TonH
18-10-07, 10:46
Tears and accusations as Dutch ex-soldiers return to Srebrenica
http://www.ekathimerini.com/kathnews/photos/18-10-07/18-10-07_89064_1.gif
Former Dutch peacekeeper Henry Van Der Belt (r) cries as he meets survivors and relatives of victims of the Srebrenica massacre at a former UN base in Potocari yesterday.
SREBRENICA (AFP) – Former Dutch soldiers who failed to prevent the 1995 Srebrenica massacre made an emotional return yesterday to the ill-fated Bosnian town to pay respects to victims and meet with survivors.
“I was here in July. Now I came to pay respect to the victims and to talk to you,” Boudewin Kok, one of the former UN peacekeepers, said in a meeting with survivors.
“I think that this should be the beginning of our joint search for some answers, including to why Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are still free.” The group of 12 ex-servicemen who were deployed in Srebrenica during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war wept during a visit to its memorial center and cemetery at Potocari, their former base outside the eastern town. Nine of them were in Srebrenica on July 11, 1995 when Serb troops overran the enclave, summarily killing some 8,000 Muslims in Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II. Some 300 Dutch troops were tasked with protecting civilians, but their rules of engagement meant they had no power to prevent the massacre.
The Dutch government believes the troops, many of whom have undergone therapy to help them deal with the resulting trauma, have been blamed unfairly and were powerless to intervene. “We were soldiers, but still only humans. I saw the same things my grandparents told me were happening during the World War II,” said a former soldier who only identified himself as Rob.
But despite their efforts to reach out to them, the former Dutch soldiers won little sympathy from the survivors. “These are my four sons. I never found them,” Suhra Malic told them through tears while showing a photograph of her children making souvenirs they used to sell to the peacekeepers.
“I will never forget walking down this street with my son and seeing Dutch UN soldiers point at us and laugh and call us scum. They did nothing when my child was torn from my arms,” one of the survivors, Sabaheta Fejzic, told AFP. Fejzic and her son were among thousands of people who fled to the Potocari base before men and boys were led to their deaths as the Dutch forces looked on. “They told us that many of them have psychiatric problems, but we do not sympathize with them. This visit may help ease their pain, but we will live with ours forever,” added Fejzic, who still hopes to find the remains of her husband and son.
Kathimerini 18/10/07
http://www.ekathimerini.com/kathnews/photos/18-10-07/18-10-07_89064_1.gif
Former Dutch peacekeeper Henry Van Der Belt (r) cries as he meets survivors and relatives of victims of the Srebrenica massacre at a former UN base in Potocari yesterday.
SREBRENICA (AFP) – Former Dutch soldiers who failed to prevent the 1995 Srebrenica massacre made an emotional return yesterday to the ill-fated Bosnian town to pay respects to victims and meet with survivors.
“I was here in July. Now I came to pay respect to the victims and to talk to you,” Boudewin Kok, one of the former UN peacekeepers, said in a meeting with survivors.
“I think that this should be the beginning of our joint search for some answers, including to why Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are still free.” The group of 12 ex-servicemen who were deployed in Srebrenica during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war wept during a visit to its memorial center and cemetery at Potocari, their former base outside the eastern town. Nine of them were in Srebrenica on July 11, 1995 when Serb troops overran the enclave, summarily killing some 8,000 Muslims in Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II. Some 300 Dutch troops were tasked with protecting civilians, but their rules of engagement meant they had no power to prevent the massacre.
The Dutch government believes the troops, many of whom have undergone therapy to help them deal with the resulting trauma, have been blamed unfairly and were powerless to intervene. “We were soldiers, but still only humans. I saw the same things my grandparents told me were happening during the World War II,” said a former soldier who only identified himself as Rob.
But despite their efforts to reach out to them, the former Dutch soldiers won little sympathy from the survivors. “These are my four sons. I never found them,” Suhra Malic told them through tears while showing a photograph of her children making souvenirs they used to sell to the peacekeepers.
“I will never forget walking down this street with my son and seeing Dutch UN soldiers point at us and laugh and call us scum. They did nothing when my child was torn from my arms,” one of the survivors, Sabaheta Fejzic, told AFP. Fejzic and her son were among thousands of people who fled to the Potocari base before men and boys were led to their deaths as the Dutch forces looked on. “They told us that many of them have psychiatric problems, but we do not sympathize with them. This visit may help ease their pain, but we will live with ours forever,” added Fejzic, who still hopes to find the remains of her husband and son.
Kathimerini 18/10/07