Bloody hands

An appeals court in the Netherlands ruled on Tuesday that the Dutch state is culpable for the murders of three Muslim men during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The ruling was greeted with dignity by the relatives of the victims, who were in court to hear the verdict they longed for. One of the plaintiffs, Hasan Nuhanovic, was in still shock at the end of the session.

"I didn't expect it," Nuhanovic told Deutsche Welle. "Really, I don't know what to say. I prepared myself for the negative outcome; I didn't prepare myself for the positive outcome."

Nuhanovic's family were among those killed in eastern Bosnia in July 1995. The area was under the protection of Dutch UN peacekeepers, when Bosnian-Serb forces overran the enclave and murdered about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

Nuhanovic was working as a UN translator with the Dutch battalion in Srebrenica when the Bosnian-Serb troops attacked the enclave. He tried to keep his mother, father and 19-year-old brother in the UN compound so that they could be safely evacuated. But two days later, they were asked to leave.

At the last minute, as they were about to step out of the gates, Dutch Major Robert Franken told Nuhanovic's father that he could stay after all with his son.

"And then my father shows like this in the direction of my brother; he says, 'What about my younger son and my wife?' And then Franken says to me, 'Well, it’s his choice.' So my father smiled at Franken, shook hands with him and he walked out of the compound. So my father chose to die with his younger son instead of choosing to live with his elder son."

With hindsight, Nuhanovic can understand his father's difficult decision. His remains were found 11 years later. His mother and brother were buried last year.

A serious mistake

In its ruling, the court said that the Dutchbat - as the Dutch UN forces are known - were wrong to allow the men to leave the safe area.

"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.　　　　

Rizo Mustafic was another who died. He was working as an electrician for the Dutch battalion and he too was ordered to leave the compound with his family. His remains were only found 16 years later. He will be buried this week. His son Damir Mustafic was at the court in The Hague to hear the verdict.

"I'm going to bury my dad on July 11 and it's going to be tough, but this feels good," Mustafic said.

Anger at foreign troops

Survivors of the Srebrenica massacre have long accused the Netherlands of neglecting the refugees and of voluntarily handing them over to Bosnian-Serb troops, but this is the first time a judicial decision has placed responsibility for what happened on the Dutch state.

Liesbeth Zegveld, lawyer for the prosecution said a new page has been turned in international justice.

"The state has now ruled that state responsibility does exist; even though there was a peacekeeping operation, and command and control have been transferred to the United Nations … you can still be held accountable for wrongdoing during that peacekeeping operation," Zegveld said.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense has maintained throughout a number of recent lawsuits that the UN abandoned the Dutch troops and provided them with no air support. The government is likely to appeal the decision.

Author: Cintia Taylor, The Hague / ji
Editor: Michael Lawton