The Srebrenica massacre took place as United Nations peacekeepers stood by and watched while Bosnian Serb forces, commanded by General Ratko Mladic, killed thousands of Muslim men and boys.
Ratko Mladic arrest: Srebrenica massacre was the UN’s darkest hour

Designated as a UN ‘safe haven’, 600 Dutch infantry were supposed to be protecting thousands of civilians who had taken refuge from earlier Serb offensives in north-eastern Bosnia.

As Serb forces began shelling Srebrenica, Bosnian Muslim fighters in the town asked for the return of weapons they had surrendered to the UN peacekeepers but their request was refused.

Colonel Thom Karremans, the Dutch commander, threatened to call in air strikes unless the Serbs withdrew. Mladic refused but no air strikes came, Col. Karremans had submitted his request on the wrong form.

Gen. Mladic entered Srebrenica and summoned the Dutch commander to deliver an ultimatum for Muslim surrender in a meeting that came to symbolise the West’s helplessness in the face on genocide.

Just days later, on 13 July 1995, the first killings of unarmed Muslims took place in a warehouse in the nearby village of Kravica. Three days later the Dutch retreated from Srebrenica and the way was clear for Bosnian Serb forces to overrun the […]