United States / Netherlands / Srebrenica Massacre

Dutch Furious at Claim Gays in Military Caused Massacre
CTV.ca, March 19, 2010
"Dutch officials are reacting angrily to a retired U.S. general's assertion that having gays in the military led to Dutch forces being overrun in 1995, leading to the massacre at Srebrenica. At a U.S. congressional committee meeting on Thursday, John Sheehan, a former NATO commander who retired from the military in 1997, spoke out against the proposal to get rid of the controversial 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy in the military. Bosnian Serb forces overran light-armed Dutch peacekeepers in Srebrenica, and killed more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys. Sheehan said the Dutch were overrun because of European efforts to 'socialize' their militaries in the 1990s and 'that includes the unionization of their militaries, it includes open homosexuality.' 'That led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war. The case in point that I'm referring to is when the Dutch were required to defend Srebrenica against the Serbs,' he said. The battalion was under-strength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them.' Dutch Defence Ministry spokesperson Roger Van de Wetering called the retired general's claims 'nonsense.' 'For us it is unbelievable that a man of this rank is stating this nonsense, because that is what it is,' Van de Wetering told The Associated Press. [...]"