Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized on Saturday to Dutch soldiers who were sent to the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in 1995. He apologized for the circumstances in which the veterans in battalion Dutchbat III were sent out and also for the lack of support they experienced upon their return to the Netherlands. Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren (D66) presented the veterans with the Bronze Medal for Merit.
Rutte spoke on Saturday afternoon before several hundred Dutchbat veterans at the Oranjekazerne in Schaarsbergen, Gelderland. Commander of the armed forces Onno Eichelsheim was also present. The infantry battalion numbered more than 700 soldiers when it was deployed to the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995.
In Srebrenica, genocide took place in the summer of 1995 by Bosnian Serb troops led by General Ratko Mladic. More than eight thousand Muslim men and boys were murdered. It was the task of Dutchbat III to defend the enclave, but the soldiers were powerless against Mladic’s troops. Air support, which it asked for at the UN, was not given.
On their return, the Dutchbat veterans were reviled – they had to deal with incomprehension and aggression. Some of them still struggle with psychological complaints. A committee led by Hans Borstlap already concluded in 2020 that the Dutchbat veterans deserved reparation – because of the pandemic, the actual apologies were postponed.
Also read the interview with Dutchbat battalion commander Thom Karremans: ‘We were in fact standing with a sniper pistol against their heavy weapons’