 |
Dutch Bare Scars over Role in Srebrenica By Jennifer Scott
Television images of skeletons uncovered in mass graves near the former Muslim enclave have fed the guilt and Dutch media re-appraise the macabre events of last July whenever new evidence comes to light. Experts say the recriminations have escalated in the past year as the full magnitude of the catastrophe has been realised. The guilt will only deepen as more questions are asked and evidence uncovered.
"The guilt for Srebrenica has always been taken by the Dutch," said Gert Denooy, military researcher at the Clingendael Research Institute for International Relations in The Hague. "There's a lot of soul searching going on to the extent they're not looking at their present role in Yugoslavia any more. There's a kind of paralysis."
Several hundred Bosnian refugees and Dutch sympathisers marched in silence through the streets of The Hague on Thursday to commemorate the estimated 6,000 Muslim men and boys missing and believed killed after Bosnian Serbs overran Srebrenica. The Muslims were alleged to have been killed by forces under the control of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic. The marchers planned to lay a wreath of white lilies, the national symbol of Bosnia, at a war memorial in the city.
"We will honour the memory of the murdered of Srebrenica and all the other victims of ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia," a spokesman for Bosnian-Dutch lobby group Stari Most said. The silent parade, setting off from the U.N. war crimes tribunal, coincides with proceedings against Karadzic and Mladic at which the tribunal is expected to reconfirm indictments against them and issue international arrest warrants.
A Dutch government report concluded last October that the Muslim enclave had fallen after a failure of U.N. policy in Bosnia with lightly-armed Dutch "blue-helmets" not to blame. But despite the exoneration, doubts linger as to whether the Dutch military did enough to prevent the huge loss of life. "As a group, (the Dutch peacekeeping force) did not distinguish itself heroically," said Algemeen Dagblad, the second biggest-selling Dutch newspaper, in an editorial on Thursday. "The humiliation that the blue-helmets suffered at the hands of the Bosnian Serbs will haunt them for a long time."
In a nation still scarred by the mass deportation of Dutch Jews during the World War Two, the fall of Srebrenica is another thorny issue to prick the Dutch conscience. "This will stay as a black mark on the list of Dutch ventures in international politics," said Denooy.
"But that's a trait of the way guilt and recrimination works within the Dutch system. It's the Christian, Protestant
way of looking at things, of living up to morals and values." But it is Dutch Defence Minister Joris Voorhoeve who has perhaps been dogged most by the tragedy of Srebrenica. "Voorhoeve has been constantly followed by the monster of
Srebrenica. It keeps kicking in the door when he tries to shut it out," said Denooy.
"He's trying to close the book on the affair, but I don't think he'll succeed." |
AMSTERDAM, July 11 (Reuters) - The thousands of Muslims believed killed after the fall of Srebrenica weigh heavily on the Netherlands' conscience one year after Dutch peacekeepers failed to stop Bosnian Serb forces seizing the U.N. "safe area." It's hard to escape constant reminders of the slaughter.
Berserkistan, July 10 · Bodies of Some 40 Moslims Found Piled Together at Cerska
Berserkistan, July 10 · Republika Srpska Forces Finns to Abandon Mass Grave Probe
Berserkistan, July 9 · More Bodies Exhumed at Cerska Grave Site
Berserkistan, July 8 · Cerska Grave Site Yields First Corpse
Berserkistan, July 7 · Excavation Begins at Srebrenica Mass Grave
Berserkistan, July 3 · Mladic Promised Safety to Srebrenica Muslims
Berserkistan, June 8 · Srebrenica Victim Graves Probed at Brnica
Berserkistan, June 5 · Mass Grave at Nova Kasaba May Hold 2700 Srebrenica Victims
Berserkistan, May 29 · Documentary Claims Serbia Provided Srebrenica Arms
Berserkistan, Massacre Hill Jim Bartlett in Bosnia's Killing Fields
Berserkistan, Ghosts in the Woods Team Berserkistan Investigates a Srebrenica Massacre Site
SREBRENICA
Serbs Massacre Muslims in "Safe Area" of Srebrenica
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia United Nations
Coalition for International Justice
Reports concerning human rights abuses in Bosnia Intac Access
Major War Criminals/Suspects CalTech's Bosnia Site
Reports on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia CalTech's Bosnia Site
Berserkistan is the world news service of
Pacific Interactive Media Corp.
EMail Berserkistan
©1995-1996, All Rights Reserved