Dutch PM furious at slur on gay soldiers

THE Netherlands' prime minister yesterday denounced as "irresponsible" a claim by a retired American general that gay Dutch soldiers were partly to blame for allowing Europe's worst massacre since the Second World War.

Dutch officials were outraged by General John Sheehan's remarks at a Senate armed services committee hearing in Washington on Thursday. He claimed military leaders in the Netherlands had called the presence of gay soldiers "part of the problem" that allowed Serb forces to overrun the Srebrenica enclave in Bosnia in July 1995 and kill about 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

Dutch troops were serving in the UN peacekeeping force in Srebrenica when they were overrun by the heavily armed Serb forces .

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende said Gen Sheehan's comments were irresponsible and "should never have been made".

The former Nato commander was speaking in opposition to a proposal to allow gays to serve openly in the US military.

Gen Henk van den Breemen, the Dutch chief of staff in 1995, called his comments " nonsense" and denied ever having suggested gays in the army might have been a factor in the massacre.