AP Archive
Gepubliceerd op 21 jul. 2015
POOL
The Hague - 16 April 2002
1. Wide shot Wim Kok, former Dutch Prime Minister, arrives for press conference
2. SOUNDBITE: (Dutch) Wim Kok, former Dutch Prime Minister
(Q: How have the last couple of days been?) "It has been extremely hard and difficult for myself, not because I'm afraid to make a decision but because of the consequences of such a decision, not just for myself but for my cabinet. But in the end the deciding factor, and this is what I said, was taking responsibility for a whole cycle of events during an entire period, during which cabinets carried extensive responsibility - or carry, in the case of the present cabinet. We accept responsibility for this, because I think, as I have said repeatedly, that to implicate the international community of which we are part is not sufficient - the implication is justified, but it is not far reaching enough to have that as the all-encompassing solution."
3. SOUNDBITE: (Dutch) Wim Kok, former Dutch Prime Minister
"Anyone who has read the NIOD (Netherlands Institute for War Documentation) report, and who tries to understand the essence of what it is saying, would see clearly that the report indicates that the Dutch conduct in the affair could have been totally different and better, but of course that is with the advantage of hindsight, and I don't mean placing yourself in the circumstances of the past and saying 'personally I would have done that totally differently or better' - that is not the question, the question is whether you take the hindsight of NIOD seriously and take your own responsibility for that, and that is why I gave this response (of resigning)."
APTN
The Hague - 16 April 2002
4. Exterior parliament building
5. Police outside building
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vox Pop
"Well I think it's a good thing. I think so much happened in Srebrenica that it needs a big answer (response) and this is a big response to me, so I think it's a good thing for the government to resign."
7. Exterior of parliament
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vox Pop
"I think it's very sad but I feel that it's correct. I feel that it is important to take responsibility for what happened, I feel we did the right thing. It's very sad, I don't know how it's going to affect the coming election, but I feel they made the right decision."
9. Wide shot street
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vox Pop
"I think it was the right thing today for the Dutch government to resign. 57% of the people agreed with this decision. That's my personal opinion."
11. River and parliament building in background
12. Various street scenes
STORYLINE:
The Dutch government resigned on Tuesday after the release of a report that partly blamed political leaders for failing to prevent the Serb massacre of Muslims during the 1995 fall of the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.
The resignation was announced by Prime Minister Wim Kok, who was also head of the government in 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces brushed aside Dutch peacekeepers and overran the U-N-declared "safe zone," executing some 7-thousand-500 Muslims.
Kok announced that he was going to see the Queen and offer the resignation of his cabinet following a special Cabinet session to discuss the damaging report, which was released last week.
The government-commissioned report, which took nearly six years to research, harshly criticised the government for sending Dutch soldiers into a danger zone without a proper mandate or the weapons needed to defend about 30-thousand refugees who had fled to the Dutch base in search of protection.
The Dutch military was in charge of peacekeeping operations in the enclave when Serb forces attacked Srebrenica, driving out or killing its Muslim residents, in a week of bloodshed at the end of 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
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