The Netherlands wants the US, Britain and France to clarify claims that they decided to cancel airstrikes on Serbian targets during the Yugoslav civil war without telling the Dutch, news site Dutchnews.nl reports.
Dutch peacekeepers were in charge in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica which fell to Serb forces on July 11, 1995. The Serbs then massacred up to 8,000 men and boys, some of whom were sent out of the Dutch military compound.
US documents shown in an Argos television documentary on Tuesday revealed the decision to cancel UN airstrikes was taken by the US, France and Britain in May 1995, but no one told the Dutch.
This failure of the UN to provide air support to the Dutch peacekeepers in the face of the Serbian onslaught has never before been properly explained. The information in the documentary is based on hundreds of US documents made public in 2013.
Defence minister Jeanine Hennis said the claims in the programme are ‘notable’ and that she would investigate further.
“I must and will discuss this with our allies,” she said, adding “I cannot ignore what I saw [on television] yesterday.” The Dutch troops in Srebrenica, known as Dutchbat, asked nine times for air support but the UN did not finally agree until July 10, Joris Voorhoeve, defence minister at the time, said earlier this year.
He told RTL news that UN officials said 40 aircraft would be sent to knock out the Serbian artillery. However, this did not happen. Four aircrafts came on July 11 but this was not only too late, but made life extremely dangerous for the 40,000 people in the enclave, he said.
The documentary made by Argos, which was broadcast on NPO 2 on Monday night reveals that Western allies decided to no longer carry out air strikes on Serb targets at the end of May 1995 – a month and a half before the fall of Srebrenica, NL Times another Dutch news site reports.
Voorhoeve said that he found out about the secret decision a few months ago after studying documents released by former US president Bill Clinton two years ago.
According to him, the Netherlands was never informed about this decision and the Dutch government clung to the UN promise that an air strike would be provided within two hours if requested.
Those responsible for the decision were British Prime Minister John Major, French President Jacques Chirac and American President Bill Clinton.
Britain and France in particular insisted on stopping the airstrikes, according to Voorhoeve, because more than 300 British and French soldiers had been taken hostage by Ratko Mladić by the end of May.
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