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Arrest of Karadzic eases Dutch feelings of guilt

By Sebastiaan Gottlieb*

24-07-2008

The remains of the Dutchbat HQ at SrebrenicaThe 1995 Srebrenica massacre dealt a serious blow to the Dutch national psyche. The inability of the Dutch UN contingent - known as Dutchbat - to protect the men of the Srebrenica enclave was an extremely painful experience. For the past 13 years, the Netherlands has been trying to explain to the rest of the world that the Dutch peacekeepers were not to blame for the Srebrenica massacre, but the Bosnian Serbs. Now that the former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been arrested, attention appears to be shifting away from the Dutch actions in Srebrenica.

Former Dutchbat soldier Johan de Jonge is elated about Mr Karadzic' arrest. He hopes their will be less focus on the former Dutchbat soldiers now that one of the lead actors of the period has been brought to justice.

"I hope that people's eyes will be opened now. That they will know we were not to blame. But that there are people who had preconceived plans to exterminate certain population groups".

Creating a bond
Johan De Jonge has just recently met the next of kin of the Srebrenica victims. On 11 July, he attended the commemoration of the fall of the enclave. He and five other former soldiers joined a peace march to Srebrenica. To Johan de Jonge it felt like coming home, but there were problems as well.

"Sometimes people would harass us en route, mainly young people. People who fled back then when they were children. We talked with them, explained things about how we acted back then and why. Talking created a bond".

The former Dutchbat soldier hopes the young people of Srebrenica will now focus their attention on Radovan Karadzic.

Different light
Ton Zwaan, a researcher at the Amsterdam Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, believes that the arrest of the former Bosnian-Serb leader will cast a different light on the Dutch role in the Srebrenica massacre.

"It will become clear that in this case the Dutch at most played a supporting role. And also of course that the international community left them in the lurch at the decisive moment. It was never cleared up, but there never was any air support. And it will become clear who were the real perpetrators of this massacre".

"No need for atonement"
Former Dutch General Hans Couzy is much less optimistic. He was the armed forces commander when the enclave fell. General Couzy says that the arrest of Karadzic does not change anything concerning the trauma Dutch soldiers suffered in Srebrenica. He says there is no need for atonement regarding Dutchbat's actions, most certainly not internationally.

"No, it's nothing to do with that. When I spoke with my then foreign colleagues, they would understand quite well what happened and not reproach or criticise the Dutch soldiers in Srebrenica. It's more to do with negative Dutchbat experiences after they came back to the Netherlands. There were many negative statements and criticisms, and recent events won't change that".

But the experiences of senior officers are apparently somewhat different from those of the Dutch soldiers on the spot. Former Dutchbat soldier Johan de Jonge says that he will follow the Karadzic trial at the Yugoslav Tribunal on television, hoping that it will result in a less negative perception of the performance of the Dutch troops in Srebrenica.

* RNW translation (gsh) 

Tags: arrest, Dutchbat, massacre, Radovan Karadzic, Serbia, Srebrenica, UN