A court has cleared the Netherlands of liability in the deaths of the vast majority of the 8,000 Bosnian Muslims slain in the Srebrenica massacre 19 years ago, but says it has to compensate the families of more than 300 men turned over to Bosnian Serb forces and later killed.
"The state is liable for the loss suffered by relatives of the men who were deported by the Bosnian Serbs from the Dutchbat (Dutch battalion) compound in Potocari in the afternoon of 13 July, 1995," the court said.
The decision Wednesday was a victory for only a fraction of the families of men and boys slain in the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.
In an emotionally charged hearing at a civil court in The Hague, judges said Dutch U.N. peacekeepers should have known that more than 300 men deported from the Dutch compound by Bosnian Serb forces on July 13, 1995, would be slain.
The court did not say how much compensation the families should receive.