What is "dutchbat"

UNPROFOR DUTCHBAT was a Dutch battalion under the command of the United Nations in operation United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR). "Dutchbat" was a military name formed from the words "Dutch battalion". It was hastily formed out of the emerging Air Mobile Brigade of the Royal Netherlands Armed Forces between February 1994 and November 1995 to participate in peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. It was tasked with the role of safekeeping the Muslim enclave and designated UN "safe zone" of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War. The enclave fell to the Bosnian Serbs under Colonel General Ratko Mladić during the third 'rotation', "Dutchbat III," commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Karremans.

Subsequent investigation showed that, when the Serbian forces came to take over the enclave, the small battalion was far too lightly equipped to repel the more heavily armed soldiers, and also had its request for air support to the UNPROFOR ignored. The Serbian forces under Mladić's command led Srebrenica's male inhabitants into the mountains, where they were massacred.

In 2016, several veterans of the battalion, with approval of its commander, sued the Dutch government for the "severe negligence and carelessness" regarding the mission.