Associated Press From left to right, former foreign affairs minister Hans van Mierlo, current foreign affairs minister Jozias van Aartsen, minister of defense Frank de Grave and prime minister Wim Kok, during the presentation of the Srebrenica report in The Hague, on Wednesday. A government-commissioned report on the fall of Srebrenica blamed Dutch army officers for handling over Bosnian Muslim civilians to Serb forces despite fears of widespread killing, but said it found no proof that orders for the ensuing slaughter came from Serb political leaders in Belgrade.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A six-year study of the 1995 slaughter of thousands of Muslims by Serb troops in the Bosnian "safe zone" of Srebrenica spread responsibility for the debacle among the Dutch government, its army commanders and the United Nations. But relatives of victims castigated the report as a whitewash.

The 7,600-page report commissioned by the Dutch government, a historical reconstruction of the worst massacre in Europe since World War II, immediately set off a political firestorm in the Netherlands and angry reactions in Bosnia.

Some 7,500 Muslims in the U.N.-declared safe haven were killed during one ferocious week of bloodletting in July 1995. Most were slain after being caught trying to flee the Serb onslaught, but many were killed after being taken from a Dutch-manned U.N. base where they had been promised protection.

Although the report implied that the Dutch battalion, or Dutchbat, could have done more to protect the Muslims, it set out so many mitigating arguments that a delegation of victims' relatives stormed out during a presentation of the summary.

"It's very simple. Dutchbat was complicit in genocide," said Hassan Nuhanovic, who was then a translator for the battalion and whose father and brother were among the victims. "They should investigate properly any accusations of criminal activity by Dutchbat, indict them, arrest them, and try them in court."

The researchers of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation said they found no written orders for mass executions, but put primary responsibility on Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic, who persuaded the Dutch to let the Serb army evacuate the enclave.

The report also said no evidence was found linking the Serb leadership in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital, to the killings and that links to then-Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic were "unclear." It blamed former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was extradited to The Hague last June for trial, only "for the violent nature" of Yugoslavia's disintegration in the 1990s.

Released just five weeks before national elections, the study prompted calls from opponents of the three-party governing coalition for a parliamentary inquiry that would require Cabinet ministers to testify under oath.

"The politicians must accept the consequences," said Jan Peter Balkenende, head of the Christian Democratic Alliance, the leading opposition party.

Parliament scheduled a debate on the report for April 25. In Bosnia, the Foreign Ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador to a meeting today to explain the findings.

Prime Minister Wim Kok admitted the Dutch government had failed to protect the Muslim enclave. "I will face responsibility for what my predecessors and I have done," Kok said.

At the U.N. tribunal, meanwhile, judges set a one-year deadline from yesterday for the prosecution to conclude its case against Milosevic. He faces 66 counts for Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, including a count of genocide for Srebrenica.

The Srebrenica report said Dutch officers stood by while Serb forces segregated Muslim men and drove them away, despite fears some would be killed. Women and children were deported.

The officer in charge of operations, Maj. Robert Franken, "had recognized the danger of excesses" by the Serb army, but did not anticipate mass murder, said a summary of the report. "From fear of panic and a direct catastrophe, he was silent about these fears and assisted with the evacuation in full awareness that the fate of the men was uncertain," it said.

The report had harsh words for the Dutch government, which had dispatched 200 ill-prepared and lightly armed troops to Srebrenica "to improve Dutch credibility and prestige in the world." They were sent to defend an undefined "safe zone," without a clear mandate, "to keep the peace where there was no peace."

It also faulted the United Nations for declaring a "safe zone" without defining what that meant or how to defend it and not backing up the Dutch commanders when they requested air support. It said the Security Council had "created an illusion of security for the population."

The Dutch failures at Srebrenica were "more the fault of the inadequate resources and the policy of the United Nations," the report said.

The soldiers were authorized to fire only in self-defense, and were ordered "to deter by presence" rather than force. The Bosnian Serb army was careful to avoid directly threatening the U.N. force to provoke an armed response, the report said.

Still, the Dutch force expected "robust action" and airstrikes if needed, but the U.N. command had ruled out air action for fear of the safety of hostages held elsewhere by the Serbs.

"It hereby crushed the Dutchbat illusion and the enclave became an easy target" for the Serb army, it said.