The official Dutch report into the Srebrenica massacre says the Dutch Government and the United Nations must share responsibility for Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.
The report blames the Dutch army for handing over Muslim civilians to Serb forces despite fears of widespread killing.
It also blames the Dutch government for sending troops into the war, and alleges the UN failed to give troops enough support to defend civilians.
"The broad circle of those involved with this policy ... must bear a considerable responsibility" for the events in Srebrenica, said the report ordered by the Dutch government.
In July 1995, more than 7,500 Muslims from the eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica were killed by Bosnian Serb forces who seized the town protected by Dutch UN peacekeepers after it was declared a "safe haven" in 1993 by the United Nations.
The report also puts primary responsibility for the massacres on Bosnian General Ratko Mladic.
The voluminous two-part report of over 6,000 pages was prepared by the Dutch Institute for War Documentation, a national research institute, over the past five years.
"Humanitarian motivation and political ambitions drove the Netherlands to undertake an ill-conceived and virtually impossible peace mission," the report said.
The report also blamed the United Nations of giving an "unclear" mandate to the Dutch peacekeepers, thus indirectly bringing on the tragedy.
The report dismissed allegations that the Dutch battalion had collaborated with Serb troops to hand over the town.
In small numbers - about 200 men - lightly armed and positioned between two rival sides, always accused of impartiality and not able to respond unless directly targeted, the Dutch soldiers were restrained from manoeuvring, the report said.
Mr Mladic's decision to take the whole of the enclave was "primarily motivated by the lack of any significant resistance" by the Dutch troops, the report said.
But it added that any action by the soldiers to defend Srebrenica would have been "contrary to UN instructions."
To confront the Serb troops, the Dutch battalion could only rely on air strikes but this action was overruled by top UN peacekeeping officials.
The report also concluded that there was no indication proving that Belgrade and the regime of former president Slobodan Milosevic had ordered or supported the massacre.
Milosevic is currently on trial before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in connection with the Srebrenica massacre.
The report also noted that while Dutch soldiers were present when Serb forces and knew that "the fate of the men was uncertain", they "could not have suspected that this would lead to mass slaughter."
"It was the natural task of the Dutch battalion to supervise it (the evacuation of men)... even though in the given circumstances it was tantamount to collaborating with ethnic cleansing," the report said.
The report is entitled "Srebrenica, a 'safe' area' - Reconstruction, background, consequences and analysis of the fall of the safe area Srebrenica".
AFP