After 27 years, the Netherlands apologizes to Srebrenica

The Netherlands expressed its “sincere apologies” to the people of Srebrenica on Monday, the first time the country has done so in years since Dutch forces failed to prevent genocide in the Bosnian town during the Balkan War.

“The international community has failed to adequately protect the people of Srebrenica. The Dutch government shares responsibility for the situation in which the failure occurred. For this we offer our sincerest apologies,” Defense Minister Kaisa Olungren said at the ceremony in Potocari.

Wars broke out in the Balkans in the 1990s.

Some of the worst battles took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where ethnic Serbs fought Croats for control of territory. In the summer of 1995, Dutch forces under the command of the United Nations were supposed to defend most of the inhabitants of the town of Srebrenica. But it offered no resistance on July 11 of that year when ethnic Serbs stormed the city and killed about eight thousand men and boys.