SREBRENICA,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, June 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) -
Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok admitted “responsibility” of
the Netherlands and the entire international community during a visit
Thursday, June 13, to the town where Dutch troops failed to prevent
the slaughter of about 7,500 Muslims in the worst massacre of the
Bosnian war.
Kok
stood in silence at the site of an unfinished memorial to victims of
the July 1995 slaughter, just across from the former U.N. compound
that Dutch troops abandoned in one of the greatest failures of
international peacekeeping, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"We
as the government of the Netherlands, as part of the international
community, feel responsibility to be present and active as far as
Srebrenica is concerned," Kok said.
Kok,
whose government resigned two months ago after a report held it partly
to blame for the massacre, laid flowers decorated with a Dutch flag
next to a three-ton marble stone with the simple inscription
"Srebrenica, July 11."
"I
feel a great emotion about what happened seven years ago, at the same
time admiration for the courage of the survivors," AFP quoted him
as saying.
The
marker stone, unveiled to mark the ninth anniversary of the massacre,
marks the site of a memorial and cemetery for the victims, but no
further work has been done because of lack of funds.
Earlier,
Kok vowed that the Netherlands would "not rest" until
fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic was put on trial
at the U.N. war crimes tribunal over the massacre, described as the
worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.
About
7,500 Muslims were slaughtered by troops under Mladic's command in
Srebrenica while the enclave was a U.N.-designated safe haven
protected by Dutch U.N. troops.
"Dutch
battalions could not defend the enclave against the invasion by
Bosnian Serbs, by general Mladic who is the real [one] responsible for
the murders, and we will not rest easy until this big fish is put
before justice in The Hague," kok said after meeting Srebrenica's
Muslim mayor Sefket Hafizovic and his Serb deputy Milka Rankic.
Mladic,
wanted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague for war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide, is believed to be hiding in Serbia.
Kok
announced his departure from politics in April, after eight years in
office, following the publication of a five-year inquiry into the
Srebrenica massacre.
He
acknowledged the report's conclusion that Dutch U.N. peacekeepers
failed to protect the enclave.
After
the U.S.-brokered peace accords ended Bosnia's 1992-95 war, the
country was split into two entities -- the Serb Republika Srpska (RS)
and the Muslim-Croat Federation -- each with its own government,
police and armed forces.
The
eastern town of Srebrenica remained in the RS and so far only about
100 Bosnian Muslims out of the pre-war figure of more than 27,000 have
been able to return.
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“Dutch
battalions could not defend the enclave against the invasion
by Bosnian Serbs,” said Kok.
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Kok
met with Bosnian Muslim returnees and Bosnian Serbs whose houses have
been repaired from funds provided by the Dutch government. The meeting
took place at the house of Fata Huseinagic, who was the first Muslim
returnee in 1999 and whose two brothers were killed in July 1995.
"I
am an optimist, I hope that this visit will be useful and that
Srebrenica will return to what it was before," Huseinagic said.
Kok,
who arrived in Bosnia Tuesday, June 11, has met with Bosnian officials
and survivors of the Srebrenica massacre now living in Sarajevo and
the northeastern town of Tuzla.
He
pledged Dutch government support for refugee return projects in
Bosnia, including reconstruction of infrastructure, strengthening of
civil society, tolerance-building measures and job creation.
Kok
also went to a facility in Tuzla containing 4,000 remains of
Srebrenica victims exhumed over the past seven years from numerous
mass graves dug by Bosnian Serb forces.
Only
263 bodies of Muslims killed in Srebrenica have so far been
identified.
Kada
Hotic, a Srebrenica survivor who met Kok, complained that the Dutch
government's resignation was not enough and demanded that Dutch and
U.N. officials stand trial -- an opinion shared by many survivors.
On
his departure from Bosnia, Kok said it was "awful to witness how
the international community failed to provide security," and that
U.N. soldiers were unable to provide a defense against "those who
committed genocide."
