‘Cabinet recognizes that Dutchbat was sent on an impossible mission to Srebrenica in 1995’

Dutchbat III was the battalion that had to protect the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in the first half of 1995. The soldiers were stationed in Assen, at the Johan Willem Friso Kazerne. The soldiers came mainly from Drenthe and Groningen. The mission of Dutchbat III was ended shortly after the capture of Srebrenica on 11 July 1995 by the Bosnian Serb troops of General Mladic. Dutchbat had a limited mandate, was lightly armed and received no support from NATO when the Bosnian Serbs advanced towards the enclave. After the conquest, an estimated 8,000 Muslim men were carried off and killed by Mladic’s men. Dutchbat allowed this to happen, it sounded afterwards: the Dutch would not have put an obstacle in the way of the Bosnian Serbs.