www.ssoar.info From Indifference to Entrapment: The Netherlands and the Yugoslav Crisis, 1990-1995 Both, Norbert Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Monographie / monograph Zur Verfügung gestellt in Kooperation mit / provided in cooperation with: OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Both, N. (2000). From Indifference to Entrapment: The Netherlands and the Yugoslav Crisis, 1990-1995. Amsterdam: Amsterdam Univ. Press. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-318941 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de * From Indifference to 19-12-2003 17:26 Pagina 1 NORBERT BOTH NORBERT NORBERT BOTH Fr om Indifference to Entrapment to om Indifference The Yugoslav crisis represents a formidable foreign policy challenge to many Western and Islamic government bureaucracies. From Indifference to Entrapment deals with the question of how the Netherlands faced up to this challenge during the years 1990-1995. It was during this period that the crisis erupted into armed conflict and the single worst war crime in Europe since the end of World War II took place in the ‘safe area’ of Srebrenica. The role of the Netherlands is particularly interesting, as the country held the EC/EU Presidency during the recognition debate in 1991 and supplied the peacekeeping presence in Srebrenica. The questions addressed in this book include: Did early warning work? What role did the Dutch Presidency (July-December 1991) play in the recognition debate? What motiv- ated the Dutch opposition to the Vance-Owen Peace Plan? Why did the Netherlands become From Indifference entrapped, as symbolised through its isolated peacekeeping commitment to Srebrenica? Finally, what can this story tell us about the ability of small and medium powers to in- fluence international affairs? This study is based on interviews with key players, including former Cabinet Minis- ters, and on documents from the Netherlands Ministry to Entrapment of Foreign Affairs, made available under the Dutch ‘freedom of information act’. ISBN 90-5356-453-5 Dr. Norbert Both, formerly a research assistant The Netherlands for David Owen, now works at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. and the Yugoslav Crisis ‘This is a stunning, even brilliant book.’ – William 9 789053 564530 Shawcross, in The Sunday Times on Norbert Both and Jan Willem Honig: Srebrenica; Record www.aup.nl of a War Crime (Penguin, 1996). 1990-1995 AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 1 From Indifference to Entrapment opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 2 opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 3 From Indifference to Entrapment The Netherlands and the Yugoslav Crisis 1990-1995 N B A U P opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 4 Cover illustration: Dutch military men leaving for Croatia. Photo: ANP, Rijswijk Cover design: Kok Korpershoek [KO], Amsterdam Lay-out: Magenta, Amsterdam ISBN 90 5356 453 5 © Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2000 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of this book. opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 5 To Jan and Ada opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 6 opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 7 Contents Preface 9 Abbreviations 13 Chronology 15 Introduction 25 1 The Netherlands and its Foreign Policy System 45 2 An Emerging Challenge, July 1990-June 1991 69 3 From ‘Even-Handedness’ to ‘Selectiveness’ 101 The Dutch EC Presidency, July-December 1991 4 Moral and Political Entrapment 143 International Peace Plans for Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1992-1994 5 Military Entrapment 181 The Commitment to Srebrenica, 1993-1995 Conclusion 225 Bibliography 243 Index 257 opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 8 opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 9 Preface This book is based on my PhD thesis from the University of Sheffield, which I successfully defended in May. As I have been employed by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs since October 1998, it was ar- ranged that I should offer a copy of the thesis to two separate official investigations that were being conducted in the Netherlands. One of them was the Commissie Bakker, or the Tijdelijke Commissie Besluitvor- ming Uitzendingen TCBU, a Parliamentary investigation committee set up to assess the domestic decision-making process regarding the deploy- ment of Dutch forces in a number of peacekeeping operations in e.g. for- mer Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Angola and Cyprus (on May 19, 2000). The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD), charged with an independent analysis of the events surrounding the fall of Srebrenica, received a copy on May 29, 2000 as well. The theoretical component of the thesis is represented in the introduc- tion to this book. It covers three sets of literature. The first one deals with the international handling of the Yugoslav crisis. The second represents the contrasting views on the nature of the international system and the role of small states within it, while the third focuses on the foreign policy of the Netherlands. In assembling the empirical component of this book, I used various methodological approaches, including the study of unpub- lished and public documents, memoirs, interviews, secondary literature and press articles. I would be reluctant to claim that participant observa- tion played an important role, although my perspective on the events covered in this book was inevitably coloured by my time spent as a research assistant for David Lord Owen and my work in the European Affairs Department of the Netherlands Foreign Ministry. opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 10 The core of the primary source material consists of official documents from the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The references to the Foreign Ministry’s documents have been deleted, given that they only mentioned the files in which they had been found. A full list of the files that were studied is provided in the bibliography. In addition, I was granted access to former Minister of Defence Relus ter Beek’s personal papers. While Ter Beek did make use of these papers for his own mem- oirs, the Foreign Ministry’s documents referred to in this thesis are not in most cases available in the public domain. The reasons for not extending my research of the Foreign Ministry’s documents to include the (months before the) actual fall of Srebrenica are discussed in the introduction. I am aware I have not seen all the relevant government documents cover- ing the period under discussion (notably Cabinet minutes), but I feel that I have seen sufficient material to be able to provide a well-informed inter- pretation of Dutch Yugoslavia policy during the period under discussion. An additional primary source is David Owen’s Balkan Odyssey CD- ROM, which includes several references to Dutch Yugoslavia policy dur- ing the period discussed in this book, including a report of a meeting in 1993 between the ICFY co-chairmen and Dutch Foreign Minister Pieter Kooijmans. Use was made too of official letters to Parliament and parlia- mentary records, as well as some official reports by various institutes, including the UN Secretary General’s ‘Srebrenica Report’. This book also draws on the growing number of personal memoirs covering the Yugoslav crisis. I also used the statements made by key players during the Public Hearings of the TCBU in the Hague during the period 22 May - 8 June 2000. On-the-record as well as some off-the-record interviews were conducted with key players. Use was also made of the knowledge gained through the numerous interviews conducted together with Dr Jan Willem Honig for our book Srebrenica, Record of a War Crime. In some cases I received let- ters from key players explaining their views on particular instances relat- ed to the period in which the Netherlands held the EC Presidency in 1991. The opinion polls conducted under the aegis of the Stichting Krijgs- macht en Maatschappij testify to the pro-interventionist domestic mood in which the Dutch decision-making process regarding the military con- tributions to UNPROFOR took place. opmaak Both/definitief 02-08-2000 15:13 Pagina 11 I dealt with the problem of how to draw a line between knowledge gained as an academic researcher and knowledge gained as a Foreign Ministry official as follows. Upon my arrival in the European Affairs Department, in October 1998, I presented my draft-thesis to the people responsible for the Dutch version of the ‘Freedom of Information Act’, de Wet Open- baarheid Bestuur. Since then, no new references to unpublished docu- ments have been added to this book. There are numerous people without whose encouragement and advice this book would not have come about. First of all, I would like to thank Dr Ian Kearns and Professor Stephen George from the Department of Politics of the University of Sheffield. They helped me to channel my enthusiasm for international relations into a successful year (1993-1994) as an MA student and continued to encourage me from then on. I would also like to express my gratitude to the University of Sheffield for provid- ing me with a three-year scholarship from the Basil Hicks Lecture Endowment.