Bosnia protests Dutch honour of soldiers who abandoned Muslims in Srebrenica

Bosnia's three-member presidency officially protested to the Dutch government for awarding citations to its peacekeepers who failed to protect the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica and prevent the slaughter of thousands of Muslim men and boys, the presidency said Tuesday.

Dutch Ambassador Karel Vosskuler was summoned by the presidency members on Monday evening and handed a protest note, the presidency said in a statement.

Dutch defense minister Henk Kamp on Monday in the Netherlands pinned an insignia on the lapels of some of the 850 members of the ill-fated Dutch battalion - known as "Dutchbat" - which was overrun in July 1995 by Bosnian Serb forces who subsequently killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys. It was Europe's worst civilian massacre since World War II.

In honoring the forces, Kamp argued that the battalion was powerless to prevent the massacre.

Bosnian survivors groups demonstrated in The Hague and the Bosnian capital Sarajevo against the honor.

Around 450 soldiers on duty in Srebrenica stood by helplessly and even assisted in separating women from the men and boys who were then taken away in buses by the Serb forces.

The Dutch troops returned home to scathing charges of cowardice or incompetence. Many soldiers required long-term trauma therapy. Some did not attend Monday's ceremony.

An independent study later cleared the Dutch troops of most blame, noting they were outnumbered, lightly armed and under instructions to fire only in self-defense.

The 2002 report assigned partial blame to the Dutch government for setting the troops up to fail, prompting the Cabinet of Prime Minister Wim Kok to resign. The study also found that a French U.N. general inexplicably failed to send air support when it was requested, as had been agreed in advance.

In Sarajevo, the Dutch Embassy refused to give visas to protesters who intended to demonstrate outside the Assen barracks.

"I am bitter and I remember the high hopes we had that the Dutch peacekeepers will help us. I wonder where is justice," said Zumra Sehomerovic, of the "Mothers of Srebrenica" association.

"We expected justice and we got deception again. Something that the entire world would be ashamed of, the Dutch reward it. This is for the Hall of Shame," said Kada Hotic, representative of the Mothers of Srebrenica.

The Dutch government gives around US$20 million in aid to Bosnia annually, of which a third is reserved to projects related to rebuilding Srebrenica.

Attempts by victims to sue the Dutch state have so far floundered.