The Dutch state was wrongly held liable for the murder of 300 men and boys during the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 during the Balkan wars, the supreme court’s advocate general said on Friday.

The appeal court had reached its ‘incomprehensible’ verdict by assuming that the Dutch soldiers protecting the Muslim enclave had not acted within the law, Paul Vlas said in his recommendations to the court.

The appeal court said in 2017 that the Dutch state was partly liable for the death of over 300 Muslim men who died in the massacre by ordering them out of the military base after Srebrenica was over-run by Bosnian Serb forces.

In total some 8,000 men and boys were killed in the massacre.

Some 6,000 surviving relatives sued the Dutch state following the death of their menfolk. Although the appeal court found the Netherlands not responsible for the death of the men and boys who were outside the compound, it did say the state was liable for the other deaths.

The Dutch soldiers in Srebrenica were part of a UN peacekeeping mission and had been charged with protecting the Muslim enclave. After it was overrun by Ratko Mladic’s forces, an agreement was made on evacuating the some 30,000 Muslims who had fled to the area.

Pressure

The decision to organise the evacuation was taken in a war situation, under great pressure and the threat of armed violence, the advocate general said on Friday.

It was wrong to assume that the soldiers should have been aware the men who were evacuated were being murdered and that there were major risks to a longer stay in the compound, Vlas said.

The supreme court is due to present its verdict in the appeal on April 19. It is not required to follow the advocate general’s advice but usually does so.

In 2016, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was  jailed for 40 years for his role in the massacre at Srebrenica and other crimes during the Yugoslavian civil war. Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity in 2017.