Sheehan risks slander case for anti-gay slur on Dutch army

Published on : 23 March 2010 - 11:25am | By Jan Huisman

Remarks made by former US General John Sheehan, suggesting the presence of openly gay soldiers in the Dutch military was responsible for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, have been met in the Netherlands with outrage, disbelief, and above all, derision. But a new group called the Pink Army says it's no laughing matter. They want to haul General Sheehan to court on charges of slander and defamation.

Mr Sheehan made the accusation while testifying last week before the US Senate Armed Services Committee about President Barack Obama's plans to end policies that prevent openly gay men and women from serving in the US military. He cited a retired Dutch army commander, Henk van den Breemen, as the source behind his comment.

Some 8,000 Bosnian 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.

The Dutch government and military have denounced the comments, with caretaker Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende calling them "outrageous and beyond the pale." A statement from the Dutch Defence Ministry says Mr Van den Breemen himself has called the remark "absolute nonsense."

Enormous influence
Dutch communication expert Peter Schouten says the official Dutch response to the incident was satisfactory and heartwarming to the gay community. But, he says, the damage inflicted by General Sheehan's statement will be difficult to repair.

"Nobody should underestimate what an enormous influence these statements of Sheehan had on the American people. There are many ... conservative people who will definitely believe that these statements are true, and that feeds a whole other generation of hate against homosexuals again."

Mr Schouten has now founded the Pink Army foundation, and is aiming to bring a class action lawsuit against General Sheehan in a Californian federal court. At least seven homosexual Dutch soldiers are needed to launch the lawsuit, and Pink Army is also calling for donors to fund the estimated 190,000 euros in legal fees.

Lying
The charges would be slander and defamation, and the demands are simple: a full-page retraction and apology in major US and Dutch newspapers; a press conference offering the same; mandatory sensitivity training, and compensation of legal costs.

Mr Schouten says it is too soon to say how the case will be argued, but given Mr van den Breemen's public denial that he made the alleged initial remarks, it's clear Mr Sheehan lied.

"One of them is lying. Now I would put my money on the fact that Sheehan's side is then incorrect, because he also had a political reason, of course, to make these kind of remarks. 

The government of Obama wanted to lighten up things for [homosexuals] more in the army, and there is a conservative push against that. My personal opinion is that therefore he made these statements."

Because Mr Sheehan made his statements under oath, Mr Schouten says Pink Army's lawsuit could if successful, lead to a separate perjury charge against the former general.

Human rights
Mr Schouten says the initiative has been welcomed by the COC, the largest Dutch homosexual rights organisation, and by the Dutch Homosexuality & Armed Forces foundation, which is looking among its members for volunteers to join Pink Army's lawsuit.

"What is important to understand is that homo rights are human rights [...] and now the point has come to make clear that we should fight for this."

But much still needs to come together for Pink Army if a trial is to go ahead. Aside from the funding for the lawsuit and the requisite number of gay soldiers needed for a class action, the case also appears to hinge on Mr van den Breemen's testimony. Mr Schouten would not say whether he had spoken to the former general.

And given the recent decision to pull Dutch troops out of Afghanistan by August - which both prompted and was finalised by the collapse of the Dutch government - the Dutch Ministry of Defence may be keen to avoid another diplomatic inconvenience with its US ally.