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ISN
SECURITY WATCH (07/12/04)
Dutch authorities are set to charge a Dutch citizen
with assisting in genocide against Iraqi Kurds by
supplying Saddam Hussein with lethal chemicals.
News agencies reported today that Dutch prosecutors
would charged 62-year-old Frans van Anraat “for
violating the laws of war and involvement in
genocide” for supplying Saddam Hussein with the
chemicals for an attack on the Kurdish town of
Halabja in 1988, which killed some 5’000 people.
Voice of America quoted Dutch Prosecutor Wim de
Bruin as saying today that van Anraat was “suspected
of delivering thousands of tons of raw materials for
chemical weapons to the former regime in Baghdad
between 1984 and 1988”.
Van Anraat is accused of shipping nerve gas and
mustard gas that originated from the US and Japan,
among other chemical materials. Dutch authorities
said they had been watching van Anraat for a decade
and a half. He was arrested in 1989 in Italy at the
request of the US government, but was later released
and escaped to Iraq. In 2003, when the US invaded
Iraq, van Anraat returned to the Netherlands.
He has denied any wrongdoing, conceding that he had
shipped the materials to Iraq, but that it “was not
my main business”, but only “something I did in
passing”, VOA cited him as saying during a 2003
interview with Dutch television
International Relations and Security Network ISN
http://www.isn.ethz.ch
Saddam chemical weapons 'smuggled through
Antwerp' 7 December 2004
BRUSSELS – Police have arrested a man
suspected of smuggling material to make chemical
weapons through Antwerp port to Saddam Hussein.
The Dutchman, detained in Amsterdam, who works in
the chemicals sector, stands accused of transporting
the ingredients for chemical weapons like those used
with devastating effect against the Kurds in 1988.
According to Dutch public prosecutor Wim De Bruin,
the businessman, 62, and identified by the name
Frank Van A. (Anraat), is the first Dutch citizen to
be charged with war crimes in connection with the
former Iraqi dictator.
The Dutch authorities say van A delivered “thousands
of tonnes of raw material for the production of
chemical weapons between 1984 and 1988.”
The chemicals sold to the Iraqis could be used in
particular for manufacturing mustard and neurotoxic
gas.
Sources claim the suspect was fully aware of the
final destination of the chemicals and what they
were being used for.
Saddam Hussein has been accused of using chemical
warfare against the Kurd population in the north of
Iraq in 1988 and against Iranian villages during the
Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988.
“Chemical weapons were used to destroy the Kurdish
town of Halabja on 16 March 1988, causing the death
of 5,000 people,” says a document produced by the
Dutch authorities.
The suspect allegedly covered his tracks by
channelling money through a Panamanian company based
in Lugano, Switzerland.
The raw materials came from Japan and the United
States.
An American enquiry on the breach of the arms
embargo to Iraq which began several years ago
pointed to the Dutch connection that implicated van
A.
The products were smuggled between Antwerp port in
Belgium and Aquaba port in Jordan to the Iraqi
dictator.
Van A was first arrested at the request of the
Americans in Milan on 22 January 1989 but his
detention was suspended two months later and he took
refuge in Iraq.
He returned to the Netherlands after the fall of
Saddam's regime during the 2003 Gulf War.
Copyright Expatica 2004
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