International

According to SP member of Parliament Harry van Bommel, Parliament must interview former Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in public in relation to the Davids Commission report, which found that the government of which De Hoop Scheffer was a member, acted unlawfully in supporting the US-UK attack on Iraq in 2003. Van Bommel's statement came in reaction to this morning's pronouncements from the former minister, who went on to head NATO, during the radio programme Dit is de Dag ('This is the day'). “The Davids Commission concluded that the decision to support the attack on Iraq was based in the first instance on 'Atlantic solidarity'" says Van Bommel. "If De Hoop Scheffer denies this he is denying at the same time the Commission's core findings. Parliament cannot ignore the views of this directly involved former minister and should interview him publicly."

by Jan Marijnissen

Since Wednesday evening the government has been exposed, at last: its support in 2003 for the war in Iraq lacked an adequate mandate under international law. It was forced to alter its position after a commission that investigated the Dutch involvement in the Iraq war had concluded that Balkenende’s support lacked any such mandate. The Davids Report, as it is known, cannot be without consequences for the current Dutch government.

SP leader Agnes Kant supports the idea of calling former Defence Minister Henk Kamp before parliament to hear what he has to say about the process which led to the decision to give political support to the war in Iraq. An independent commission of enquiry this week declared the war, and the government’s decision, to have been unlawful. “But in addition to Mr Kamp, there’s a number of other people that parliament should be questioning. For example, former minister Jaap De Hoop Scheffer and the weapons inspectors who were involved at the time. We should use the relevant instrument, a parliamentary enquiry. ”

“The Davids Commission enquiry shows that the Dutch government was determined to support what they knew to be an illegal invasion of Iraq. Neither the UN resolutions nor the threat of weapons of mass destruction, but blind, docile following of the United States determined our country's policy," says SP leader Agnes Kant.

At the beginning of September the Davids Commission realised that it needed more time before it could present its findings on the Netherlands' involvement in the war on Iraq. It is costing the commission a great deal of time to study all public and reliable information, some of it new, while various whistleblowers have announced that they still wish to be heard.

According to Van Dale’s Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal (The Dutch equivalent of the OED, or Webster's), the word 'commissie' (Commission or Committee) has a range of meanings. It can mean "persons to whom a certain task has been given by an authority". In the Netherlands this would include, for example, the Davids Commission which is investigating the Iraq war. Or, further afield, the European Commission, which forms the day-to-day decision-making executive of the EU. The word 'commissie/commission' can also mean the fee paid to one given a commission. This is well understood in Brussels, where twenty-seven Commissioners each picks up a very nice 'commission' indeed.

Parliament today debated with Premier Jan-Peter Balkenende his announcement that the government would be establishing its own commission to investigate the background to the country's support for the Iraq war. If this is accepted by the governing coalition parties, including the Premier's assertion that any parliamentary questions put during the next nine months need not be answered, it would represent a serious obstruction to parliamentary democracy. So argued SP leader Agnes Kant, who continues to urge the establishment of a real enquiry, one conducted by the people's representatives in parliament.

On 17th February several of the political groups in the Senate will put new questions to the government regarding the controversial Dutch involvement in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The cabinet's decision earlier this week to establish its own Committee of Enquiry has been noted by the Senate. For the time being senators are assuming that their questions will, as is customary, receive a timely answer from the government.