Rapport / Samenvatting
/ Persbericht / 
Summary / Press
Release
Dutch government and companies partly
responsible
for war crimes regime Saddam Hussein.
Amsterdam/Groningen, 9 May 2007: A report, released today by “Campagne
tegen
Wapenhandel” (the Dutch Campaign against Arms Trade) casts new light on
the
role of the Netherlands in the nineteen eighties with regards to Iraq’s
chemical weapons programme. Studies show that the government
deliberately did
very little to prevent Dutch companies from supplying Iraq with
precursors for the
production of chemical weapons. The case of Frans van Anraat, in which
the
appeals court will pronounce its sentence today, therefore fits into a
broader
picture.
Especially
the then KBS Holland and Melchemie delivered large amounts of chemicals
to Iraq
in the nineteen eighties. Both before and after the laboriously
established
export restrictions, Dutch companies were able to deliver precursor
chemicals
to Iraq.
The
companies felt morally supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs,
for whom
the economic interests prevailed. Foreign Trade minister Bolkestein, in
particular, has a disconcerting role in this matter.
Shortly
after the start of the war between Iraq
and Iran, already the first
reports on Iraq’s use of
poison gas came in and the government in The Hague was aware of this.
Yet the Dutch government made
no attempts to prevent Dutch companies from getting involved in Iraq’s
chemical weapons programme.
Only when
the United States, in 1984,
confronted the Netherlands
with the large Dutch orders coming from Iraq, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs started acting. At the intercession of the late Dr. Ooms, a
list of
initially 21 chemicals, on which export authorisation was to be
applied, was
then composed. Under great pressure of Bolkestein, this list was
reduced to
only eleven chemicals.
“Campagne
tegen Wapenhandel” thinks that the juridical case against Van Anraat
should
result in a large-scale independent investigation in the government’s
and
business community’s involvement in the export of chemicals to Iraq
in the nineteen eighties.
The report
“The Netherlands and the chemical weapons of Iraq” (Dutch version) and
its
summary (Dutch and English versions) are available on: www.stopwapenhandel.org.
For any
further information call Frank Slijper, +31 (0)6 28504778