Dutch state failed to prevent Srebrenica deaths: court (Reuters)

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Reuters - The Dutch state is responsible for the deaths of three Muslim men after the fall of Srebrenica during the Bosnian war, a Dutch appeals court ruled on Tuesday, opening the door to compensation claims.




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It would be wonderful if the immunity of the UN in the world court was revoked, and then the innefficiencies and burroucratic bungling exposed. With any luck, no soldier will ever have to stand aside and ignore the crimes of others because of the spinless, cowardly rules of the UN hanging over their ROE. With any luck, the UN will be exposed for what it is and NATO / Warsaw Pact / African Union Troops will be given a more fair chance to resolve the issues that present. Maybe the spinless beaurocrats will even be exposed and charged for their blatent short comings.
 
Letting the Dutch take the blame for Srebrenica without putting the UN staff in command on trial would be like accusing Joachim Peiper for all the atrocities committed by the nazi third reaich and letting Hitler off the hook.
The ones in charge bear the responsibility.

But revoking the immunity of the UN is dangerous...who could then claim immunity in the future?
 
The United Nations has managed to almost perfectly pervert Edmund Burke's enduring principle--in the face of evil, the United Nations encourages good men to stand aside and do nothing.
 
I think the UN does more than encourage that. It orders it.
The UN should be held accountable for this, but since it cannot, the Netherlands should be held accountable and pay generous compensations. This way there will be pressure from other countries to end the immunity that the UN enjoys.
 
I think the UN does more than encourage that. It orders it.
The UN should be held accountable for this, but since it cannot, the Netherlands should be held accountable and pay generous compensations. This way there will be pressure from other countries to end the immunity that the UN enjoys.

If the Dutch are held responsible, and pays generous compensations, it will turn out quite difficult to get any country to support future peace-keeping missions, not to mention actually contributing with ground troops...
 
Maybe so Rattler, but still it could lead to a precedence where a developing country ends up in debt well beyond their GNP by submitting ground troops to a peace-keeping operation.
And that could very well be the end of "African Union" troops on UN missions on the African continent, or Fiji and Nepalese commitment in the Middle-East.

And what European country would wish to send troops on such missions on the African continent?

Look at Srebrenica, the Dutch so called Batallion was more like a reduced batallion in strength, no heavy weapons, no armour save for a few APC's, and no support from the top.
The promised airstrikes was called off from top level, and the few missions that were flown was far to little, and too late.

Surrounded by heavy detachments of Serb militia with armour and artillery, the Dutch was far outnumbered.
When the CO LtCol. Karremans was faced with the direct question: "Do you want to see your daughters again?" in reality he had no choice.
 
Well, seems the relations were not *that* bad during that July campaign of the serbs:

mladic-srebrenica2.jpg


In this photo from July 12, 1995 you can see Mladić drink a toast with Dutch UN Commander Tom Karremans (second from right), in the village of Potočari, near Srebrenica. Also, upon leaving Srebrenica on July 21st, Karremans accepted gifts from Mladić, smiled, shook his hand and departed. Shortly after his return to The Netherlands Karremans was promoted.

FWIW,

Rattler
 
Well, go look at youtube, and you'll find numerous videos from that particular event.
The warm and friendly atmosphere doesn't appear that clearly on the tapes.
And the smile as he shook Mladic's hand and departed was more of the type expressing relief..."Thank you God, I'm getting out of here alive."
Wich was not by any way granted a few days before, as they were technically kept as hostages in order to deter UN intervention.

Tomas Karremans was found guilty in the mind of the opinion mainly beccause the title of the book he wrote was titled: "Srebrenica, who cares."
It should probably been titled "Srebrenica, who cared?"
 
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