Thom Karremans

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Thomas J.P. (Thom) Karremans (born 1948) was the commander of Dutchbat troops in Srebrenica at the time of the Srebrenica massacre during Bosnian War. Karremans had been assigned to defend the Bosniak enclave made the the U.N. "safe haven", but he failed to prevent the Serbs from rounding up and killing 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in 1995.

At one moment, Karremans was filmed raising a glass with war crimes suspect and Serb General Ratko Mladic. Dutch commanders and their troops were cowards, says Abram de Swaan, a professor at Amsterdam University who has written extensively on Srebrenica. By extension, the entire Dutch nation are cowards. De Swaan's view is still shared by many Dutch.^[1]

Karremans himself has said a Serb blockade had left his soldiers desperately short of food and fuel. He told the Hague ICTY tribunal in 1996 that when his requests for NATO air strikes against Bosnian Serb troops were finally granted, they were was too late and too little. In 1999 the United Nations admitted its error in expecting a small number of troops to protect the Srebrenica Safe Area.

After retiring from the army, he and his wife moved to Spain, partly because of death threats in his native Netherlands.^[2] He wrote of his experiences at Srebrenica in Srebrenica, who cares?: Een puzzel van de werkelijkheid.

[edit] References

^ Abi, Daruvalla (2006). Anatomy of a Massacre. Time Magazine, Europe edition. Time Inc. and Time Warner Publishing B.V.. Retrieved on 2006-07-02.
^ Taylor, Rachel S. (2004). Karremans Recalls Srebrenica Fall. Tribunal Update. Institute for War & Peace Reporting. Retrieved on 2006-07-02.