MPs back Pink Army protest
A large majority of MPs have thrown their weight behind Dutch gay military organisation Pink Army’s campaign to take legal action against former US general John Sheehan.
During senate hearings last week, Sheehan said he had been told by a Dutch general that the 1995 massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica was due to the presence of gay soldiers in the Dutch army.
One senator asked him: ‘And did the Dutch leaders tell you it was because there were gay soldiers there?’
‘It was a combination,’ Sheehan answered. ‘Did they tell you that? That’s my question,’ the senator replied. ‘Yes,’ stated Sheehan.’They included that as part of the problem… the net effect of basically social engineering.’
Pink Army says it is now trying to raise the $200,000 necessary to take legal action against the general and get him to retract his comments.
Investigation
Meanwhile, the Liberal democrats D66 have called for an investigation into who allegedly told the general that gay soldiers were a problem.
Sheehan said he had been given the explanation by a Hank van Bremmen, probably referring to general Henk van den Breemen, chief of the defence staff at the time of the massacre.
Van Breemen said in a statement that the allegation was ‘complete nonsense’ and that he had never made such a comment.
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