Ah ****. Dutch government collapses over Bosnia

[Dr Strangelove]

Why did this take so long to become public? Were the soldiers coerced into silence? There were over 100 potential witnesses who could have come forward. This wouldn't have been kept secret for so long if the soldiers had been American.

[Bereta_Eder]

It's all propaganda. I don't believe a word of it.
The guys were just fending off terrorists

[Ecthy]

It didn't take long to become public. It has been public for years, just noone ever talked about it. I can show you a Reader's Digest book of mine that mentions that fact, and it's dated from 1996. The revolting news that made the government collapse was not the fact but the new report that makes it all apparent. In the end, the UN should get more power military-wise and decision-wise. Rather than making Dutch guys command on the Balkans. Pretty silly thought anyway..

[Saint Marcus]

Why did this take so long to become public?

It was all over the news the moment it happened almost. There was no secret, though there were some internal cover ups aimed at taking the heat of the dutch military. This was done outside the governement's control though.

The reason the governement took so long to resign is easily explained. The governement wanted to wait on the official indepenent report before making any rash decisions. Since the parliament agreed with this, the choice was made to wait on the report. And since it was carried out by an independent organisation, there was little to no control on the timeframe of the investigation. So we had to wait 7 years for this. In the end, the report was finished, and conclusions were drawn.

[VetLegion]

Were the soldiers coerced into silence? There were over 100 potential witnesses who could have come forward

rumor is that some 20 of them commited suicide...

But dutch government did the right thing. I agree with your prime minister, UN is too much "faceless" and someone had to take some responsability.
Dutch showed some morale, unlike the rest of UN.

[V.O.C.'02]

I agree that it was brave of wim kok to decide this kabinet had to take responsibillity for whatever happend under their authority. He earned his striped national as well as international, and all we wanted was to end his career as prime minister elegant. He knewe this document was coming and I believe It takes a Wim Kok To make such a decision.

And about the left wing- right wing arguement, I do not believe The Right winged Pim fortuyn will be a problem for long, He allready has said he wont stay in politics unless he'll become the new prime minister. It is my believe that the new kabinet will be a combination of (wim kok's) labourparty and the left winged CDA and groen links ( thats green-left). I just do not hope that pim fortuyn does choose to settle in the opposition because he will only try to make it impossible for the other parties to practice their politics.