-News for Tue. 16 April & Wed. 17
April 2002 Top
Dutch General Resigns VOA
News 17
Apr 2002 14:20 UTC

The Netherlands' top
general has resigned amid criticism that the army covered up information to
protect its own reputation after the fall of a United Nations-protected enclave
in Bosnia.
General Ad van Baal's
resignation comes a day after the entire Dutch government stepped down. Prime
Minister Win Kok's coalition resigned following the publication of a
government-sponsored report condemning the failure of Dutch peacekeepers to
prevent the 1995 capture by Serb forces of the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in
eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The report, prepared
by the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, said Dutch U.N. troops in
Srebrenica faced an impossible task, but must share blame for turning over the
U.N.-declared safe zone to Serb forces. After capturing Srebrenica, the Serbs
took away up to 8,000 civilian Muslim men and boys. International war crimes
prosecutors and humanitarian groups say the Serbs massacred the Muslims in one
of the most serious atrocities in Europe since World War II. Only about 4,000
bodies have been recovered so far.
The Dutch parliament
is meeting Wednesday to consider approving a caretaker government to lead the
country until next month's parliamentary elections.
Some information
for this report provided by AP.
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