Sarajevo, Bosnia
The Netherlands this week gave medals to the regiment of soldiers who failed to protect Bosnians in Srebrenica in 1995. The Dutch soldiers, part of a U.N. peacekeeping force, stood by as Bosnian Serb paramilitaries massacred 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Dutch Defense Minister Henk Kamp said the troops have been unjustly blamed for the disaster, and that the U.N. had not given them a broad enough mandate to allow them to act. Bosnians were appalled. "This is a scandalous, shameful, and humiliating decision," said Munira Subasic, head of the Srebrenica Women's Association. Relatives of the Srebrenica victims have filed a lawsuit in the Netherlands, charging the Dutch government with failing to protect the city.
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