The Dutch Supreme Court should dismiss the verdict by which the Netherlands declares itself partially responsible for the murder of three hundred Bosniak men in Srebrenica in 1995 during the Bosnian war, a court advisor on Friday said.
Supreme Court Prosecutor Paul Vlas said the Dutch Appellate Court in 2017 issued an “incomplete” ruling confirming the verdict that the Dutch peacekeepers did not do enough to protect the people who sought refuge in the UN base.
His opinion will be taken into account when the court reaches the final verdict expected on April 19th this year.
A total of 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb soldiers under the command of General Ratko Mladic in Srebrenica in July 1995, the biggest genocide on European soil since the Second World War.
The Dutch government resigned in 2002 after it admitted that Dutch soldiers failed to protect refugees, but said the peacekeepers were in an “impossible mission.” The 2014 preliminary verdict states that Dutch soldiers should know that people will be killed by Bosnian Serb soldiers if they are forced to leave the base.
In 2017, Netherlands has requested from the Supreme Court to annul the verdict, which can only be done if the lower court has made mistakes in the interpretation of the law or in the proceedings.
The Appellate Court ruled in 2017 that the Netherlands would have to pay 30 percent of the compensation of the relatives of the victims.
