The Netherlands expressed its "deepest apologies" to the people of Srebrenica on Monday, the 27th anniversary of the worst genocide since World War II, accepting responsibility for the Dutch peacekeeping forces' failure to intervene for the first time since the massacre.

"The international community failed to offer adequate protection to the people of Srebrenica. The Dutch government shares responsibility for the situation in which that failure occurred. And for this, we offer our deepest apologies," Dutch Defense Minister Kasja Ollongren said during a ceremony in Potocari, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Balkan wars broke out in the 1990s as Yugoslavia disintegrated, eventually breaking up into about a half dozen new countries. Some of the worst fighting was in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as ethnic Serb forces fought with Muslim and ethnic Croat forces for control of territory.

In the summer of 1995, Dutch forces under United Nations command were supposed to defend the population of the largely Muslim town of Srebrenica. But they put up no resistance on July 11 of that year when ethnic Serb forces under the command of Ratko Mladic stormed the city.

The ethnic Serb forces went on to kill about 8,000 Muslim men and boys, in what is widely considered the worst genocidal incident in Europe since the end of World War II.

"We cannot relieve you of this suffering. But what we can do is look history straight in the eye," Ollongren said during the ceremonies 27 years later.

The Netherlands has spoken of political failings in the past, but has stopped short of offering a clear apology. Ollongren also made clear that the bulk of the blame continues to lie on the forces that committed the killing.