Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has apologized formally for the Netherlands' treatment of hundreds of its troops who served the Dutchbat III peacekeeping unit that failed to protect thousands of lives in the Bosniak enclave of Srebrenica 27 years ago.
Rutte said on June 18 that the Dutch troops had been assigned an "impossible task" and given too few soldiers and too little firepower.
"Today, I apologize on behalf of the Dutch government to all the women and men of Dutchbat III. To you and the people who can't be here today," Rutte said. "With the greatest possible appreciation and respect for the way Dutchbat III under difficult circumstances kept trying to do good, even when that was no longer possible."
Bosnian Serb forces massacred around 8,000 mostly Muslim men and boys after overrunning a UN safe zone near the end of the three-year Bosnian War in July 1995.
International rulings have concluded that the killings constituted a genocide.
Bitter criticism over the tragedy has been leveled at the Dutch command and peacekeepers, the Dutch government, and UN officials.
Multiple rulings have found the Dutch state liable.
In his speech, Rutte acknowledged former peacekeepers' anger, and the ceremony included Bronze Medal of Honor awards for Dutchbat veterans from Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren.
But Rutte blamed wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic for the genocide. Both of those men are currently serving long sentences for war crimes and genocide.
The Dutch Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that at least around 350 of the slain Bosnians could have been saved but were ejected from the Dutch peacekeepers' base despite being "in serious jeopardy of being abused and murdered" by Bosnian Serb forces.