Bosnians protesters gathered in front of the army battalion in the North of The Netherlands while the Dutch minister of defence awarded the ‘good deeds’ of the ‘men in blue caps’ (The Dutch UN soldiers who were in Bosnia in 1995) for NOT being able to defend Srebrenica and prevent genocide. Minister Henk Kamp has awarded approx. 500 out of 850 Dutch soldiers of the UN battalion of the Dutchbat III who were present in front of the army barracks in Assen, where a monument was being put up to honour all the Dutch soldiers who served in Bosnia.
Bosnians who live in Germany demonstrated in Assen while a small number of people also demonstrated in front of the parliament in The Hague.
The Ministry of Defence explained that monument was in honour of the soldiers and “their honourable behaviour in difficult conditions and for the state of their soul and mind and the guilt they have been unfairly accused of for years”.
Three Dutch battalions served in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994 and 1995, the third one was in charge of protecting Srebrenica in July 1995 when the Serbian forces committed a massacre over 8.000 men and children.
That is the only bloody episode in B&H for which the International Court for Yugoslavia prosecuted and called genocide.
In short – the Dutch soldiers, hid in their battalion, letting people come into their camp and made them feel safe by telling them they would be OK there. The village hid here and when the Serbian forces came, the solders made the people leave the camp (by force) and straight into the arms of the enemy.
The following three days, the bloodiest episode after the WWII took place.
After the Tribunal in The Hague named this a genocide, a lot of the people from the Dutch government resigned ‘due to the feeling of pure guilt’ and many apologized.
I hope the monument helps the conscience indeed. It doesn’t help the thousands of mothers and children still looking for their loved ones who are still somewhere in mass graves buried around Bosnia and Herzegovina.
May their souls rest in peace.
PS sorry for such a difficult topic but these things really wind me up pretty badly...
6 Comments:
The Dutch? Heros? Not by a stretch of imagination.
Read Gen Dallaire's book on Rwandese Genocide and see how they reacted. Two-faced, colonialist regimes are the main reason Africa is the Africa of today.
musti.
Apparently some French newspaper called the medals given to the soldiers: "medals of shame"...
The West failed in your country all too long. I am sorry.
You can get pretty intense little angel... but thats why i have the hots for you I guess (Big Wink!)
Thanks for your words of encouragement. You have no idea how much it means to me that there is someone somewhere sending me positive vibes and lots of stardust!
Kisses and Hugs
Is this part of your Uni-thesis, "Reconstruction of Infrastructure in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1996 to 2006 from The World Bank aspect”?
I'm encouraged by your young intellect, and inspired by your indite maturity. Your future will be filled with landmark influences on public policies.
These things miff me as well. Its quite weird that an award would be given for cowardice and indifference to human life. I did not even hear about this on the news - I wish there were more repulsion from the world community towards these Dutch awards.
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