Anger at decision to award Dutch soldiers present at Srebrenitza
Güncelleme Tarihi:
A decision by the Dutch government to award soldiers who were on duty in Bosnia when the infamous massacre at Srebrenitza occured has elicited a strong reaction in Turkey. Many groups have accused the Dutch soldiers, who had been charged with guarding civilians, of ignoring the bloody massacre, in which an estimated 8 thousand Bosnians were killed.
The Dutch Defense Minister, Henk Kemp, has denied these charges, calling them untrue, and noting that the Dutch soldiers were not adequetely equipped to prevent any massacres, and that there were also insufficient forces on the ground.
What happened at Srebrenitza
During the break-up of Yugoslavia, and the three year Bosnian war, Srebrenitza had been declared a "Security Region" by the United Nations, with Dutch soldiers assigned to keep order in the area. Serbian commander Ratko Mladic then ordered his forces to surround the Dutch soldiers, who were encamped at a former battery factory in Srebrenitza, and to demand that the Dutch soldiers transfer the Bosnian civilians, who had crowded into their barracks, to the care of the Serbs. The Dutch soldiers followed these orders, and handed over the Bosnians, following which the Serbs then separated the men from the women, and proceeded to carry out the infamous Srebrenitza massacre.
TV footage of Mladic joking around with Dutch commander
Many countries, including Bosnia, carried television footage of Ratki Mladic joking with a top Dutch commander during the surrounding of the battery factory where the Dutch troops were posted. Mladic is even pictured offering the Dutch commander a cigarette, and then telling the Dutch commander "Don't worry, this won't be the last cigarette you smoke." In another moment caught on tape, Mladic scolds a Dutch commander for speaking to one of his soldiers in Dutch, saying "There are only two official languages here: Serbian and English."
Six years after the Srebnetiza massacre, in 2001, the Dutch government, accepting their responsibility for the massacre, resigned. The International War Crimes Tribunal is still looking for Serbian commander Ratko Mladic and for Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic.
Immigrants from the Balkans in Turkey are angry
Reaction across Turkey is growing to the awarding of medals to the Dutch soldiers on duty when the killings at Srebrenitza took place. Internet and email protests have been organized in an effort to attract the attention of the Dutch government.