compound as Bosnian Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladic invaded Srebrenica in what was to become the bloody climax to the 1992-95 Bosnian war that claimed 100,000 lives.

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Srebrenica: Dutch Liable For 300 Deaths