Widows of Srebrenica bitter towards returning Dutch

Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:34am EDT


By Maja Zuvela

SREBRENICA, Bosnia, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The widows of Srebrenica gave Dutch soldiers a bitter reception on their return to the scene of Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two.

The Dutch had to abandon thousands of trapped Muslims in a U.N. "safe zone" to their fate at the hands of Bosnian Serb forces. Muslim women who lost their menfolk regard the Dutch soldiers as direct accomplices of the Serb executioners.

"Why did you betray our children under the U.N. flag?" one woman shouted at the visitors. "Why did you come only now?"

Recriminations, tears and despondency marked this week's meeting of the two groups in the Bosnian town.

"Today I feel the same helplessness I felt in those days," Monique Bergman told Reuters. Bergman was just 20 when she served as a peacekeeper at Srebrenica in the summer of 1995.

"Not being able to do anything is a horrible feeling, which haunted me for years. For years I have been mentally ill because of what happened here," she said through tears.

"I am trying to understand the pain and anger of the survivors and to show respect to the women and victims."

Lightly-armed Dutch soldiers of the U.N. Protection Force UNPROFOR were guarding displaced Muslim civilians at Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 as the main force of the Bosnian Serb Army under General Ratko Mladic closed in and took the town.

They witnessed the separation of fighting-age Muslims, and heard Mladic promise that nothing would happen to the men -- a lie captured on film.

Mladic was indicted for genocide by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the Bosnian Serb Army's execution of some 8,000, whose corpses were bulldozed into the earth over four days.



MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

Blindly pursuing a policy of non-intervention despite repeated offensives by the heavily armed Serbs, the U.N. had given no order to UNPROFOR to fight off Serb forces, even if the 850-strong Dutch unit had possessed the military capability.

"They allowed them to slaughter us. I have nobody any more because of them," said Aisa Omerovic, 57, who lost her husband, two brothers and many other male relatives in the atrocity.

Relatives of the victims sued the Dutch state and the United Nations for allowing the crime. But they lost the case after the Dutch government successfully denied liability, saying its troops had been abandoned by the United Nations.

The government of Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok resigned in 2002 following a report which blamed politicians for sending Dutch troops on a "mission impossible".

The dozen or so Dutch Srebrenica visitors, some with their families, recalled traumatic scenes in the U.N. compound at Potocari in July 1995, where thousands sought shelter after the Serb army began to shell Srebrenica.

It had left an indelible impression, they said, and they wanted their loved ones to see where the events took place.

"I was here when all this happened, and now I am here again to pay respects to the victims and their families," said Boudewijn Kok, a 21-year-old at the time of the massacre.

There came a turning point in the tense encounter when a Dutch soldier recognised one of Suhra Malic's four sons in a picture as the boy who used to sell souvenirs in the U.N. camp.

"He recognised my son," she cried.

One former sergeant named Rob said he managed to save a few men when the Serb troops began their separation process.

"Even though 12 years have passed, we have not forgotten that genocide happened here. Our arrival is the proof that we have been thinking about it since," he told the waiting women.



Comments (0)
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.