After the fall of Srebrenica, a stream of refugees fled on foot in the direction of the Dutch headquarters in Potocari. The Dutchbat troops were ordered to walk amongst them in the hope of preventing the Bosnian Serb military from exploiting the situation. Mothers thrust their babies into the arms of Dutchbat soldiers and vanished into the throng, leaving the men clutching the howling infants. They persuaded other Muslim women to take the babies. People clung to military vehicles or tried to clamber into them. The appalled soldiers had to fend off refugees from the already overladen vehicles, sometimes even with the use
of force. Exhausted people slumped lifelessly at the road-side, risking being run over. Amid
the chaos, one soldier saw an elderly woman emerge from her doorway. The next instant, a shell exploded directly in front of her house and the woman’s corpse was left dangling from her washing line. That was the situation the Dutch UB battalion had to face in July 1995. They were witness of a huge drama in modern Western history. They seen things which are fixed in their brains and eyes.
