Briefly, the situation was this: some 200 Dutch troops, lightly armed and without any support, were guarding several thousand Muslim civilians in Srebeicia. They were surrounded by some 3,000 Serbian troops who demanded that they turn over the Muslims. The Dutch complied with the demand, and, according to some reports, cooperated with the Serbians as they seperated out the men and boys for massacre, even though the intent of the Serbian militia was entirely clear.
What should they have done? Should they have fought a probably hopeless battle against overwhelming odds? Or would that merely have made a massacre worse?
References: Google on “Dutch Army Srebencia” for more than you can possibly read, here are two links.
For myself, I would hope that I would have the moral courage to resist. Having never fired a shot in anger, I cannot make such a claim outright, at least not with a straight face.
Experience showed in former Yugoslavia, that when Serb army and irregular forces(sometines there was not much differance betweent them) when confronted with better equipped and trained UN forces, the Serbs tended to back down.
Although you mention 200 Dutch troops, had they fought back and been injured or killed, the response would without doubt have been a full scale military strike at Serb forces.
Those Dutch troops could have had backing from totally dominant air power and could have given the Serbs a very seriously bloody nose, and that in turn might have limited Serb aggression in Kosovo.
There are a lot of ‘coulds’ and ‘maybe’s’ but if there was one thing we did learn, we learned that Milosovic only respected force and commitment, nothing else, and giving in and compliance only encouraged him all the more.
Had the Dutch fought the Serbs might have had a short term victory, but Milosovic would have come under such great military pressure, he would have been toppled sooner, and the war in that region would have ended sooner.
Yugoslavia, unfortunately, proved how innefective the UN was, and was likely instrumental in reinforcing the belief in the US and NATO that if you wanted to get rid of despots, then you had to do it yourself, and to hell with the UN and its myriad self interested goups.
You can see where this is going…and I was against the war in Iraq.
I can’'t remember the name of the operation the dutch were part of. Anyway, didn’t they ask to their headquarters (which was multinational, and IIRC headed by some french general at this time…though I could be mistaken) what they should do, and told to do nothing, because there was no intent at this point to actually fight directly the serbs? I barely remember any instance of elements of this european force actually using their weapons during the whole conflict (I know that a couple of times, french soldiers guarding an infamous bridge in Sarajevo did open fire on serbian troops, and there are probably some other instances, but these were isolated events).
Actually, I never understood why the Dutchs who were present at Srebenica were held responsible for what happened there, since they didn’t define the politic about the use of force during this operation, which was essentially “don’t use force in any circumstances”. What were they supposed to do? Fight back despite orders to the contrary? Personnally, I would put the blame on the bodies/individuals who chosen the policy european troops had to follow, most likely thez politicians, or perhaps on the general (whoever he was) in charge, assuming that he had been granted some autonomy of action.
But maybe I’m misinformed, or I forgot, and there’s some reason explaining why they have been considered as the guilty party, except for the fact that they happened to be there at this moment. Would have militaries from another involved nation fought back in the same circumstances fought back? I strongly doubt it. Actually, even if there has been 3000 or 10 000 european soldiers in Srebrenica, I doubt they would have fought back, since actually fighting wasn’t the policy followed by the interposition force.
But once again maybe I’m completely mistaken, and someone will correct me…
I didn’t have time to go to the cites. Perhaps later.
Firstly I would ask: What were the Dutch chartered to do in that area? Were they Peacekeepers with no real authority to engage in fighting? That has to be layed out.
However, they were human beings and I’d like to think that generally human beings would do what was necessary to prevent that type of masacre. But it’s easy for us to say “they should’ve done this or they should’ve done that” from the comfort of our homes. It’s hard to know exactly what any of us would do when faced with a potentially life or death situation on foreign soil.
Was there no way to call for more troops? Air support? If not, then whoever sent “lightly armed” troops into a war zone w/o support is as much to blame as the Dutch soldiers themselves.
From what I remember they did ask for air support and reinforcement. As Clairobscur stated, it was denied.
At the time I thought they should at least have fired a couple of shots when the Serbs reached the outer checkpoints. But I believe even then orders from the upper echelons were withheld. After they were overrun there wasn’t a hope in hell the 200 Dutch could have fought the Serbs, who also had at least one tank-brigade. They tried to form a cordon between the Serbs and the Bosnians and smomehow stay on top of the situation by constantly arguing with Serb commanders and insisting it was them that controlled any actions regarding the Bosnians. When the Serbs wanted to split men and women for transport, the Dutch figured that if the Serbs did this themselves a massacre would be sure to follow. They decided that if they ‘controlled’ it, the situation might be less volatile.
With hindsight this was totally useless and gave the image that they were helping the Serbs.
All in all I don’t think the Dutch soldiers can be blamed for Srebrenica, they just didn’t have the means or the mandate.
If you want to blame someone, it’s primarily the Serbs, of course. But also dumb politicians who knew shit about the situation in Yugoslavia, knew shit about military matters and who thought that a few light armed troops with blue helmets would be enough.
Remember that this was the first time since a very long time that Europeans faced a real war situation, they didn’t know how to behave. However, the events in Slovenia and Vukovar should have woken people up to the seriousness of the situation.
Why air-support and reinforcements were withheld still is a mistery. The French commander never really made any comment or participated in the hearings, as far as I know.
I don’t blame the troops. I blame the UN for putting symbolism over actually doing anything. This is not the only time they’ve chosen to make a token gesture rather than actually fight to defend humanity.
The Nordbat 2 batallion - Swedish, Norwegian and Danish troops - fought back quite well in the Tuzla area. They’d correctly analyzed the situation in Ex-Yugoslavia as one where the man with the biggest gun commanded the most respect, and so they went in with their own heavies, primarily a company of Leopard tanks, who by the way look quite weird in a white UN paint job.
Local attempts to fight the troops - including at least one carefully planned ambush - ended in humiliating[sup]*[/sup] defeats , and the locals decided that these weren’t troops worth fighting, really. Having demonstrated who actually carried the big stick, the UN troops could then start walking softly - i.e., make deals for safe passage for food convoys etc. and actually expect them to be adhered to.
[sup]*[/sup] One wonders how some of the local militia commanders felt about the fact that some of the tanks that kicked their ass had women commanders.
The Canadians and French fought a fairly vicious battle with Croatian forces in the Bihac pocket. As casdave alluded to, the Croatians got the crap kicked out of them despite the Canadian/French forces being lightly armed and having no orders to go into battle; they established a perimeter and fought back when they were attacked, inflicting heavy casualties on the local ethnic cleansers.
The quality of the varied forces in former-Yugoslavia was and is extremely suspect; they were awfully good as long as they were shooting children and old men, but outclassed when faced with professional opposition. They were, basically, criminals in green uniforms.
The Dutch should have stood and fought, irrespective of what air support they did or did not get. They had a chance to do something, to protect the weak, and they didn’t. It was a disgraceful and cowardly act. A tough situation, and certainly UN command is to blame as well, but it was disgraceful and cowardly all the same. They were there, they could have done something, and they chose to do nothing. They brought shame upon a respected military tradition. It was a very, very sad and shameful event.
Good Lord, *RickJay, I know that former Yugoslavia was made up of many little countries that you probably never heard of before the festivities, but get your teams right. It was Bosnian-Serbs, not Croats. Second, they did not ‘get the crap kicked out of them’. The VRS manages to take quite a bit of that pocket, IIRC. Your ignorance on the topic is staggering.
As for the forces in former-Yugoslavia being ‘criminals in green uniforms’? Let me respond with a heart-felt ‘Fuck You’.
Hmm Brutus my dear, does the criminals in green uniforms hit too close to home perhaps?
Hard pressed myself to think of a better description. Coupled with crypto-fascist mobsters as officers. Pity the one who kicked the bucket was never dragged off to the Hague.
Unfortunately there were butchers and bad actors on all sides in that war. The Croatian commander at Medak was later charged with war crimes by the Hague.
RickJay, At the time, I too thought that Dutchbat should have stood their ground and fought. That is what I thought they were there for, That’s what the general public thought and what the Bosnians thought. Since then things have become somewhat more nuanced, you did read that link to the report by tschild, did you?
What does this sentence mean exactly? What respected military tradition are you talking about?
‘Criminals in uniform’? abso-fucking-lutely. The leader of one of the most notorious Bosnian-Serb militia units, Arkan’s Tigers, was a recent escapee from a Dutch prison (just to heap more blame on the Dutch). Where he was doing time for extreme violence in gang related crime.
Mind you, the regular ex-yugoslav army was made up of your normal conscript and on the main probably OK. It only takes a few bastards in uniform to commit crimes and tarnish the image of an army. Unfortunately sometimes governments have no qualms to put actual criminals in uniform, especially in times of war.
Regardless, color me unimpressed with the trumped-up charges against Ademi. THe ICTY has been indicting too many Serbs; They need some Croats to leaven the mix, lest accusations of discrimination be leveled.
And this is the same ICTY that is taking how many years to mangle its case against Milosevic? If ol’ Ujak Slobo can man-handle the tribunal so brazenly, for so long, Rahim has little to worry about.
Also, Rickjay, just another minor point regarding where you paint the Canadians and French as doing the right thing and the Dutch as forsaking that duty;
Reading Tamerlane’s link it appears that that fight was a deliberate action to somewhat restore the UN’s reputation, AFTER it’s failure at Srebrenica.
No, but I suspect RickJay unintentially mixed up the two. His account jibes with the Medak pocket account, especially in terms of the somewhat unbalanced results ( 27 Croatians killed in the dustup vs. no Canadian casualties ).
Hmmm…Perhaps. However he was/is not the only Croatian charged by ICTY. Tihomir Blaskic, for example, was found guilty and sentenced to 45 years ( along with three others that got lesser sentences ):
On the original point, the Dutch should have demanded the Serbs leave, period. They didn’t need to shoot, simply stand in the line. The Serbs might have though twice had they show some backbone.
I am not saying they didn’t properly follow the chain of command, etc., but sometimes what is right is seperate from what is politically expedient. Plus, no one was going to arrest them for defending people from an illegal order by an unrecognized military.