This account of experiences in Srebrenica in July 1995 was given soon after the events he witnessed by Dutch doctor and officer of the Dutch battalion, A. A. Schouten. During the critical period, Dr. Schouten was on the spot. On 27 July 1995, while impressions were still fresh and before any external influences could reshape his story, Dr. Schouten was in Amsterdam where he discussed his observations with Dutch daily Het Parool reporter Michiel Zonneveld. Here are the salient portions of that article. Dr. Schouten’s impressions are similar to those of members of the UN Military Observers unit in Srebrenica, who were debriefed at about the same time.
As a member of the Dutch armed forces, [A. A. Schouten] was in Bratunac [a town 5 km from Srebrenica where many of the prisoners were initially taken] but he did not see any indication of the alleged massacre of male Bosnian Muslims:
„There were reports of ten thousand Muslims that Serbs were supposed to have imprisoned on a soccer field. I find that puzzling. I did not see any stadium in Bratunac. Can you really believe that a village of five thousand inhabitants would have a stadium capable of accommodating ten thousand people?”
Later in Bratunac there were supposed to have been executions at a sports field and in a school. Just last week, on Monday, the Serbs are said to have executed 1,600 people. The Dutch battalion doctor says that he saw none of that: “Everybody talks about it, but nobody is offering any hard evidence”.
After the fall of Srebrenica, the Serbs sent Schouten to Bratunac hospital with some gravely wounded Muslim soldiers. He says that Serbs did not obstruct him in any way. If there was any killing by the Serbs, that was a well-kept secret.
“I do not believe in that at all. After the fall of Srebrenica, on 13th July, I arrived in Bratunac and remained there for eight days. During that time, I was able to go wherever I wanted. I had every assistance, and nobody was in my way.
„Besides, it is impossible to transport ten thousand men without anybody noticing it. You need at least two hundred buses for that and that would have created a huge column. And they would have had to drive by us without the Dutch soldiers noticing it”.
Source: Het Parool (Amsterdam), 27 July 1995, Michiel Zonneveld: “Arts: Geen bewijs genocide”