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VELEPOSLANIŠTVO ZDRUŽENEGA KRALJESTVA
Trg Republike 3
1000 Ljubljana
Ekscelenca!
Gotovo Vam niso neznani nedavni dogodki na Nizozemskem, ki so dosegli vrh 16. aprila z odstopom celotnega kabineta premierja Vima Koka. Razlog za odstop je bilo poročilo Nizozemskega instituta za vojno dokumentacijo o vlogi, ki so jo v zvezi s srebreniško tragedijo odigrali nizozemski mirovni vojaški kontingent v Bosni, vodstvo nizozemske vojske, obrambno ministrstvo in celotna takratna vlada. Poročilo je to vlogo pokazalo v taki luči, da je prikrito nelagodje, ki je obstajalo v nizozemski javnosti vse od srebreniških dogodkov poleti 1995, preraslo v spoznanje, ki mu niso bile več dovolj besede, ampak je zahtevalo dejanja. Nizozemski bataljon plavih čelad, ki je od marca 1994 do srede 1995 jamčil varnost območja Srebrenice, je dne 13. julija 1995 pod pritiskom prodirajočih sil generala Mladića kraj skoraj brez boja zapustil, tamkajšnje muslimane pa prepustil njihovi usodi. Ta usoda pa je bila genocid: ženske so bosansko-srbski vojaki iz kraja pregnali, moške – može, starce in otroke – pa po bližnjih poljih pokončali. Pokol je zajel 7.000 do 8.000 ljudi. Poročilo ni govorilo samo o vprašljivem umiku neke vojaške enote, ampak tudi o odločitvi vrhovnega vojaškega vodstva, da dejansko potek dogodkov in negativno podobo vojske prikrije pred obrambnim ministrstvom in celotno vlado.
Bolj pomemben kot poročilo samo pa je način, kako je na dejstva, v njem navedena, reagirala nizozemska javnost, posebej pa posredno in neposredno vpleteni ljudje, od vojske do politike. Odzvali so se tako, da smo impresionirani od njihove visoke moralne zavesti, zlasti v času, ko se ljudje, osumljeni velikih preteklih nepravilnosti, ali ničesar ne spominjajo ali valijo krivdo drug na drugega ali pa, če se jim kaj dokaže, ne kažejo ne obžalovanja ne sramu.
Kok, ki je sodeloval v vladi, ki se je leta 1993 odločila, da sodeluje v mirovni misiji v Bosni, in je bil za časa padca Srebrenice že njen predsednik, je v parlamentu izjavil, da nizozemska vlada sicer ni neposredno kriva za genocid v Srebrenici, mora pa vzeti nase polno odgovornost za situacijo, v kateri se je genocid mogel zgoditi. Ta odgovornost je tako velika, da se lahko dostojno izrazi samo z odstopom celotnega kabineta.
K temu sklepu sta bistveno prispevala dva člana vlade. Prvi je bil okoljski minister, socialdemokrat Jan Pronk, ki je izjavil, da mora sprejeti odgovornost za moralno stanje, izkazano v poročilu, in je sam že vnaprej napovedal odstop. Drugi pa je bil obrambni minister Frank de Grave, ki je tudi napovedal odstop in ga utemeljil iz dejstva pravne države: da vojaško vodstvo njegovemu predhodniku Voorhoevenu ni prikazalo prave narave dogodkov okoli Srebrenice in po njej, zadeva tudi njega, saj je resor, v katerem se je to dogajalo, prevzel in je tako na nek način tudi njegova stvar.
Kako daleč je tu segel občutek za čast in odgovornost, kaže tudi odstop šefa generalštaba nizozemske vojske Ad van Baala, ki je bil za časa Srebrenice samo drugi najvišji častnik v vojski, a je sedaj menil – tako je menila tudi javnost – da ne more biti več odgovoren za vojsko.
Ekscelenca! Čudili bi se, če sedaj že ne bi vedeli, zakaj Vam pišemo. Niti malo namreč ne dvomimo, da Vam je znano ime kraja Vetrinj na sedanjem avstrijskem Koroškem. Kaj je namreč bolj naravno kot to, da se vsak nov veleposlanik Velike Britanije v državi Sloveniji da temeljito poučiti o pomenu kraja Vetrinj in njegovem mestu v novejši slovenski zgodovini. Od 26. do 31. maja 1945 so se tam dogajale stvari, ki so nenavadno podobne – podobne včasih do podrobnosti – stvarem, ki so se skoraj natanko pol stoletja pozneje dogajale v Srebrenici. Le ljudje in njihova imena so bila drugačna: tam bosanski muslimani, tu slovenski begunci in njihova vojska, tam nizozemske plave čelade, tu britanski 5. korpus; tam mednarodno varovani kraj Srebrenica, tu vetrinjsko taborišče pod varstvom azila, ki so ga Slovencem dali Britanci. In kakor je Mladić lagal Bošnjakom, da se jim ne bo nič zgodilo in da naj bodo mirni, tako so britanski oficirji lagali častnikom slovenske domobranske vojske, da se jim ne bo nič zgodilo in da gredo v Italijo; in kakor je nizozemski poveljnik Karremans po dogodku pil slivovko z Mladićem, tako so britanski oficirji prej in pozneje drugovali z vojaškimi in političnimi častniki slovenske in jugoslovanske komunistične vojske. Pri vsej podobnosti je bila le ena razlika: v Srebrenici je bilo pokončanih 7.000 do 8.000 ljudi, Britanci pa so poslali v smrt, po njihovih izračunih, 11.850 Slovencev, vojakov in nevojakov. Če je od teh ostalo živih 850, je bilo slovenskih žrtev 11.000. To pa je vseeno več kot v Srebrenici, čeprav se tudi danes ponovno govori o Srebrenici kot največjem zločinu po drugi svetovni vojni. Tako dobro se je Britancem in slovenskim komunističnim partizanom posrečilo skriti naravo in obseg genocida, ki so ga eni omogočili in drugi uresničili.

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Tako je svet prepleten in tako je podoben veliki in napeti tragiški drami, da je Vetrinj, njegovi ljudje in njegova zgodovina, še na neki drug čuden, a resničen način povezan s Srebrenico. Oba kraja, Vetrinj in Srebrenica, sta namreč na koncu, eden kratkega in drugi dolgega razvoja, ki se je začel v Beogradu 27. marca 1941. Tedaj je britanski ministrski predsednik gospod Winston Churchill ob nekih dogodkih vzkliknil, da so »jugoslovanski narodi spet našli svojo dušo«. A niso minila tri leta, ko je z raznimi prikritimi pogodbami dosegel, da je tako najdena duša prišla v roke njenih največjih sovražnikov. Ti so nato v prostoru, ki so ga ustvarili, to dušo pol stoletja izučevali v svojih umetelnostih in manirah in jo – že prej pohujšano po tistih varljivih pogodbah in spoznanju, da je vrhovno pravilo sveta dokončno in za zmerom cinizem – tako predelali in spremenili, da so čez nekaj desetletij njeni novi nosilci mogli uprizoriti genocid nad muslimani v Srebrenici.
Tu nakazane okoliščine niso nikaka bizarna kurioziteta, ampak kažejo na resnično vlogo neke tuje roke, ki je z enim posegom poslala neki jugoslovanski narod na pot strašljive metamorfoze, z drugim pa poslala 11.000 Slovencev v smrt – ne iz sovraštva, ampak iz površne in objestne arogance imperialnega naroda.

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Ekscelenca! Vetrinj in Srebrenica imata torej veliko skupnega. A mi Vas – kakor ste morda že zaslutili – želimo s svojim pismom spomniti predvsem na velike razlike, ki obstajajo med njima. Na velike razlike med tistimi, ki so dopustili Srebrenico, in tistimi, ki so dopustili Vetrinj – s čimer nikakor nismo pripravljeni priznati, da je dopustitev v obeh primerih enako blizu vzroku.
Vloga tistih, ki so dopustili Srebrenico, je bila po sedmih letih raziskana in ocenjena, vloga tistih, ki so dopustili Vetrinj, pa še po pol stoletja ostaja v temi. Vloga Nizozemcev pri nastanku fenomena Srebrenica ni bila samo raziskana in ocenjena, ampak so bile poleg tega narejene tudi neke kretnje, ki so jih raziskave in ocene terjale – v skladu s pravnimi in moralnimi normami demokratične politike in demokratičnega občutja. Nekaj najvišjih političnih in vojaških uradnikov je odstopilo, s čimer so na tradicionalen in učinkovit način priznali, da se čutijo odgovorne za nekaj, kar je bilo na neki način v njihovi kompetenci in se ne bi smelo zgoditi.
Britanci pa paralelnega razvoja na relaciji Vetrinj – Slovenci niso dopuščali in ga ne dopuščajo. Narejenih je bilo nekaj močnih sunkov – Vi, gospod veleposlanik, zanje veste, zato o njih ne bomo govorili – v smeri razjasnjenja stanja, a jim ni bilo dopuščeno, da bi razvili svoje stvarno in moralno sporočilo. Mislim, da ne bomo rekli preveč, če pravimo, da so bili zadušeni.
Spričo visokosti zgleda, ki sedaj prihaja s kontinenta, boste komaj mogli, da svoje vloge ne bi končno jasno zagledali. Čisto lahko, da se bodo sedaj tudi pri vas zgodili ljudje kot Vim Kok, Jan Pronk, Frank de Grave, Ad van Baal in napolnili praznino, ki zija za Tolstojem, Nicolsonom, Corsellisom. Ne mislite, da ne vemo, kakšne zasluge imate za svobodo Evrope! Pravijo tudi, da je bil na vetrinjskem polju narejen edini zločin britanske vojske v drugi svetovni vojni. To se sliši kot poklon, a nam malo pomaga. Naše vprašanje je namreč: Zakaj ste izbrali prav nas? Zakaj prav nas?
Nova Slovenska zaveza
dr. Tine Velikonja
22 April 2002

EMBASSY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
Trg Republike 3
1000 Ljubljana
Your Excellency,
You must have heard of the recent events in the Netherlands culminating on 16 April with the resignation of the entire cabinet of the Prime Minister, Vim Kok. The reason for their resignation was the report by the Netherlands Institute of War Documentation regarding the role played by the Dutch peacekeeping military contingent in Bosnia, the commander’s office of the Dutch army, the Ministry of Defence and the entire Government of that time with regard to the Srebrenica tragedy. The report has shown this role in such a light that the concealed unpleasant feeling existing in the Dutch public since the Srebrenica events in summer 1995 had grown so much that people realized that words were no longer sufficient and that action was required. The Dutch battalion of blue helmets protecting the Srebrenica territory from March 1994 until mid 1995 abandoned the area on 13 July 1995 under the pressure of General Mladić’s advancing troops nearly without any fight and left the Muslims of the area to their fate. This fate, however, was genocide: Bosnian Serbian soldiers banished women from the area and killed men – young men, old men and children – on nearby fields. The massacre comprised 7000 to 8000 people. The report not only speaks about the disputed withdrawal of a military unit but also about the decision of the supreme commander’s office of the army to conceal the actual course of events and the negative image of the army before the Ministry of Defence and the entire Government.
More important than the report itself is the manner in which the Dutch public reacted to the facts stated in it, especially those indirectly and directly involved, from the army to the politicians. They reacted in such a way that we are impressed by their high moral consciousness, especially at a time when the people accused of serious past wrongful deeds either do not remember any such deed or blame another person, or, if convicted, do not show any regret or shame.

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Kok, who co-operated with the Government, which decided in 1993 to co-operate with the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, and was already its Prime Minister at the time of the fall of Srebrenica, declared in the Parliament that the Dutch Government was not directly guilty for the genocide at Srebrenica but had to take on the full responsibility for the situation in which a genocide could have happened. This responsibility is so severe that it could only be expressed in a decent manner by the resignation of the entire cabinet.
Two members of the Government contributed considerably to this decision. One was the Minister of Environment, social democrat, Jan Pronk, who declared that he had to take responsibility for the moral situation shown in the report and had already announced his resignation in advance. Another was the Minister of Defence, Frank de Grave, who also announced his resignation and grounded it in the fact of a legal state: that the commander’s office of the army did not show his predecessor, Voorhoeven, the correct nature of events regarding Srebrenica and its aftermath, which also involves him, since he took on responsibility for this department and is thus also involved in a certain way.
The extent of the feeling of honour and responsibility in this case is also demonstrated by the resignation of the commander of the Dutch army’s general staff, Ad van Baal, who was only the second highest officer in the army at the time of the Srebrenica events, and still, he thinks – as does the public – that he should no longer be responsible for the army.
Your Excellency, you have probably guessed why we are writing to you. We do not doubt at all that you are familiar with the name of the place called Vetrinj in today’s Austrian Carinthia. What is more natural than that each new ambassador of the United Kingdom in Slovenia be thoroughly instructed about the significance of Vetrinj and its position in the more recent Slovene history? From 26 until 31 May 1945, things happened there, incredibly similar – similar sometimes even in details – to those taking place at Srebrenica almost exactly half a century later. Only the people and their names were different: Bosnian Muslims there, and here Slovene refugees and their army; Dutch blue helmets there, and here the British 5th Corps; the internationally protected town of Srebrenica there, and here Vetrinj camp under protection as a haven given to the Slovenes by the British. And similarly, as Mladić lied to the Bosniacs that nothing would happen to them and that they need not worry, so the British officers lied to the officers of the Slovene Domobranci (home defenders) that nothing would happen to them and that they were going to Italy; and as the Dutch commander Karremans drank plum brandy with Mladić after the event, the British officers fraternized before and after the event with military and political officers of the Slovene and Yugoslav communist army.
With all the similarities, there is only one difference: at Srebrenica, 7000 to 8000 people were killed, while the British, according to their calculations, sent to death 11,850 Slovenes, both soldiers and non-soldiers. If 850 among them stayed alive, there were 11,000 Slovene victims. Thus, there were more victims than at Srebrenica although, today, people are speaking about Srebrenica as the biggest war crime after World War II. So well did the British and Slovene communist partisans succeed in hiding the nature and extent of the genocide, which was made possible by the ones and carried out by the others.
So much is the world intertwined and similar to a big, tense, tragic drama, that Vetrinj, its people and its history, are also connected with Srebrenica in another strange manner. Both towns, namely Vetrinj and Srebrenica, lie at the ends, the former at the short end and the latter at the long end, of the development which began in Belgrade on 27 March 1941. At that time, the British Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, exclaimed motivated by some events that the »Yugoslav nations have again found their soul«. But not even three years passed when he achieved, with different concealed treaties, that the soul found in this way came in the hands of its worst enemies who trained this soul with their arts and techniques in the space created for half a century; they remade and changed it – scandalized already by those deceptive treaties and realizing that the supreme rule of the world is definitely and forever cynicism – in such a way that some decades later, its new carriers could commit genocide over the Muslims at Srebrenica.
The circumstances outlined here are no bizarre curiosity but show the real role of an alien hand which contributed to fearful metamorphoses of a Yugoslav nation with one move and sent to death 11,000 Slovenes with another – not because of hatred but because of a superficial and wanton arrogance of an imperial nation.

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Your Excellency, Vetrinj and Srebrenica thus have a lot in common. But we – as you may have already guessed – wish to remind you with our letter especially of the important differences between them. The big differences between those who admitted Srebrenica and those who admitted Vetrinj – whereby we are not at all prepared to admit that the admission is in both cases equally close to the cause.
The role of those who admitted Srebrenica was investigated and assessed after seven years, while the role of those who admitted Vetrinj is hidden in the dark even after half a century. The role of the Dutch people in the creation of the Srebrenica phenomenon has not only been investigated and assessed, but in addition to that, actions have been taken as required by the investigation and assessment – according to legal and moral norms of a democratic policy and democratic spirit. Some of the highest-level political and military officers resigned, whereby acknowledging, in a traditional and efficient manner, their guilt of an action that lay in the realm of their competence and should not have happened.
The British, however, have not admitted and do not admit a parallel development in the relationship of Vetrinj and the Slovenes. Some strong attempts have been made – you, Mr. Ambassador, know well about them and, therefore, we are not going to speak about them in order to clear up the situation, but they were not allowed to develop their actual and moral message. I think that we do not exaggerate much if we say that they were suffocated.
With such a good example coming from the continent now, it is hardly possible that you could not see your role clearly after at last. It may well happen that people like Vim Kok, Jan Pronk, Frank de Grave, Ad van Ball will also rise up in your country and fill the vacancy behind Tolstoy, Nicolson and Corsellis. Do not think that we do not know your merits for the freedom of Europe! It is also said that the only crime committed by the British army during World War II was that at the Vetrinj field. This sounds like a compliment but does not help us much. Our question is: Why did you choose us? Why was it us?
Nova Slovenska zaveza
dr. Tine Velikonja