Holland: Hague bomb (1)
01 January 1991
Holland: Hague bomb
artdoc August=1993
On July 1, 1993 at 03.00 hrs the Dutch ministry of Social Affairs
and Employment in The Hague was struck by a bomb that caused
severe damage. The attack was aimed at the offices of the Labour
Relations Inspection Service (Dienst Inspectie
Arbeidsverhoudingen, DIA) and claimed by the mysterious Rara
(Revolutionary Anti Racist Action) group as a protest against the
DIA's role in tracking down `illegal aliens' who work mainly in
sweatshops and market gardening. Rara has claimed a number of
bomb attacks over the last eight years, including those against
the Ministry of the Interior and the house of State Secretary Mr.
Aad Kosto in November 1991. Mr Ren R., the only person ever
prosecuted as a Rara member, received a minor sentence for lack
of evidence in 1989, and Rara has become a major frustration for
both the police and the BVD. The BVD has announced that this time
the security service will not participate in the team
investigating the July 1 attack. Furthermore, Prime Minister Mr
Ruud Lubbers expressed in clear terms his dissatisfaction with
the BVD's performance in a TV interview. Immediately after the
November 1991 bombing BVD head Mr Arthur Docters van Leeuwen
emphasized that he knew exactly which individuals were
responsible for the attacks but, when no arrests followed, Mr.
Docters's self-assuredness was criticized by MPs and in the
press. In a parliamentary debate immediately after the latest
attack on 1 July, the MP for the right-wing VVD party Mr. Hans
Dijkstal opposed any BVD involvement in the investigations. This
time, the tension was raised to an even higher level when on 2
July, an anonymous editor of the newspaper NRC Handelsblad,
quoting `a BVD spokesman', wrote that Mr Ren R. was directly
involved in the latest attack and that his partner had written
the Rara's press statement. Observers conclude that either Mr
Docters can no longer guarantee the discretion of his personnel
or the BVD has resorted to a desperate move to compensate for a
lack of evidence that would stand up in court. This unexpected
move could also be seen as a counterattack against accusations
voiced last month that BVD personnel are harassing people they
suspect of having Rara connections.
Statewatch vol 3 no 4 July-August 1993