Netherlands ashamed it couldn't protect Srebrenica: Foreign Min. at 30th anniversary

“We feel ashamed. We, the international community, have failed to protect them,” caretaker Minister Caspar Veldkamp of Foreign Affairs said in Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday, where thousands gathered to commemorate the 1995 genocide. Today marks the 30th anniversary of the murder of over 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Veldkamp represented the Netherlands, NOS reports.

“I feel ashamed that the Netherlands, as part of that community, bears a moral and political responsibility for failing to prevent the genocide,” Veldkamp said, addressing the bereaved families. Dutch UN troops stationed in Srebrenica, which was supposed to be a safe enclave, could not prevent the massacre.

Veldkamp reiterated his deepest apologies on the Netherlands’ behalf. “I understand that these words cannot change the bitter reality of your loss.” Then-Minister Kajsa Ollongren officially apologized on the Netherlands’ behalf for the first time in 2022.

The 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide will also be commemorated in the Netherlands with the placement of a “site marker.” A stone containing 8,372 small stones taken from Srebrenica’s gravestones will be placed on Churchillplein in The Hague.

The number of stones equals the number of boys and men killed in the genocide. And it is placed at the site of the former Yugoslavia Tribunal. A National Monument will eventually be built there.

Before attending the commemoration in Srebrenica, Veldkamp told NOS that he remains strongly committed to a permanent monument in the Netherlands. “We feel the shared responsibility of the Netherlands for the failure of 1995.”