As of: 06/18/2022 6:57 p.m
Almost 27 years after the Srebrenica genocide, the Dutch government has apologized to its own soldiers who were supposed to protect the Bosnian enclave in 1995: “The almost impossible” had been asked of them.
Almost 27 years after the Srebrenica genocide, the Dutch government has apologized to the UN peacekeepers stationed there to protect Bosnian Muslims. The soldiers of the Dutchbat III unit were overrun in July by Bosnian-Serb General Ratko Mladic’s heavily armed units, who then killed 8,000 people – specifically men and boys.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at a commemoration event with hundreds of battalion veterans that after almost 27 years “a few words have still not been said”. “Today, on behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize to all the women and men of Dutchbat III, to you and to those who cannot be here today,” said Rutte. “With the utmost appreciation and respect for the way Duchbat III tried to do good under difficult circumstances, even when it was no longer possible.”
Study supported assessment
The ceremony followed the publication last year of a study on the experiences of the approximately 850 members of Dutchbat III. It recommended a “collective gesture” for “a perceived lack of recognition and gratitude given the extraordinary circumstances in which the almost impossible was demanded (by Dutch peacekeepers)”.
The Netherlands has long wrestled with the burden of the Srebrenica genocide. In 2002, then-Prime Minister Wim Kok resigned after a report harshly criticized the Netherlands for sending soldiers into a danger zone without an adequate mandate and without the armament needed to protect some 30,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees.
For years the soldiers had been accused of cowardice and failure. In addition, post-traumatic disorders of veterans were not recognized. Many of them felt let down by this.
Court gave Netherlands complicity
In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the Netherlands was partly responsible for the deaths of around 350 Muslim men. These men were evacuated from their base by the Dutch on July 13, 1995, knowing they were “in serious danger of being mistreated (by Bosnian Serbs) and murdered.”
The United Nations has also been criticized for failing to authorize NATO airstrikes in support of the lightly armed Dutch peacekeepers.
The Srebrenica genocide is considered the worst war crime committed on European soil since World War II. Mladic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic were sentenced to life imprisonment as war criminals.