Writ of summons - Van Diepen Van der Kroef

Other points concerned forced eviction from houses, villages or cities, as well as theunauthorised use of recognised symbols and badges and insignia of organisations such asthe UN. The appendix to Standing Operating Procedure 208 contained finally the safetynet:‘This list is not complete, when in doubt report anyway.’The NIOD Report also states that the rules of UNPROFOR obliged a commander toverify information on suspected war crimes and to pass that information to Sarajevo andTuzla (see page 335 of the Summary of the NIOD Report). In addition, soldiers areobliged on the basis of the Geneva Convention to report to their superiors any war crimethat they observe. The carrying out of summary executions, rape/mistreatment ofcivilians and plundering, among others, are war crimes.I.10. Situation on and around the UN compound202. Contrary to what the Dutchbat soldiers had promised to the fleeing people the civilianpopulation proved in fact not to be safe on and around the compound at Potocari. Theenormous number of descriptions given by the refugees stands in stark contrast to thelimited reports by Dutchbat. The NIOD records on this matter (see page 2693 and 2694):‘Only anonymous psychological debriefing sessions with Dutchbat soldiers after theirreturn to Zagreb provided vague pointers that fit in with the bleakest possible picture ofwhat happened in Srebrenica and Potocari. (…)Talking to psychologists and othersupport people who have counselled or are still counselling Dutchbat members, itbecomes clear that they, too, have been confronted with stories that sketch a muchmore gruesome picture of what took place than they had realised until then.’In a footnote to that quotation the NIOD states that verification was not possible giventhe confidentiality of those communications. The NIOD considered this situation to begenerally plausible in the light of other statements. It is particularly striking that theNIOD gives scarcely no indication of what that ‘bleakest possible picture’ contained,© Van Diepen Van der Kroef Advocaten 2007www.vandiepen.com89