BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA: FURTHER REACTIONS TO COLLAPSE OF DUTCH GOVERNMENT OVER SREBRENICA REPORT.

Record ID: 216699

  • Title: BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA: FURTHER REACTIONS TO COLLAPSE OF DUTCH GOVERNMENT OVER SREBRENICA REPORT.
  • Date: 17th April 2002
  • Summary: (W5) SREBRENICA, BOSNIA (RECENT) (REUTERS (A) - ACCESS ALL) 1. TV/GV: VARIOUS GENERAL VIEWS OF SREBRENICA (4 SHOTS) 0.20 (W6) SARAJEVO, BOSNIA (APRIL 16, 2002) (REUTERS(A) - ACCESS ALL) 2. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN AMER KAPETANOVIC, SAYING: "The decision made by the prime minister of the Kingdom of the Netherl
  • Embargoed: 2nd May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SREBRENICA AND SARAJEVO, BOSNIA
  • Country: Bosnia
  • Reuters ID: LVA4CKHZTGN55IAWWUOJ4KX1471W
  • Story Text: Bosnians have reacted to news of the collapse of the
    Dutch government over a report condemning the Netherlands'
    failure to prevent the worst massacre of the Bosnian war.



    The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday (April 16)
    after Prime Minister Wim Kok's cabinet resigned en-masse over
    a report condemning the Netherlands' failure to prevent the
    worst massacre of the Bosnian war.

    Kok's coalition stepped down after a crisis meeting to
    discuss the fallout from an official report last week which
    blamed politicians and military top brass for the failure of
    its U.N. peacekeepers to prevent the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

    In Srebrenica, a Bosnian town close to the Serbian border,
    110 lightly-armed Dutch troops from the multinational U.N.

    force were assigned to protect Muslim residents and refugees
    in what had been designated a "safe area" for them. In the
    event the Serbs took the town without a shot being fired.

    The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD)
    report, commissioned by the government five years ago,
    condemned the Dutch troops for unwittingly assisting in
    "ethnic cleansing" by helping the Serbs organise the final
    exodus of thousands of Muslims from the town -- women and
    children to Muslim territory but men to their deaths, mostly
    by shooting in fields and barns.

    But it reserved its harshest criticism for the political
    and military leadership for sending the troops to Srebrenica
    with ill-defined goals and a weak mandate.

    "I will go to the Queen and hand over the resignation of
    all ministers and junior ministers," Kok told journalists.

    He said he would announce the government's dissolution to
    head of state Queen Beatrix before going to parliament to say
    his 29-member coalition was resigning over the embarrassing
    foreign policy crisis.

    The chaotic end to Kok's three-party coalition cast a long
    shadow over the career of a popular prime minister, credited
    with slashing unemployment and creating prosperity, less than
    a month before the country goes to the polls on May 15.

    Reacting to news of the collapse of the Dutch government,
    Bosnian government spokesman Amer Kapetonic said, "The
    Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Bosnia-Herzegovina firstly
    considers (the resignation of the Dutch government) as an act
    of morality but as well as an internal issue, internal
    political issue, of the Kingdom of Netherlands."
    In Sarajevo, Hasan Nuhanovic - a former translator for
    Dutch peacekeepers - said he is looking for justice.

    "What I'm looking for, I am here to give you evidence, I
    am a survivor, I want the truth. I want justice," he said.

    One woman from the 'Association of Mothers of Srebrenica'
    in Sarajevo said the resignation of the Dutch cabinet had come
    too late.

    "They should have resigned ages ago. They will never wash
    the guilt off their faces. That means that the Dutch
    government and UN forces and their commands were collaborating
    in the massacre in Srebrenica in 1995," said Sbaheta Fejzic.

    Kada Hotic, also speaking from Sarajevo said, "The UN
    and the Dutch battalion had the only mission which was to
    protect us. We trusted them. And they let this happen. I think
    that this was a huge shame, and the great guilt on their
    behalf. They are guilty for what happened".

    Dutch head of state Queen Beatrix on Tuesday called on
    Prime Minister Wim Kok's collapsed coalition to form an
    interim caretaker government until a new government is formed
    after general elections on May 15.

    "Given the short time-span until the elections, she
    requested the ministers and junior ministers keep doing all
    that they deem necessary in the interest of the Dutch state,"
    her office said in a brief statement.

    A caretaker cabinet is expected to handle day-to-day
    administrative business before a new government takes over in
    the wake of next month's election.


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