John J. Sheehan

Former NATO commander and marine John J. Sheehan has apologised over remarks he made blaming homosexuals for a massacre which took place during the Bosnian War.

Sheehan had originally said that the Dutch army failed to prevent a massacre during the Bosnian war partly because the army had gay soldiers. He made the comments during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Sheehan had said that Dutch chief-of-staff General Henk van den Breemen had told him that the presence of gay soldiers was one of the reasons the massacre happened.

Apologising to General Van den Breemen, Sheehan wrote that his recollection of the conversation with the General were "inaccurate". He also said that the fall of Srebrenica was the responsibility of the international peace keeping force as a whole.

According to the Dutch Ministry of Defence, General Van den Breemen was satisfied with Sheehan's apology.