<nettime> Ongoing Dutch Srebrenica Blues ...

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

Re: The last Ivogram about the misadventures of Mohamed Sacirbey...

There was a quite extraordinary sequence of two evening programmes about 
the never ending Sebrenica affair on the Dutch public TV channel NOS/Nova 
yesterday and the day before yesterday. The full article (in Dutch) is at:

http://www.nos.nl/nieuws/artikelen/2004/7/27/sacirbeysrebrenicawerdverraden.html

The day before yesterday (I did not see that one), M.Sacirbey, just
released on bail, and systematically refered to as "Mr Shakkerbee" (should
be "Saadjeerbei"), told the interviewer that the Srebrenica enclave
basically not only had been given up by the International forces, but was
actually betrayed and its erasure made part of a deal between Bildt
(European negotiator) and Holbrooke (the U.S. one) with the Serbians.
 
Getting rid of the enclaves would 'ease up' the peace process and simplify
its 'geography'.  According to Sacirbey, the Dutch government (whose
troops were 'protecting' Srebrenica) was kept in the dark about the deal.
The subsequent massacre of 8000 Muslim men was of course not scripted
beforehand (?) and an extremely bad 'surprise' to the parties concerned 
...

But the next day got really interesting (I saw that one) when Joris
Voorhoeve (who was the Dutch defense minister then, and thus responsible
for the troops)  was asked to react on Sacirbey's assertions. He denied
them en bloc, while admitting separately to each and everyone of them! The
problem, he said, was that Sacirbey was 'vastly exagerating', and was
'deeply frustrated by the outcome' (and 'understandably so'). Asked to
clarify the difference between his on the whole take and these separate
admissions, Voorhoeve could only reply that Sacirbey could not ('ever')
prove what he was asserting. He added that Srebrenica was the most
horrendous human rights crime in Europe since WWII. And that he personally
could not sleep for years because of it. (He looked quite healthy though,
thanks God)

In the end the fall of Srebrenica caused the fall of the Dutch government,
though it is not clear if other causes were involved (the coalition was
tired, and there were elections coming up anyway). There have also been
countless commissions of enquiry, including a parliamentary one. None got
very far in getting the whole picture. Mohamed Sacirbey is also a tricky
subject by himself in the Netherlands, since he had a relationship with
Mabel Wisse Smit, who is now married with Queen Beatrix's second son (the
current PM had the couple conveniently demoted from Royal Family status
...)

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