Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalın said on Thursday that a Dutch appeals court’s confirmation that the Netherlands was partly liable for the Srebrenica massacre was “insufficient but a positive step.”

Axar.az reports citing Yeni Safak.

“The court ruling that the Dutch troops serving in the UN Peacekeeping Force in the Srebrenica massacre, the most shameful crime of humanity in recent history in Europe, as an insufficient but a positive step. The decision confirms the International Court of Justice's finding that it was a ‘genocide,’” Kalın said in a written statement.

The Hague Appeals Court said Dutch soldiers were responsible for the deaths of close to 300 Muslim males in 1995 because they should have known that the men seeking refuge near Srebrenica would be massacred by Serb troops if they were forced to leave, as they were.

“However, the fact that only those who served in Srebrenica are held accountable shows that this crime of humanity has not been fully confronted with yet. Steps that will appease Bosnian mothers, fathers, sons and brothers who have been mourning their relatives since 1995 must be taken more quickly and more effectively,” Kalın said.

Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Serb troops under the command of former General Ratko Mladic at Srebrenica in 1995.

The Srebrenica massacre was the worst mass-killing in Europe since World War Two.