The Dutch government apologizes again for the Srebrenica massacre in which 8,000 Muslims were killed in Bosnia.
Thousands of people gathered in Srebrenica on Thursday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the 1995 massacre, in which more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces.
During the memorial ceremony in Potocari, Dutch interim Foreign Minister Kaspar Feldkamp spoke to survivors and victims' families, stating that the international community failed to protect them. He added: "We feel ashamed. We, as the international community, did not succeed in protecting them. And I feel ashamed because the Netherlands, as part of this community, bears a moral and political responsibility for failing to prevent the genocide."
The Dutch UN peacekeepers, known as Dutchbat, were stationed in a "safe area" but were unable to prevent Ratko Mladic's forces from carrying out the massacre. Veldkamp reiterated the official apology that the government first issued in 2022 through former Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren, saying: "I understand that these words cannot change the bitterness of your loss."
In the Netherlands, a symbolic ceremony was held to launch a national monument project in The Hague, where a memorial stone containing 8,372 small stones representing each victim of the massacre was placed in Churchillplein square in front of the site of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where several individuals involved in the mass killings were convicted. The site aims to be a permanent monument, and activists hope that the adjacent court building will also become an educational center.
Fieldcamp told NOS television that he is committed to creating a permanent memorial in the Netherlands, adding: "We share the responsibility for the failure in 1995. This may be a temporary monument now, but it is a crucial step towards establishing a lasting memorial that is unforgettable."