HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------["The researchers of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation said they found no written orders for mass executions, but put primary responsibility on Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic, who persuaded the Dutch to let the Serb army evacuate the enclave.
The report also said no evidence was found linking the Serb leadership in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital, to the killings and that links to then- Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic were ``unclear.'' It blamed former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was extradited to The Hague last June for trial, only ``for the violent nature'' of Yugoslavia's disintegration in the 1990s." - It should of course be added that in 1993 it is alleged by ranking Bosnian Muslim survivors, and this appears in the UN report on Srebrenica, that Clinton had offered NATO intervention to Izetbegovic if 5000 people were to be "massacred" in Srebrenica. In addition to this, key SDA militants and ARBiH comanders like Naser Oric, Hakija Meholic, and Nesim Buric claim that there was no "massacre" but that 2000 fighters were killed "defending" the enclave from the VRS. More importantly, those closest to being involved in anything resembling a mass-execution where: 1) Drazen Erdemovic, a Croat agent in the VRS, and 2) Jugoslav Petrusic - who played an important role in the unit in charge of seizing Srebrenica - and who later turned up in Algeria, Congo, Kosovo, and Belgrade as a French agent. It is no wonder then that anyone in the leadership of the Republika Srpska or the FRY at the time of the alleged attrocity disclaims any knowledge or responsibility for such a crime. Responsibility for any massacre of unarmed men - if such a thing did eventually occur - therefore lies solely with the intelligence services of Western states whose operatives might have engaged in such operations.]
Dutch Report on Srebrenica Released
By ANTHONY DEUTSCH
.c The Associated Press
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - A six-year study of the 1995 slaughter of thousands of Muslims by Serb troops in the Bosnian ``safe zone'' of Srebrenica spread responsibility for the debacle among the Dutch government, its army commanders and the United Nations. But relatives of victims castigated the report as a whitewash.
The 7,600-page report commissioned by the Dutch government, a historical reconstruction of the worst massacre in Europe since World War II, immediately set off a political firestorm in the Netherlands and angry reactions in Bosnia.
Some 7,500 Muslims in the U.N.-declared safe haven were killed during one ferocious week of bloodletting in July 1995. Most were slain after being caught trying to flee the Serb onslaught, but many were killed after being taken from a Dutch-manned U.N. base where they had been promised protection.
Although the report implied that the Dutch battalion, or Dutchbat, could have done more to protect the Muslims, it set out so many mitigating arguments that a delegation of victims' relatives stormed out during a presentation of the summary.
``It's very simple. Dutchbat was complicit in genocide,'' said Hassan Nuhanovic, who was then a translator for the battalion and whose father and brother were among the victims. ``They should investigate properly any accusations of criminal activity by Dutchbat, indict them, arrest them, and try them in court.''
The researchers of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation said they found no written orders for mass executions, but put primary responsibility on Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic, who persuaded the Dutch to let the Serb army evacuate the enclave.
The report also said no evidence was found linking the Serb leadership in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital, to the killings and that links to then- Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic were ``unclear.'' It blamed former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was extradited to The Hague last June for trial, only ``for the violent nature'' of Yugoslavia's disintegration in the 1990s.
Released just five weeks before national elections, the study prompted calls from opponents of the three-party governing coalition for a parliamentary inquiry that would require Cabinet ministers to testify under oath.
``The politicians must accept the consequences,'' said Jan Peter Balkenende, head of the Christian Democratic Alliance, the leading opposition party.
Parliament scheduled a debate on the report for April 25. In Bosnia, the Foreign Ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador to a meeting Thursday to explain the findings.
Prime Minister Wim Kok admitted the Dutch government had failed to protect the Muslim enclave. ``I will face responsibility for what my predecessors and I have done,'' Kok said.
At the U.N. tribunal, meanwhile, judges set a one-year deadline from Wednesday for the prosecution to conclude its case against Milosevic. He faces 66 counts for Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, including a count of genocide for Srebrenica.
The Srebrenica report said Dutch officers stood by while Serb forces segregated Muslim men and drove them away, despite fears some would be killed. Women and children were deported.
The officer in charge of operations, Maj. Robert Franken, ``had recognized the danger of excesses'' by the Serb army, but did not anticipate mass murder, said a summary of the report. ``From fear of panic and a direct catastrophe, he was silent about these fears and assisted with the evacuation in full awareness that the fate of the men was uncertain,'' it said.
The report had harsh words for the Dutch government, which had dispatched 200 ill-prepared and lightly armed troops to Srebrenica ``to improve Dutch credibility and prestige in the world.'' They were sent to defend an undefined ``safe zone,'' without a clear mandate, ``to keep the peace where there was no peace.''
It also faulted the United Nations for declaring a ``safe zone'' without defining what that meant or how to defend it and not backing up the Dutch commanders when they requested air support. It said the Security Council had ``created an illusion of security for the population.''
The Dutch failures at Srebrenica were ``more the fault of the inadequate resources and the policy of the United Nations,'' the report said.
The soldiers were authorized to fire only in self-defense, and were ordered ``to deter by presence'' rather than force. The Bosnian Serb army was careful to avoid directly threatening the U.N. force to provoke an armed response, the report said.
Still, the Dutch force expected ``robust action'' and airstrikes if needed, but the U.N. command had ruled out air action for fear of the safety of hostages held elsewhere by the Serbs.
``It hereby crushed the Dutchbat illusion and the enclave became an easy target'' for the Serb army, it said.
04/10/02 20:37 EDT
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