Mr. Van Mierlo (right) met with Kofi Annan, then the United Nations’ secretary general, in 1997.
(Adam Nadel/Associated Press/File)
AMSTERDAM — Hans van Mierlo, former Dutch foreign minister and cofounder of the D66 democrats, died Thursday, his party said. He was 78.
In 1994, Mr. Van Mierlo entered the first postwar Cabinet without the Christian Democrats, forming a coalition with Liberal Party VVD and Labor Party PvdA. In 1966, he helped to establish D66, which sought to change the electoral system.
He was foreign minister in 1995 when Dutch United Nations peacekeeping troops lost the Bosnian town of Srebrenica to Serbian troops, which led to the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim boys and men. An investigation into Dutch involvement led to the resignation of the next government in 2002.
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