Former NATO commander blames a 1995 Srebrenica massacre on openly gay soldiers in the Dutch military.

Retired Marine General and former NATO commander John J. Sheehan asserted before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Dutch military’s failure to prevent the massacre of 1,000s of civilians in the Bosnian war was partially due to openly gay soldiers in the Dutch military, reports Spiegel Online.

In a statement, Sheehan said the military at Srebrenica “was under strength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them.”

After confirming to the Senate Committee the Dutch had indeed informed him gays were partially to blame, Sheehan caused retaliation from Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

Those remarks “should never have been made,” Balkenende said. “It is way off the mark to talk like that about people and the work they do under very difficult circumstances.”

To read more on this story, visit Spiegel Online.