THE TELEGRAPH: Gay soldiers have threatened to take a US general to court over his claim that the presence of homosexual troops was responsible for the Dutch army's failure to prevent the Srebrenica massacre.
John Sheehan, a former US general and Nato commander, outraged the Netherlands last week when he alleged that openly gay Dutch soldiers had so damaged military morale that the country's army was powerless to prevent genocide in Bosnia.
Up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred by Bosnian Serb forces after Dutch UN peacekeepers failed to prevent the fall of the Srebrenica enclave in July, 1995, a legacy that has continued to haunts the Netherlands.
Peter Schouten, a Dutch activist, has founded the "Pink Army" to bring a class action lawsuit against General Sheehan in a Californian federal court.
With the support of the Dutch Homosexuality and Armed Forces Foundation, Mr Schouten is aiming to recruit seven homosexual Dutch soldiers to file slander and defamation charges against the general.
The litigants will demand a full-page retraction in US and Dutch newspapers, full legal costs and will ask US judges to send the retired general on compulsory "sensitivity training". >>> Bruno Waterfield | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
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