Gen. John Sheehan at yesterday's Senate Armed Services Committee meeting in Washington. The hearing was to examine the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy in the U.S. armed forces
Mass grave: Nearly 8,000 people were killed in the Srebrenica massacre. The U.S. general claims this was partly due 'openly gay' men being in the army
A retired U.S. and Nato general said Dutch troops were overrun during the Srebrenica massacre - because of the presence of gay soldiers, it has been claimed.
The massacre, during the Bosnian War, was the worst in Europe since World War II.
Some 8,000 Muslim boys and men were killed after Bosnian Serb forces overran lightly armed Dutch soldiers in the United Nations-designated enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.
The shameful incident has long been mired in controversy but has now taken a fresh twist after the comments of John Sheehan, a former Nato commander who retired from the military 1997.
Speaking in Washington at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the military's 'don't ask, don't tell policy, which bans homosexuals from openly serving in uniform, Sheehan said the inclusion of gay troops had led to a collapse in morale.
The Pentagon’s top leaders have declared their support for a repeal of the American law, which has stood for 17 years.
And President Barack Obama has said he wants to work with Congress to support the move – but has so far resisted pleas by gay rights groups to instantly mandate a change.
Yesterday, Committee chairman Senator Carl Levin told Gen Sheehan his comments were 'totally off-target'.
Srebrenica was a United Nations safe haven under the protection of Dutch peacekeepers when, in 1995, Bosnian Serb forces overran the town.
The general told yesterday's hearing that European militaries deteriorated after the collapse of the Soviet Union and focused on peacekeeping because 'they did not believe the Germans were going to attack again or the Soviets were coming back'.
Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and other nations believed there was no longer a need for an active combat capability in the militaries, he said.
'They declared a peace dividend and made a conscious effort to socialise their military - that includes the unionisation of their militaries, it includes open homosexuality.'
Dutch troops serving as UN peacekeepers and tasked with defending the town of Srebrenica in 1995 were an example of a force that became ill-equipped for war.
'The battalion was understrength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them,' said Gen Sheehan.
'That was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II,' he said of the killings.
The events in Srebrenica remain a sensitive subject in the Netherlands, where a six-year investigation into the massacre led to the government's fall in 2002.
Senator Levin, a Democrat and a proponent of ending restrictions on gays serving in the U.S. armed forces, appeared incredulous at the general's remarks.
'Did the Dutch leaders tell you it (the fall of Srebrenica) was because there were gay soldiers there?' he asked.
'Yes,' Gen Sheehan said.
'They included that as part of the problem.'
He said the former chief of staff of the Dutch army had told him.
Sen Levin said it may be the case that some militaries have focused on peacekeeping to the detriment of their war-fighting skills.
'But I think that any effort to connect that failure on the part of the Dutch to the fact that they have homosexuals, or did allow homosexuals, I think is totally off-target,' he said.
'The Dutch military, as you point out, were peacekeepers and not peace-enforcers. I agree with that,' said Levin.
'But what the heck that has to do with the issue before us is what mystifies me.'
The Dutch Defence Ministry issued a statement calling Sheehan's claims 'absolute nonsense' and adding that gay Dutch soldiers routinely co-operate with the U.S. military in the Nato mission in Afghanistan.
Renee Jones-Bos, the Dutch ambassador to the United States, said in a statement, 'I couldn't disagree more' with Sheehan, adding there was no evidence of his claims in the extensive record of research on Srebrenica.
Dutch press agency ANP quoted the head of the military union AFMP, Wim van den Burg, as saying Sheehan's comments were 'ridiculous' and 'out of the realm of fiction'.
Dutch Defence Ministry spokesman Roger Van de Wetering dismissed the retired general's claims as nonsense.
'For us it is unbelievable that a man of this rank is stating this nonsense, because that is what it is,' he said.
'The whole operation in Srebrenica and the drama that took place over there was thoroughly investigated by Dutch and international authorities and none of these investigations has ever concluded or suggested a link between homosexual military personnel and the things that happened over there.
'I do not know on what facts this is based, but for us it is total nonsense.'
On the Dutch attitude to gays in the military, he said: "For us it is very simple: Every man or woman that meets the criteria physically and mentally is welcome to serve in our armed forces regardless of (religious) belief, sexual preference or whatever.'
'Safe haven' massacre: What happened at Srebrenica?
In 1995 the Bosnian town of Srebrenica was a UN safe haven under the protection of Dutch peacekeepers.
That year, tens of thousands of civilians had taken refuge there, seeking shelter from the destruction of the Bosnian-Serbian war.
By July of 1995 the town was under siege, with 600 lightly-armed Dutch peacekeepers facing off against the Serbian forces. Food was running out.
As pleas to Nato for help failed, Serbian forces overran the town.
Up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys are believed to have been killed in the five days of the fall of Srebrenica.
