Dutch give ‘deepest apologies’ for function in 1995 Srebrenica genocide

The Netherlands on Monday supplied its “deepest apologies” for the function performed by Dutch peacekeepers within the Srebrenica genocide, when roughly 8,000 Bosnian Muslims had been massacred by attacking Bosnian Serb forces 27 years in the past.

It is the primary time the Dutch authorities has apologised to the relations of the victims.

Outgunned and outnumbered, Dutch peacekeepers had been unable to stop Bosnian Serb forces from overunning the U.N. declared “safe haven” on the tail finish of the Balkan wars of the Nineteen Nineties.

During per week of bloodletting in July 1995, males and boys had been separated from the ladies and brought to execution websites the place they had been massacred. Their our bodies had been dumped in mass graves.

“Only one party is to blame for the horrific genocide; the Bosnian Serb army. But let me be clear. The international community failed to offer adequate protection to the people of Srebrenica and as part of that community the Dutch government shares responsibility for the situation in which that failure occurred. And for this we offer our deepest apologies,” Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren stated, placing her hand to her coronary heart.

Dutch courts had already decided that the Netherlands was partly answerable for the autumn of Srebrenica and compensation was paid to survivors.

The Dutch authorities resigned over the episode in 2002, with then prime minister Wim Kok saying the federal government in that method accepted its duty for the bloodbath however not the blame. Relatives didn’t deem this sufficient and have been pushing for an apology for years.

Last month the Netherlands apologised to the Dutch U.N. troopers current on the bloodbath for the situations underneath which they needed to do their work, sparking anger from the relations of the victims.

“The events of 1995 led to deep human suffering that is palpable here to this day. We cannot relieve you of this suffering. But what we can do is to look history straight in the eye,” stated Ollongren throughout a go to to Bosnia to commemorate the genocide.

The slaughter, judged an act of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, was the worst single atrocity of the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict, during which about 100,000 folks died.