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Netherlands: Army in UN abuse

01 November 1997

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Ten Dutch soldiers serving with the United Nations (UN) in Angola have been convicted of sexual abuse, smuggling and drunkenness. Although these incidents occurred in the summer of 1994, the Ministry of Defence only recently revealed the extent of the incidents.

The scandal was eventually revealed in a report presented to the Ministry by Vice-Admiral J. Van Aalst. It revealed widespread indifference to the soldiers' activities, with punishments being restricted to administrative measures. The then commander-in-chief of the Army, General Couzy, was aware of the events in 1994 but he chose not to inform either the Ministry nor Prime Minister Wim Kok. The report condemned the higher echelons of the Dutch army for "failures of leadership", pointing out that there were many warning signs. The UN, on the other hand, were relatively sanguine about the soldiers abuses, stating that "that's the way it goes with operations such as these." Wim Kok, however, described both the incidents and the army response to them as "shocking", calling the affair "very serious".

This is the latest in a series of scandals to have beset European UN troops. Belgian soldiers in Rwanda and Somalia have been accused of atrocities including the slow roasting of a child over a fire. Italian troops have also faced accusations of abuses including rape and torture (see Statewatch Volume 7 no. 3).

NRC Handelsblad Weekeditie 9.9.97

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