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Feature: Netherlands starts to appreciate military with Veterans' Day

Xinhua, June 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

As a small country lacking true military sentiments it took a long time to establish a Veterans' Day in the Netherlands, but this Saturday the 11th edition of the event took place with among hundreds of spectators King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte honoring the Dutch military.

Veterans' Day honors the over 115,000 Dutch veterans who have been deployed, as far back as World War II to as recently as the peace mission in Mali, in the service of peace. The aim is to increase public recognition and appreciation for veterans.

The main event of Veterans' Day was in The Hague, where Rutte gave a speech in the Ridderzaal, the Hall of Knights, the main building of the 13th century Binnenhof, the house of the Dutch parliament. In addition, some veterans received medals of honor.

After this ceremony the King took the salute during a parade of more than 100 detachments from all four armed forces services, including about 60 veterans' detachments in the center of The Hague. Veterans' Day was closed with a party on the Malieveld park.

"Our country embraces its veterans today, rolls out the red carpet, and says thank you very much," Rutte said during his speech, adding "Veterans' Day is a day of togetherness, of passing on traditions, recognition and identification. We should cherish that, because of the past, but also because of now and later."

This appreciation of the army does not have a long history in the Netherlands. In general the Dutch are proud of the accomplishments of the Dutch navy, at least in its glorious past, when the Netherlands was still a naval power to take account of, mainly in the 17th century.

But the army was held in little esteem. During World War II, after the Germans overran the country, part of the Dutch fleet managed to escape to Britain, and fought along with the Allies.

The Dutch government-in-exile in London only gradually managed to compose a small new army unit, consisting of Dutch living abroad and escaped soldiers, the Irene Brigade, named after the second granddaughter of then Queen Wilhelmina, who was also in London. This brigade took part in the liberation of the country in 1944-1945.

Although this army unit raised the esteem for the army, it was downgraded again during the war for independence of Indonesia, then a Dutch colony. This took place between Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945 and the Dutch recognition of Indonesia's independence at the end of 1949.

More recently, a Dutch battalion Dutchbat was part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission during the Bosnian War. The Dutch UN soldiers were not able to protect the UN designated "safe area" in Srebrenica. In July 1995 Bosnian Serb forces of commander Ratko Mladic entered the enclave and an estimated 8,000 Muslim men and boys were taken away and killed. Srebrenica left a mark in Dutch society and in the military.

Due to these events and sentiments it took a rather long time, and several more UN peace operations, in Afghanistan and Iraq for instance, in which the Dutch wholeheartedly participated, for the Dutch people to get to realize the positive contributions of the army, for the Dutch military to create a more positive image of itself and for the idea of a Veterans' Day to be accepted in Dutch society.

The first Veterans' Day was held in 2005 and in 2006 the Dutch government decided to make it into a national festive event. Veterans' Day was held originally on June 29, the birthday of late war-veteran Prince Bernhard, Queen Wilhelmina's son-in-law, but nowadays it takes place on the last Saturday in June.

At the end of his speech Rutte emphasized the importance of the military.

"Every time I visited the Dutch military abroad on a mission, I realized how big the importance and significance is of the work the military does," he said. "The terrible attacks yesterday in Tunisia, Kuwait and France once again show how unstable our world is. Our troops not only serve Dutch interests, but also bring protection and hope for a better future." Endit