The Netherlands “shares the responsibility” for “the failure of the international community” in Srebrenica. those words Monday was the run-up for Minister Kajsa Ollongren (Defence, D66) to offer ‘our deepest apologies’ to survivors and relatives of the genocide in 1995 on behalf of the cabinet.
With this gesture, in front of thousands of Bosniaks in Potocari, Ollongren did the right thing: she acknowledged that Dutch action – or lack of it – has caused suffering. She spoke of the importance of “looking history straight in the eye” and rightly pointed out that only one party is guilty of the genocide: the Bosnian Serb army led by Ratko Mladic. In July 1995, that army killed more than 8,000 men and boys, mutilated their bodies and left them in mass graves.
But the apologies could have been better, in their wording and execution. And that is surprising, because anyone who takes 27 years to come to a ‘sorry’ can expect more – even in the extremely complex history of Srebrenica.
After all, looking history straight in the eye also means: telling exactly what you see. And then it is noticeable that the minister’s words were rather succinct when she referred to the Dutch role exclusively as part of a collective, namely the international community.
It is certainly true that Dutchbat III, which operated under the flag of the United Nations, had insufficient mandate and resources to protect the population, and thus had an impossible task. The impotence that the Dutch Blue Helmets felt and the unjust reproaches they received afterwards have scarred many for life.
However, the minister did not specifically consider the Dutch performance on Monday. This while the Supreme Court decided in 2013 established that the state is liable for the deaths of three men who were sent away from the Dutchbat base. Later, in 2019, concluded the Council that the Netherlands is partly responsible for the fate of 350 other expelled men. It must have been possible on Monday to put one’s hand more generously into one’s own bosom without doing Dutchbat short.
Last month, the cabinet in the person of Prime Minister Rutte (VVD) also apologized to the Dutchbat veterans. The fact that they operated under the UN flag does not diminish the responsibility of the state, he told them. He also acknowledged that they received too little support in the imaging afterwards.
There is some criticism of this order. Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate if the next of kin had been given an apology earlier? For they have lost eight thousand sons, fathers and husbands. It looks like this, but the question is how the reverse order would have turned out. Then the accusation could have been that the gesture to the relatives was only a prelude to apologies to the ‘own’ veterans. Perhaps the conclusion should be that there is so much pain that it is almost impossible to do it all right.
That does not alter the fact that Rutte could also have gone to Potocari himself. Just as Prime Minister Kok took the decision in 2002 to have his cabinet resign because of Srebrenica, Rutte could have conveyed the apology personally. Of course Ollongren also spoke on behalf of the cabinet, but a prime minister is of greater symbolic value. The best apologies are not only thoughtful, but generous.
Also read this article: Positive reactions and criticism after apologies to relatives of Srebrenica: ‘In fact, the minister did not name anything’
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of 13 July 2022