Hague rules the Netherlands responsible for Srebrenica dead

Appeals Judges at the Hague have ruled that the Netherlands was responsible for the deaths of three Bosnian Muslim men slain by Serbs during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, ordering the Dutch government to compensate the men's relatives.

The landmark ruling could open the path to other compensation claims and have wider implications for countries sending troops on U.N. peacekeeping missions.

The victims were among thousands of Muslims who took shelter in the U.N. compound as Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Gen. Ratko Mladic overran Srebrenica on July 11 in what was to become the bloody climax to the 1992-95 Bosnian war that claimed 100,000 lives.

Two days later, the outnumbered Dutch peacekeepers bowed to pressure from Mladic's troops and forced thousands of Muslim families out of the compound. Bosnian Serb forces sorted the Muslims by gender, then trucked the males away and began executing some 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

The ruling said even though the Dutch soldiers were operating under a U.N mandate, they were under the ``effective control'' of top Dutch military and government officials in The Hague.


An inquiry carried out in the aftermath of the massacre by the Dutch National War Documentation Institute found Dutch authorities and the United Nations responsible for sending the battalion into the mission, failing to give the peacekeepers enough weapons for self-defence and refusing to answer the commanders' call for air support.

Also Tuesday at the Hague, Former Serbian General Ratko Mladic was ejected from the courtroom where he was being arraigned after he heckled the judge and delayed proceedings. He is accused of orchestrating the massacre of over 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. After his expulsion the presiding judge entered pleas of not-guilty on his behalf. Listen: