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Gay news: Demand for an apology on 'Gays can shoot straight too' website Pink Army
Generall John Sheehan
Gay soldiers blamed for massacre by US general may sue
A Dutch political strategist is recruiting support from gay soldiers for a legal action against John Sheehan, the retired US general who last week claimed that "open homosexuality" in the Dutch army was a contributory factor in the failure to prevent the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Peter Schouten used the website pinkarmy.nl (subtitle: 'Gays can shoot straight too') to demand that General Sheehan publish a full-page apology in the US and Dutch press, organise a press conference to retract his "false and defamatory" remarks and attend a course in "sensitivity training".
Sheehan, a former NATO commander and senior Marine officer, made the remarks at a Senate hearing where he argued against plans by the Obama administration to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military.
Bosnian Serb forces overran lightly armed Dutch soldiers in the United Nations-designated enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995 and killed more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys.
Sheehan said the massacre was partly a consequence of the Dutch army's acceptance of "open homosexuality", which "led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war."
General Henk van den Breeman, the Dutch chief of staff at the time of the massacre, has described Sheehan's claim as "total nonsense".
