with VideoThe cabinet offers the relatives and survivors of the massacre in Srebrenica the ‘deepest apologies’. Minister Kajsa Ollongren (Defence) did this at the annual commemoration of the genocide.
Hanneke Keultjes
Latest update:
11-07-22, 20:32
The genocide was the fault of only one party: the Bosnian Serb army
The international community failed to protect the enclave of Srebrenica, Ollongren said. As part of that international community, the Netherlands is politically responsible ‘for the situation in which this could happen’. “We offer our deepest apologies for this.”
After the fall of Srebrenica on 11 July 1995, more than 8,000 were killed by Bosnian Serb troops. At that time, Dutch UN troops, Dutchbat III, were responsible for protecting the enclave.
The international community made “the promise” that it would “protect you,” said Ollongren, who was the first Dutch defense minister to speak at the Memorial Center in Potocari. ,,The Netherlands also participated, with the best intentions. Despite this, Srebrenica has been ruthlessly overrun.” The genocide, Ollongren emphasizes, was “the fault of only one party”: “The Bosnian Serb army.”
Dutchbatters
Despite the ‘deepest apologies’, Ollongren also stood right in front of the Dutchbat soldiers: ‘Our soldiers continued to do what they could to perform their task as well as possible and to protect defenseless people.’
Ollongrens words are sensitive – her speech was adjusted shortly before it was delivered – because last month Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized to the veterans of Dutchbat III during a special ceremony in Schaarsbergen. After returning to the Netherlands, they often felt reviled, abandoned by the Ministry of Defense, their own employer, and the politics that had sent them on an impossible mission.
In the region around Srebrenica, the apologies to Dutchbat were not well received, especially because the soldiers who were on mission in the former Yugoslavia at the time also received an award. They felt that the Netherlands should first make apologies here, to the relatives and those who managed to survive the genocide.
Claims
Ollongren is now responding – partly – to that criticism, in a formulation that sources around the cabinet hope will not lead to legal claims.
According to Ollongren, July 1995 links Bosnia and the Netherlands ‘forever’. “Together we lived through the darkest days of this place.” That is reminiscent of ‘deep fear and uncertainty’. “To all those people who desperately sought protection here in July 1995.” But also, she says, a reminder of ‘great powerlessness’. “With the UN soldiers who so desperately wanted to protect them.”
That experience has given the Netherlands and Bosnia ‘a joint voice’, according to Ollongren. “A voice that we must raise when other voices deny the genocide – or deliberately stir up polarization in our societies. This place teaches us where that can lead.”
Fantastic
The organization behind the Srebrenica commemoration in The Hague calls it ‘fantastic’. “I have goosebumps,” says Leila Prnjavorac on behalf of the National Srebrenica Genocide Remembrance. According to her, the relatives have waited a long time for this. “This is why we hold that commemoration every year, the endless waiting and patience are now being rewarded,” said Prnjavorac.
She believes that it is now necessary to investigate what exactly happened in Srebrenica. “Let’s inspire the next generation not to look away but to work together to rule out any form of terror or ethnic cleansing.”
Mothers of Srebrenica
Lawyer Simon van der Sluijs, who for fifteen years represented the Mothers of Srebrenica in proceedings against the Dutch state, is skeptical about the apology. “It is good if you acknowledge your mistakes and apologize, but the minister does not say what the Netherlands has done wrong. In fact, she repeats that the Netherlands could not do anything about it. Why are you making excuses for something you say you couldn’t avoid?”
After a long legal battle, the Supreme Court ruled that the Netherlands was only liable for 10 percent for the deaths of about 300 Bosniaks from Srebrenica. The ‘mothers’ then went to the European Court of Human Rights. “I have heard the Dutch state say for 27 years that it has done nothing wrong and that Dutchbat has done the maximum under difficult circumstances. They have widely disseminated this in the legal proceedings. These excuses are worth little if you don’t point out what you did wrong. This is half-hearted and only for the stage.”
First step
Peace organization Pax finds the apologies ‘a positive first step, but insufficient’. Pax believes that Ollongren failed to state the mistakes made by executives of Dutchbat and the Dutch government. “Such errors have been mentioned in countless survivor testimony and in many reports, and they have also been documented in two Supreme Court rulings.”
Pax calls on the government and parliament to start talks with survivors and relatives now. “Such conversations should lead to a joint formulation of the main facts, and of the mistakes made in Srebrenica.”
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