A court in the Netherlands has ruled the Dutch government was partly responsible for the deaths of some of the thousands of Bosnian Muslims massacred at Srebrenica in 1995.
A survivor returned to Potocari for the 19th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre on 11 July. Photo: AFP
Families of the men and boys killed (Bosniaks) had sued over the failure of Dutch peacekeeping troops to prevent the killings by Bosnian Serb forces.
The court says the families of 300 victims are entitled to compensation.
Thousands of Bosnian Muslims had fled to the United Nations base at Potocari seeking protection, the BBC reports.
The Dutch battalion did not intervene as the terrified civilians were removed from the camp by General Ratko Mladic and his Bosnian Serb forces.
It was supposed to be a safe zone. What followed was the worst massacre committed on European territory since the Nazis in World War II.
The two key figures of the wartime Bosnian Serb leadership - one-time President Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic - are on trial for war crimes at the UN tribunal in The Hague.
Lawyer Axel Hagedorn worked on the families' case for a decade, and told Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon programme the decision showed national governments could be held liable for troops sent under a United Nations flag.
Listen to Axel Hagedorn on Nine to Noon
Dutch soldiers stationed at Potocari in Bosnia in 1995. Photo: AFP