Netherlands: Van Traa Commission opens
01 September 1995
The first sessions of the Dutch parliamentary inquiry commission into police investigation methods chaired by Mr Maarten van Traa have produced more details about the extent of organized crime in Holland and so-called "pro-active" investigative police methods (see Statewatch, vol 5 no 4). The countrys' four most prominent criminologists have been given almost unlimited access to police intelligence files in order to provide a comprehensive situation report and assessment on the nature, extent, and seriousness of organized crime in the Netherlands. Professor Cyrille Fijnaut, the first to testify, described how his investigation found current estimates of organized crime to be grossly exaggerated. He criticized the national police intelligence service (CRI), which for years has been publishing unsubstantiated estimates of anywhere between 250 and 600 criminal organizations active in Holland. Fijnaut examined seven "criminal networks" and gauged the total number to be about 30 organizations of some sort, most of these involved in the hashish trade. Although organized crime has infiltrated certain sectors such as the transport business and the catering industry, and criminal money dominates for example Amsterdam's "red light" district, there are no serious indications of "infiltration" of what is referred to as the 'upper world' of business, finance and politics. In spite of their wealth, drug "barons" do not appear to be interested in political power or in building up a solid and legitimate economic position. Their investments are mainly in the continuation and expansion of operations, while some of the funds are funnelled to offshore or Swiss bank accounts. Professor Fijnaut also believes there is no such all-powerful syndicate in Holland as the "Octopus", a popular subject of journalistic accounts.
Fijnaut's colleague Professor Frank Bovenkerk caused considerable controversy when he told the Commission that police files indicated that about half of the Turkish males in Amsterdam are believed by the police to be involved in the heroin economy. The large Surinam population, most of them naturalized Dutch, are according to the files extensively involved in the cocaine trade.
Bovenkerk, regarded as a progressive academic at Utrecht University with a track record of research into racism and discrimination, was severely criticized for basing his statements on sources that were too narrow and could not be verified. His estimates were contradicted by the findings of a research project done by other Utrecht scholars in cooperation with the Rotterdam police, who published their figures a week later which concluded that only a relatively small number of immigrants were involved in crime.
In the second week, the Van Traa Commission heard police and justice department officials, some of them suffering from the familiar syndrome of "inquiry disease" - displaying acute lapses of memory. Others simply admitted that they should have known about certain questionable police methods such as the "controlled transit" of large shipments of narcotics (allowing the drugs to disappear on the market in order to establish an infiltrator's credibility). They simply had not asked since they trusted their colleagues to inform them about such serious matters. While the Wierenga Commission investigating the disbanding of the IRT police team in 1993-1994 still considered this method to be justified in the light of the seriousness and invulnerability of the criminal organization involved, members of this commission now admit they were not told the whole truth. They did not know that the infiltrator, a major criminal, against all rules was allowed to keep the profits amounting to tens of millions of guilders. "He laughed his head off," said one official, "and now he has become truly untouchable as any attempted prosecution would be thrown out of court immediately". Shortly before the Van Traa hearings started the Minister of Justice, Mrs Winnie Sorgdrage