Dutch Soldiers Given 'Medal of Shame'

The Dutch soldiers who did not intervene during the Srebrenica genocide of some 8,000 Bosnians by Bosnian-Serb forces were rewarded with gold medals.

Defense Minister Henk Kamp insisted on holding the ceremony despite the reactions it had already prompted and pinned the first medal on the unit commander Thom Karremans.

Karremans was commander of the United Nations force in the city, nominally responsible for the safety of civilians in the area.

Dutch soldiers in the Srebrenica unit published a book last year called "Memories of Srebrenica" where they express the regret and shame they still suffer from the massacre they could not prevent.

The soldiers explain in the book how thousands of Bosnians were put on trucks one on top the other and handed to Serbs and how they were massacred before their eyes.

In response to questions from Zaman during the ceremony yesterday, Bart Molen, one of the soldiers, said that he suffered from his conscience while the medal was being pinned on his chest.

Relatives of the Srebrenica massacre victims protested to the Dutch government. Munira Subasic expressed her pain by saying: "This is an embarrassing scandal. The victims and their families have been insulted once again."

Defense Minister Kamp defended his controversial decision by saying that the Dutch soldiers stationed in Srebrenica in 1994-1995 had to carry out their mission under extremely severe circumstances with a shortage of materials.

Commander Karremans, who effectively delivered Muslim civilians to their murderers by withdrawing from the city, claimed that his unit did its best to carry out what was an impossible mission.

"My idea is that thousands of people unnecessarily lost their lives in Bosnia. However, our soldiers also got killed," he said, referring to the two Dutch soldiers who were killed as a prelude to the massacre.

The Dutch Embassy in Sarajevo did not grant visa to Bosnians who wanted to go the Dutch city of Assen, where the ceremony was going to take place, to protest the event.

A member of the Association of Srebrenica Mothers, Zumra Sehomerovic said: "I'm full of pain. I remember being so hopeful that the Dutch soldiers were going to help us... I wonder where is justice?"

A representative of the association, Kada Hotic, said that the whole world had to be ashamed of these medals.

"We were expecting justice to be done, but we have been deceived," Hotic said.

A Germany-based organization held a demonstration in Lahey carrying photographs of the massacre. They also sent an open letter to Defense Minister Kamp and Dutch PM Jan Peter Balkenende asking them to apologize to the survivors of the massacre and establish an aid fund for reconstructing Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The massacre in July 1995 in the northern Bosnian town of Srebrenica went down in history as the worst instance of ethnic cleansing in Europe since World War II.

Declared a "safe haven" by the United Nations, the city had been placed under the control and protection of Dutch soldiers deployed in the area.

Lacking sufficient forces and a clear mandate to intervene, the UN forces stood by while Bosnian-Serb soldiers entered the city and proceeded to round up 8,000 people, most of whom were men including boys of 15 years of age.