What exactly was the point in the entire Cloggie cabinet resigning? What does it accomplish appart from allowing them to run outta the country and avoid the press?
Now as far as I understand the situation, a Dutch minister by the name of Jan Pronk was involved in an order to the Dutch forces in Srebrenica (all 110 of em) to avoid casualties should the Serbs attack. So.....er......."we're sending you in to protect civilians but if shooting starts get your heads down and hide."
Well gents........that's Cloggie logic for ya.
What's even more interesting is that up until now the Dutch have first been denying any blame and then coming up with all kinds of excuses.....the best one I've seen in print was "the troops were sent to do a job they werent trained for". Riii-iight. So Dutch soldiers arent trained to fight apparently. What the Cloggie battalion did do, however, was help organise and load a mass exodus of refugees from Srebrenica......many of whom were never seen again.
EXCERTS FROM THE OFFICIAL DUTCH REPORT:
"Concern about their own survival in this hell will have meant more to [the Dutch soldiers] than the fate of the Muslim men. "
- no toejam
"It was the natural task of the Dutch battalion to supervise [the evacuation of men]. "
- uh-huh
"The military balance of power was such that, without outside support, Dutchbat would have been defenceless in a serious confrontation. "
- well send a Cloggie with a rifle out against the entire Serb army and what do you shreckin expect?
11th July 1995:
"at 0900 Colonel Karremans (Dutch CO) received word from Sarajevo that his request for close air support had been submitted on the wrong form. At 1030, the re-submitted request reached General Janvier, but Nato planes had to return to base in Italy to refuel after being airborne since 0600.
By midday, more than 20,000 refugees - mostly women, children and the infirm - fled to the main Dutch base at Potocari.
At 1430, two Dutch F-16 Fighters dropped two bombs on Serb positions surrounding Srebrenica. The Serbs responded with a threat to kill their Dutch hostages and shell refugees, causing the suspension of further strikes."
13th July 1995:
"Dutch Peacekeepers handed over about 5,000 Muslims who had been sheltering at the Dutch base at Potocari. In return, the Bosnian Serbs released 14 Dutch peacekeepers who had been held at the Nova Kasaba base. "
- My God. Read the above again and understand what it means......5,000 civilians were handed over in return for 14 Cloggies.
There was also an incident during which an armed band of Muslim refugees (armed refugees.....?) stopped a Dutch army armoured car and refused to let it pass......the officer in charge ordered the car to drive through the Muslims, killing 30 of them. This incident was filmed by a Dutch soldier but the film was apparently damaged during development....... - uh-huh. When news of this got out the Dutch press started making noises about Dutch soldiers talking part in the ethnic cleansing and helping the Serbs. Good grief.
