Writ of summons - Van Diepen Van der Kroef

‘The first line of resistance to any action was the Dutch government, which refused toallow air strikes until its soldiers were out of Bosnia (…)’and:‘For a week I called our Ambassador in the Netherlands, Terry Dornbush, instructinghim to press the Dutch to allow air strikes but to no avail’,records Holbrooke in his memoirs (R. Holbrooke, To End A War, New York 1998).175. The above provides sufficient evidence that the State of the Netherlands breached UNCommand and Control. At the same time Plaintiff notes that it was nevertheless for theUN to stick to the mandate and to press ahead with the air strikes for which permissionhad been granted.I.8. The fate of the civilian population from 11 July 1995176. During the fall of the Safe Area on 11 July 1995 the people who had fled wererepeatedly told by Dutchbat that they would be safe on the compound in Potocari.Moreover, they were encouraged to flee to the UN compound (see, for example, point123 of the Decision of the Yugoslavia Tribunal at first instance against former VRSGeneral, R. Krstic). Dutchbat soldiers often advised the male population, however, toflee into the woods. Plaintiff will discuss a number of witness statements concerningthis.177. Plaintiff Fejzič states about that (see Exhibit 1):‘The Serbs entered the city on 11th July 1995. Chaos broke out. The Dutch soldiers toldthe population, amongst whom were my husband, my son and myself, that we must go tothe UN compound in Potočari. There, according to the soldiers, we would be safe. Wewere later informed by the soldiers, through megaphones and by hand signals, thatthere were two routes to take, either to the woods or to the compound in Potočari. As a© Van Diepen Van der Kroef Advocaten 2007www.vandiepen.com79