Guilt Remorse

From the Stars and Stripes:
"Dutch peacekeepers still suffer stigma after Srebrenica"

Rob Zomer has heard the comments many times over: You're cowards, killers. How could you stand there and do nothing? A stream of insults to add to the mental injuries they suffered 20 years ago when they were part of a vastly outgunned and outnumbered Dutch battalion of United Nations peacekeepers who failed to halt the slaughter by Bosnian Serb forces of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia. "When you hear — for 20 years now — only bad things that you do," said Zomer, "that makes you stressed, crazy." Zomer is quick to acknowledge that the main victims of the worst massacre on European soil since World War II are the mothers, wives and daughters of Srebrenica who lost their men and boys in July 1995. But the lives of the small contingent of lightly armed Dutch troops who were powerless to intervene also changed forever. Many suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, and some have taken their own lives. The Srebrenica massacre also had a profound effect on the Dutch nation. The government resigned seven years later after a damning report criticized authorities for failing to adequately prepare, arm and support the troops, sending them to Bosnia with a vague mandate to protect lives but insufficient weaponry to shield civilians from Bosnian Serb forces led by Gen. Ratko Mladic. Now, as a result of what happened in Srebrenica, this nation that prides itself on a long history of contributing to international peacekeeping efforts makes sure its servicemen and women are ready to protect local populations but also themselves when they are sent overseas. Dutch troops sent to serve in the international force in Afghanistan were sent with plenty of military hardware and a robust mandate. "They had big weapons, big armored personnel carriers, they had helicopters, they had close air support — F16s, Apache (helicopter gunships)," said Derk Zwaan, a former Srebrenica peacekeeper who has also suffered trauma. The lack of air power was key to the failure of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Srebrenica. The Dutch commander repeatedly called in vain for air backup as Serb troops bore down on the enclave. In the end, only one Serb tank was hit by a single air attack carried out by two American and two Dutch planes, said Joris Voorhoeve, the Dutch defense minister at the time. Voorhoeve said a contributing factor in the debacle was an agreement between major powers not to use airstrikes against Serb forces because it could endanger peacekeepers being held by Mladic. He said it would not have saved the enclave, but could have given the United Nations a window to evacuate the population. Instead, Mladic summoned scores of buses and separated men and boys from women as they were loaded on board. Serb forces methodically gunned down thousands of men at killing fields around Srebrenica before plowing their bodies into mass graves.  Zwaan is now suing the Dutch government for compensation, alleging that it did not do enough to help veterans after they returned home. Zomer has chosen a radically different path. Instead of running from the Srebrenica phantoms haunting him, he went back and confronted them. Zomer now lives in a house he built himself overlooking the undulating hills and forests of Srebrenica. He spends his summer days tending his small herd of goats, cutting the grass with a scythe and making hay. He still has horrific memories of doing what little he could to help Srebrenica's terrified population as Mladic's Bosnian Serb forces bore down on the enclave. Some local residents, however, don't appreciate Zomer's decision to move to Srebrenica, where survivors still blame Dutch troops for not doing enough to protect the enclave's men. He said that mothers of victims of the genocide still won't shake his hand if they are invited to memorial events to mark the massacre.

 

 

 ^ These Dutch soldiers should feel guilty for not doing anything to help the civilians. There is no excuse for them not doing something - even a symbolic show of force - to protect the innocent men, women and children that were told by the UN that they would be safe in the town as it was declared a "safe-haven." These Dutch soldiers probably were told by the Dutch military and/or the UN not to do anything and so they can claim they were "just following orders" but those 3 stupid words hold no meaning since 1945 when the Germans used them to explain their war crimes. The Dutch, in this case, didn't commit the war crimes, but they simply watched while the massacre happened right in front of them and anyone who stands by and allows something bad to happen is just as guilty as the person committing the crime. I would rather have heard that these soldiers tried everything they could, even going against their own orders, to try and protect the men, women and children in their protection - even if in the end the Serbs still committed the massacre - at least then the soldiers could feel that they had done something. Instead they did nothing, but save their own skins.  I think it is disrespectful for any of the soldiers to live in Srebrenica. It doesn't matter if it helps them feel better about their guilt. It is a constant reminder to the victims and their survivors of the massacre and the fact that the Dutch, the UN and the international community stood-by and watched innocent people murdered. ^

http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/dutch-peacekeepers-still-suffer-stigma-after-srebrenica-1.356698