Thomas Karremans

Thom Karremans 1995

Thomas JP (Thom) Karremans (* 1948 in Apeldoorn ) is a former Dutch officer who received international attention during the Bosnian War . At the time of the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, he was battalion commander of the Dutch contingent of the United Nations protection force , Dutchbat III , which, as a "peacekeeper" , should have protected the UN protection zone Srebrenica and the Bosnian civilian population living in it.

Commander in Srebrenica

Around 400 Dutch blue helmet soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Karremans were deployed to secure the enclave . After the Bosnian-Serbian army marched into the protection zone in July 1995 and on July 9th was only one kilometer from the city limits, Thomas Karremans repeatedly requested NATO air support, but this did not materialize. As a result of the capture of Srebrenica by Serbian troops on July 11, 1995, under the command of Ratko Mladić , the Srebrenica massacre occurred, in which an estimated 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks were murdered.

On July 21, when the area had been occupied by the Serbian army for several days, the Dutchbat withdrew. Ratko Mladić's humiliating farewell and abuse of Thomas Karremans was televised worldwide. Also known was a photo that Ratko Mladić and Thomas Karremans took on the evening of July 12, 1995 while toasting them together.

The role of Karreman and that of the Dutch blue helmets, who did not take decisive action to prevent the deportations, is still controversial today: Critics accuse the Dutch blue helmets of witnessing parts of the massacre and tolerating them by not intervening. In this context, there is also talk of aiding and abetting a war crime. These critics state a failure of the Dutch battalion, which was followed by targeted cover-up attempts by Dutch military and politicians.

Other statements emphasize, however, that the soldiers on site had little knowledge of the atrocities because the units of the Bosnian Serbs systematically prevented them from making appropriate observations. They were also left in the lurch despite multiple requests for air support to protect the enclave and for their own safety. Dutchbat had also been entrusted with the protection of the Bosniaks by Dutch and international politicians, without adequate means at their disposal. However, the critical report by a commission of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation on the role of the Dutch blue helmets in Srebrenica led to the resignation of the Dutch government under Wim Kok on April 16, 2002 .

Accompanied by protests from survivors, the Dutch government honored around 500 soldiers on December 4, 2006. You would have had an "extremely difficult job" at the time; After 1995, they were "exposed to false accusations for years", but have since been exonerated by official investigations, according to the then Dutch Defense Minister Henk Kamp . Bosnia and Herzegovina protested against this honor at the diplomatic level. Relatives of massacre victims and survivors from Srebrenica spoke of a "genocide order" at protest rallies. The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) took part in the demonstration in Sarajevo against the soldiers' award and demanded an apology from the survivors of Srebrenica in an open letter to Kamp and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende .

In July 2010, four victims from Srebrenica, including the surviving interpreter Hasan Nuhanović and relatives of the murdered Rizo Mustafic, a Muslim electrician, all employed by Dutchbat during the Bosnian War, again filed a complaint against Karremans, his deputy Major Rob, for “genocide and war crimes” Franks and S-1 officer Berend Oosterveen posed; they were responsible for the extradition of local Muslim employees from Dutchbat to the Serbs. In July 2011, a court in The Hague found the Netherlands to be complicit in the death of Muslim men. The Dutch government appealed; In 2013, however, the High Council of the Netherlands ultimately upheld the judgment.

Karremans was later promoted to colonel , is now retired and lives in Spain. In 1998 he published his view of the events in Srebrenica with the title Srebrenica, Who Cares ?: een puzzel van de werkelijkheid .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ United Nations, "International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Former Yugoslavia since 1991" (pdf., English; 702 kB)
2. ^ Ratko Mladic - The main work of a war criminal In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , No. 45, February 22, 2006, page 2
3. ↑ The appeasement in The Hague In: The time July 7, 2005
4. ↑ Page of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation - Srebrenica  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ^ Netherlands - Government resigns because of the Srebrenica massacre. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 16, 2002
6. ↑ Ian Traynor: Dutch honor soldiers who stood by at Srebrenica massacre in: The guardian , December 6, 2006
7. ↑ Caroline Fetscher : Honor to whom none is due? The Hague wants to restore the reputation of the Srebrenica soldiers - and triggers protests in Bosnia. In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 6, 2006
8. ↑ Order for UN soldiers from Srebrenica. In: Der Spiegel , December 5, 2006
9. ↑ Cees Banning: Aangifte genocide against Karremans - complaint against Karremans for genocide ( memento of the original from October 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: NRC Handelsblad , 6 July 2010 (Dutch) 
10. ^ The Netherlands are to blame for murders in Srebrenica, Der Spiegel , July 5, 2011
11. ↑ Bart Hinke: Nederland aansprakelijk voor dood drie Bosnian moslims - 'oordeel spectaculair', NRC Handelsblad , July 5, 2011 (Dutch)