THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch defense minister says the government will pay veterans of a United Nations peacekeeping mission that failed to prevent the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs in 1995 5,000 euros each as a “gesture and token of appreciation” for their service in horrific circumstances. The payment announced Wednesday is one element of a government reaction to a study into the experiences of the roughly 850 troops who made up the Dutchbat III peacekeeping force in Srebrenica when it was overrun by more heavily armed Bosnian Serb fighters led by Gen. Ratko Mladic, who has been convicted of genocide by a U.N. tribunal for his role in the notorious massacre that followed. Mladic is appealing the conviction.
