Can the Dutch state be held responsible for the deaths of Bosnian Dutchbat personnel and their relatives in Srbrenica almost sixteen years ago? asks Nos Nieuws. On Tuesday the court in the Hague decided that it can.

It is July 1995. Hasan Nuhanovic works as an interpreter for the Dutch UN peacekeeping force Dutchbat. Rizo Mustafic is an electrician, also employed the force. They are Bosnians and with their relatives and families they feel reasonably safe in the Muslim enclave of Srbrenica on the border with Serbia. That is until the small town is run over by the Bosnian Serb army commanded by Ratko Mladic. Thousands of people flee to the nearby compound in Potocari, a so-called ‘safe area’ policed by the Dutch.
No safe haven
But Dutchbat is no match for Mladic and the safe area is anything but. Without UN backup Dutchbat has no other choice but to retreat. Dutchbat interpreter Nuhanovic tries to take his parents and brother to safety. He wants to hide his 19 year-old brother and begs his Dutch colleagues to give him a UN pass. They refuse.
The same happens to Mustafic. They are left in the hands of Mladic’ men who separate the men from the women. What follows is the world’s biggest massacre since World War II. 8000 Muslims are killed. The victims’ surviving relatives accuse Dutchbat of handing them over to the Serbs.
In 2007, the body of Hasan Nuhanovic’s father was found. Last year the remains of his brother and electrician Rizo Mustafic were discovered in a Bosnian mass grave. His relatives burried him in Potcari on July 11, in a cemetery facing the former Dutchbat compound.
Case
Nuhanovic and Mustafic’ relatives have been trying to bring a case against the Dutch state since 2002. In 2008, the court in the Hague decided it could not be held accountable for the deaths of the three men because the Dutch were operating under a UN mandate, making them effectively immune to prosecution.
The victims’ lawyer appealed. She feels the actions of Dutchbat went beyond the mandate. She contends the Dutch should have tried to bring the Muslim refugees to safety after the fall of the enclave. The Dutch could have known what fate was in store for the Muslim men. By turning Rizo Mustafic and the relatives of Hasan Nuhanovic out of the compound they added to the genocide.
The case is politically sensitive. Today’s decision could open the door to thousands of other cases brought by victims’ families.
This is an unofficial translation