Posted on 12/05/2006 5:09:50 AM PST by Mrs Ivan
Dutch Defence Minister Henk Kamp on Monday awarded medals to soldiers whose withdrawal from the U.N. enclave of Srebrenica in 1995 led to the massacre of 8,000 Muslims, Europe's worst killings since World War Two.
In Bosnia the awards were met with incomprehension, and the presidency said it had summoned the Dutch ambassador to lodge an official protest.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague calls the massacre an act of genocide and has charged 20 people in connection with the killings.
The Dutch government led by Wim Kok resigned in 2002 after a report on the massacre blamed politicians for sending the Dutch U.N. troops on an impossible mission.
"All of you receive today a special insignia as a visible acknowledgement...that in Srebrenica you had an extraordinarily difficult task," Kamp told 500 members of the "Dutchbat" battalion at a ceremony in the northern city of Assen.
"And also to acknowledge the fact that Dutchbat has for years wrongly been held responsible for what happened in the enclave," he said, according to the text of his speech.
During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Srebrenica became a supposed safe area guarded by a Dutch army unit operating under a United Nations mandate.
The lightly armed Dutch soldiers, lacking air support, were forced to abandon the enclave to Bosnian Serb forces, who took away and massacred some 8,000 Muslim men and boys relying on the protection of the Dutch troops.
"This black page in the post-war history of Europe will always be connected with the mission of Dutchbat III," said Kamp, who unveiled a commemorative plaque at barracks in Assen.
Official inquiries cleared the Dutch troops of blame. A total of 850 Dutch soldiers served in the enclave.
In Srebrenica Zumra Sehomerovic, who lost her husband in the massacre, expressed her astonishment at the awards. "...my memories are still very alive, memories of the hope and trust we had in Dutch soldiers," she said.
"Instead of the 'monument of shame' we see rewards today in Holland for the soldiers serving the UN troops in Srebrenica."
Of the 20 people charged by The Hague tribunal, the most important since the death of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic are Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic - both still on the run.
They are charged with genocide for orchestrating the massacre.
"Today we have this recognition for the Dutch battalion in Srebrenica by the Dutch government. What does it mean?" asked Haris Silajdzi, a Muslim member of the Bosnian presidency.
"It looks like Milosevic is dead but his project is going on, the legalisation of the project," he added.
I would give them medals too.
BTW, does human history include ONE instance of muslime armies/governments protecting non-muslims? Just wondering...
IS A DUTCHBAT SIMILAR TO A DINGBAT????
note how everyone condemned the ethnic cleansing against the Muzzies...but the dirty little secret is that the Muzzies have it as their relgious imperative to remove (or enslave) all non Muzzies from the face of the earth
There are worse things than dying. Living with the shame that you let Srebrenica happen is one of them.
The Dutchbat soldiers deserve our unending contempt.
Ping.
I am inclined to believe that 8,000 killed muslims was part of the big lie perpetrated by the world's media.
Me too.
Over the past, oh, 5 years and (nearly) three months, my attitude towards muslims has shall we say "evolved."
I no longer, for example, think Slobodan was any kind of criminal...
There is a lie there: that the UN first DISARMED the people of the city to make it a "UN Safe Haven". Gun control, with incompetent and/or cowardly soldiers/politicians leads to massacres.
The media dares not focus on that part of it.
I do not believe there was a massacre. That was part of the lie to get us involved.
A fine example of a UN operation led by a French commander.
I don't believe you have a clue.
No, I know you don't.
Sorry, but I have a hard time believing anything related to Moslems.
This was, after all, a Clinton-loved war to boot.
"Massacre" may be another abused and twisted word like "tolerance" toward gays and anything really is code for "celebrating and congratulating".
What does it mean? That some Serbs managed to take over and then fought it out with the Moslems and managed to soundly beat them?
Then there is apparently something about the UN leaving the Moslems defenseless by disarming them, anyway?
I know next to nothing about this now, but I'm sorry, the track record is very bad and I have reservations.
Wait/what, did I just say that out loud? Oops.
This was post-us involvement.
We got involved because CLinton wanted to distract us from his crimes.
When Madame Halfbright presented the Ramoullette Agreement to Serbia she knew it was unacceptable and nothing more than a pretext for us to begin bombing.
Cluster bombs, civilian trains bombed, thank you Weasley Clark, and assorted other crimes against humanity. Such as bombing the water supply lines across the Danube, leaving so much rubble in the Danube that no supplies could flow to countries depending upon the river for their needs. No fuel delivered, no food, no no no.
Bill Clinton the great war hero.
Damn him for all time. And his wife too.
The only massacre was conducted by Nasir Oric as his jihadists beheaded Christians living near Srebrenica by the hundreds.
The folks who gave the Islamofascists cover knew what was coming.
Sounds a bit like suicide by cop!
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