Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized to his country’s peacekeeping forces deployed to defend the United Nations “safe area” in Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1995 and said lessons had been learned from the world’s reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine would have to be. The weakly armed Dutch peacekeepers were overwhelmed and helpless before the July 1995 capture of Srebrenica (northeast Bosnia) by Bosnian Serb forces led by their military leader Ratko Mladic.
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Almost 8,000 men and youth were killed after the Serbian conquest of the city. These killings, the worst in Europe since the end of World War II, were classified as genocide by the United Nations judiciary.
Mark Rutte told veterans of the Dutchbat III squad at a military base in Schaarsbergen in the eastern Netherlands on Saturday that “almost 27 years later some words have still not been spoken”. “Today I apologize on behalf of the Dutch government to all men and women of Dutchbat III. To you and to those who are not here today,” said Mark Rutte.
The Prime Minister added that peacekeepers “always tried to do the right thing in difficult circumstances, even when that was no longer possible”. The force’s failure to prevent the Srebrenica massacre has since tainted Dutch national consciousness.
“Lack of support” from the government
Mark Rutte also apologized for the government’s “lack of support” when Dutch soldiers returned to their country. Dutch veterans rightly asked “where was the world” when the Srebrenica massacre took place, Mark Rutte added.
“And of course we also think today: Where are we now, now that the Ukrainian people are suffering from brutal Russian aggression,” he said. “How painful it is that our continent is at war again and war crimes are once again being committed just a few hours’ flight from here,” he said. Russia has been accused of war crimes in Ukraine, including in towns around Kyiv, where hundreds of bodies have been found.
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The Dutch state was declared partially responsible by the country’s Supreme Court in July 1995 for the July 1995 massacre of 350 Bosnian Muslims by Serb forces. These men had taken refuge at the Potocari peacekeepers’ base in Srebrenica, but were later expelled from there before being taken away and killed by Bosnian Serb forces.
Dutch peacekeepers were overwhelmed at their base in Potocari by the massive influx of locals seeking protection from UN soldiers. Peacekeepers closed the gates of their base to new arrivals before allowing Mladic’s troops to evacuate the refugees. The men and teenagers were separated from the women and bused to the execution sites and their bodies dumped in mass graves.