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U.N.,
Holland Responsible For Srebrenica Massacre: Report
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Dutch journalist
picks up a copy of the Srebrenica inquiry report in the Hague
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AMSTERDAM,
April 10 (News Agencies) - An official Dutch report into the
Srebrenica massacre states that the Dutch government and the United
Nations must share responsibility for Europe's worst crime since World
War II, news agencies reported.
Dutch
U.N. peacekeepers failed to stop the killing of around 7,500 Muslims
in the Bosnian town when it was overrun by Serb forces in 1995, at the
height of Bosnia's civil war, the BBC reported.
The
United Nations had declared the town a safe area but it fell to the
Serbs despite the presence of 110-strong U.N. contingent, and up to
8,000 Muslim men and boys were executed.
The
main responsibility for the massacres has been pinned on Bosnian Serb
general Ratko Mladic, who has so far evaded a war crimes arrest
warrant.
The
report, which weighs 10-kilos, was compiled over five years by the
Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, and is mostly a summary
of already known facts, but it assesses the Dutch force's task at the
time as a "mission impossible".
The
lightly armed troops had been inadequately trained and had no clear
mandate, it says, but the Dutch military command in the region was at
fault for not investigating reports of mass killings of Muslim
civilians.
Two
weeks ago, the Dutch Interchurch Peace Council (IKV) condemned Dutch
troops, generals and politicians for failing to evacuate and protect
the Muslims.
U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan has blamed the international community
for its failure to protect the enclave, but insisted that it was
impossible "to say whether a more decisive action by the Dutch
would have saved lives".
The
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague
has ruled that the massacre was genocide.
In
August 2000 the Tribunal sentenced Bosnian Serb General Radisav
Krstic, considered a key commander in the episode, to 46 years in
prison.
The
judge in the case said the massacre was characterized by "scenes
from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history".
Survivors'
reports, aerial photography and evidence exhumed from mass graves
indicate that most victims in the massacre were executed.
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