The arrest of Ratko Mladić has been warmly welcomed in the Netherlands. The former Bosnian Serb army chief is accused of a genocide that took place virtually under the noses of the Dutch UN forces. They were supposed to be protecting the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in 1995. The fall of the enclave and the murder of almost 8,000 Bosnian Muslims is therefore remembered by the Dutch as a black page in their country’s history. It was the worst atrocity committed in Europe since the Second World War.

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Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte described Mladić’s arrest in Serbia on Wednesday as “an important moment, particularly for the many victims and their families”.

“It shows us that in the world you can’t get away with these kinds of terrible crimes, that people are eventually caught and prosecuted and justice will prevail.”

Relief
Mladić is said to have ordered the killing of an estimated 8,000 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica after his troops took the enclave. The Dutch defence minister at the time, Joris Voorhoeve, played a key role from The Hague, because it was ‘his’ soldiers who were supposed to have been protecting inhabitants of Srebrenica. For him the arrest comes as an unexpected relief:

“This is a day on which justice can begin. Incredibly important to the families. Women, children, relatives who still miss their men and boys.”

Genocide
Jan Pronk was the then Dutch development cooperation minister. A day after the Muslim enclave fell he travelled to nearby Tuzla, where the refugees from Srebrenica were arriving. They were nearly all women, who said the men had been murdered. Mr Pronk was the first member of the Dutch government to use the word ‘genocide’ in reference to Srebrenica. His assessment didn’t go down well in The Hague.

“People didn’t believe me. People didn’t dare believe me, they couldn’t believe me. I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but I knew it had happened because I’d heard all the stories of the women and children who were arriving there. Of course there were also enough UN people in Tuzla and also the Red Cross who had enough evidence of what had happened.”

Traumatic
VVD party MP Anne Mulder was in Bosnia in 1995 as a soldier doing his national service. He experienced the tragedy of Srebrenica at first hand. It was a traumatic experience for the 24-four-year-old.

“The most terrible thing is that you’re there in a blue helmet, you’ve got a gun, and you can’t do anything. You see the fear in the refugees. I also saw a baby born prematurely. There you are. You see the fear, you smell the fear, you feel the fear and there’s nothing your able or allowed to do. And that air support just didn’t come. It was the powerlessness that prevailed at the end of the mission.”

When the UN DUTCHBAT soldiers left, Mladić had them escorted across the Serbian border. Mulder had a foreboding that something terrible was going to happen, but there were no conclusive signs. Looking back, he says, “In a flash I saw Mladić. I had an Uzi in my lap, but it’s not the situation to use it. With hindsight, we all said ‘If only we’d…’”

Forgiveness
Former defence minister Joris Voorhoeve hopes the arrest of Ratko Mladić will mark the beginning of a process of reconciliation. The people involved will never forget what happened, but if justice takes its course, perhaps they might be able to forgive.

“First the trial has to take place and then the time to forgive may come. But never to forget, of course. We must never forget these kinds of mass murders, because history can repeat itself.”

Mr Voorhoeve says he hopes the UN will give the Yugoslavia Tribunal more time to handle the cases against Ratko Mladić and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić, who was arrested in 2008. The process of extraditing Mladić to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague is under way.

(mb/imm)