March 18, 2010
Ex-general links gays in Dutch army to genocide
Pauline JelinekA retired American general says Dutch troops failed to defend against the 1995 genocide in the Bosnian war partly because its army included openly gay soldiers.
A former NATO commander who retired from the military in 1997, John Sheehan, was speaking at a Senate hearing Thursday in opposition to a proposal to allow gays to serve openly in the U.S. military.
Sheehan says some European militaries deteriorated after the collapse of the Soviet Union, became liberalized, focused on peacekeeping and became ill-equipped for war.
Sheehan says Dutch troops defending the city of Srebrenica in the Bosnian war are an example. The city fell to Serb forces and some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were captured and massacred.
The Associated Press