Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized this afternoon to hundreds of Dutchbat veterans for the cabinet’s actions regarding the drama in Srebrenica in 1995. Defense Minister Kasja Ollongren then presented the veterans with the Bronze Medal for Merit. According to the minister, the government wants to express support and solidarity with the veterans.
The apologies and the decoration came during a “day of recognition and merit” for the veterans of Dutchbat III at the Oranjekazerne in Schaarsbergen. 325 Dutchbat soldiers and their relatives are present at the speech. Besides Rutte and Ollongren, Commander of the Armed Forces is also Onno Eichelsheim in Schaarsbergen.
In 1995 Bosnian Serb troops murdered more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys after the fall of an enclave guarded by the Dutch. The Dutch Blue Helmets could not prevent the mass murder.
Many veterans have since struggled with the feeling that they have been abandoned and that the Department of Defense was not taking care of them. Last year a committee advised the cabinet to come up with rehabilitation and to pronounce ‘recognition and appreciation’.