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Srebrenica massacre: Dutch government 'partially liable' for murder of 300 Muslim men, court finds Srebrenica massacre: Dutch government 'partially liable' for murder of 300 Muslim men, court finds
(35 minutes later)
A court has ruled that the Dutch government is partially liable for the deaths of around 300 Muslim men killed in the Srebrenica massacre.A court has ruled that the Dutch government is partially liable for the deaths of around 300 Muslim men killed in the Srebrenica massacre.
  The Hague court of appeal’s findings largely upheld a civil court judgement in 2014, which found the state was liable for the murder of Bosnian Muslims who were turned over by Dutch UN peacekeepers.
  Judge Gepke Dulek said that because the victims were sent out of a Dutch compound along with other refugees seeking shelter there, “they were deprived of the chance of survival”.
  The case is the first time a country has been held liable for the actions of peacekeeping forces operating under a UN mandate. 
More follows… Judges ruled that surviving relatives were entitled to compensation, while clearing the Netherlands of responsibility for the remainder of those killed in the Srebrenica area. 
  Around 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in a genocidal campaign by Bosnian Serb forces in the 1995 massacre – the worst mass murder in Europe since the Second World War.
The town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina had been formally designated a “safe area” by the UN Security Council two years before, sparking condemnation of its strategy. 
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia concluded that the killings at Srebrenica, compounded by the mass expulsion of Bosniak civilians, amounted to genocide and pinned principal responsibility on senior officers in the Bosnian Serb army. 
The UN and its Western supporters have accepted a portion of responsibility for failing to protect men, women and children uprooted from their homes in the Bosnian War.
Srebrenica was targeted by Bosnian Serb forces as part of efforts to annex the territory  and expel Bosniak civilians, who were subjected to a siege and food embargoes ahead of the massacre.
The offensive on the town started in July 1995, seeing Bosnian Serb forces burning Bosniak homes as they advanced, sending thousands of civilians fleeing Srebrenica for the nearby village of Potočari, where around 200 Dutch peacekeepers were stationed. 
Some of the Dutch surrendered, while others withdrew and are known to have fired on the advancing Bosnian Serb forces headed by Ratko Mladić, who told journalists the time had come to “take revenge on the Muslims”.
On the night of 11 July, more than 10,000 Bosniak men set off from Srebrenica through dense forest in an attempt to reach safety, but were found the following morning by Bosnian Serb officers who made false promises of security to encourage the men to surrender.
Thousands surrendered or were captured, while others were forced out of Potočari by a campaign of murder and rape as women and children were transported back to Bosniak territory on buses.
Men and boys were taken to holding sites and executed en masse over several days, with estimates of the final death toll ranging between 7,000 and more than 8,000.
A UN criminal tribunal indicted more than 20 people for their involvement, including Bosnian Serb commanders, while Mladić was caught in 2011 and is on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.