Netherlands:Eurotop demonstrators cleared
01 November 1997
Three hundred and seventy one of the protestors, arrested during the demonstrations surrounding the Intergovernmental Conference held last June in Amsterdam, have now been informed by the Department of Public Prosecutions that they will not be prosecuted. The demonstrators, who were held under Article 140 of the Dutch penal code, had been accused of being "members of a criminal organisation". (see Statewatch,vol 7 no 3).
The decision apparently led to furious responses from the government and the four large parliamentary parties. The right-wing Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD) condemned the decision as "weak", while the social democratic Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) together with the liberal Democraten '66 (D'66) argued for a prosecution in the hope of having a judicial review into the use to which Article 140 could be put. Justice Minister Winnie Sorgdrager stated that she was "saddened" by the decision of the public prosecutor.
Lawyers for the 371 are however planning civil actions for damages against the police following a report by the Schalken Commission in Amsterdam, an official body set up to investigate complaints against the Amsterdam police, that stated that the arrests had no legal basis. The report also claimed that the arrests were "unnecessary and arbitrary" as they had been carried out without any advance warning.
Other criticisms of police and judicial behaviour focused on the deportation of 150 Italian demonstrators, who were not even allowed to leave the train that they had arrived on, as being based on an "incorrect judgement". The Commission concluded that there was insufficient consideration of the possibility of serious disruption during the Eurotop and that a number of arrestees were treated "unnecessarily severely".
The mayor of Amsterdam, Patijn, and the Chief of Police, Vrakking, both criticised the report's conclusions. In what the NRC Handelsblad weekeditie described as a "hastily called press conference" Patijn justified the police action as follows: "You can look at the Eurotop from two perspectives, as a judicial problem or as a matter of preserving public order". According to him the Amsterdam authorities placed the emphasis on the public order aspects. Patijn concluded by saying: "If we are not allowed to use Article 140 in such circumstances then we must have other laws".
Other politicians are not so sanguine about the events surrounding the Eurotop. The Groen links (Green Left) fraction in Amsterdam council has already condemned the police action, while Socialist Party MP, H. van Bommel, called the Schalken report "a stain on the reputation of the most respected mayor in the Netherlands". Others who now feel vindicated are the Autonoom Centrum and Statewatch contributors Jansen and Janssen, whose Black Book on the events surrounding the Eurotop was described by the Schalken commission as "thoroughly grounded".
EU Demo Inquiry Call
Increasing concern about the policing of the demonstrations surrounding the Intergovernmental Conference, held in Amsterdam last June, has led Dutch civil liberties organisations to call for the National Ombudsman to hold a public inquiry. Over 600 people were arrested during the demonstrations; so far only 11 people have been convicted.
Complaints from protesters from across Europe has led the Autonoom Centrum, hitherto known primarily for their campaigns against asylum centres in the Netherlands, together with the civil liberties watchdog Buro Jansen and Janssen, to compile a "Black Book" collating over 230 complaints from protesters detained or injured during the demonstrations.
Charges against the police operation are varied. Complaints listed include those who were held in Amsterdam Central Station before being transported to the maximum security "Bijlmerbajes" prison after graffiti appeared in a train carrying protesters from Milan to Amsterdam. Others claimed that they saw Dutch polic