Dutchbat commander pleased with Cabinet's apology; Too late for him personally

Former Dutchbat commander Thom Karremans is pleased with Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s apologies to Dutchbat veterans on Saturday for the government’s actions regarding the fall of Srebrenica in 1995. But for the battalion commander himself, the apologies came too late, he said to De Telegraaf.

On 11 July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army attacked the enclave of Srebrenica, where Dutchbat was stationed. The army killed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys - the largest genocide in Europe since World War II.

Rutte’s apologies were a long time coming, said Karremans. Although the now off-duty colonel “didn’t expect him to actually do it.” “Over the past 27 years, there have been several moments when I thought: now they have to do it, but it didn’t happen. It is good for the men that it has now been said, but personally, I feel differently. For most, it makes a difference, but not for me. I think it’s too late.”

Rutte apologized to the entire Dutchbat unit. The Prime Minister did not personally mention Karremans and his deputy Rob Franken. While they took the most brutal blows, Karremans said to De Telegraaf. 

In the interview with the newspaper, he admitted that he made mistakes. And also that he only very recently became aware of some of those mistakes. “I never really wondered: what if the enclave was attacked on a massive scale? What would I do? The answer to that was simple: nothing. We couldn’t do anything. But I didn’t think it through properly, and that’s my fault.”

Nevertheless, Karremans thinks: “But despite my mistakes, what I have experienced in the past 27 years and given all the positive reactions from the Dutchbat soldiers and their home front, personal apologies would have been appropriate.”