Dutch UN commander claims troops didn’t know Serb intent in Srebrenica News
Dutch UN commander claims troops didn’t know Serb intent in Srebrenica

[JURIST] The commander of Dutch UN troops in Srebrenica in 1995 told a preliminary hearing at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website] Thursday that he did not know Serbian forces had begun killing Muslim men and boys until it was too late. Ton Karremans said that initally his orders had been to protect refugees but when it later became clear that Dutch troops could not intervene they began "observing" Srebrenica's evacuation. An independent Dutch report [text] later showed that Muslims set to be evacuated were mistakenly advised by Dutch troops to exit the military camp, leading to their deaths at the hands of Bosnian Serb troops. The hearing was held to determine if there is sufficient evidence for family members of those massacred at Srebrenica [Wikipedia entry] to take legal action against the Netherlands. AFP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.