Other Forms of Abuse · 18 May 2007, 21:32 CET by Charles Vermeulen
Today’s edition of de Volkskrant reports that the Dutch military police officers have mentioned several kinds ‘human rights violations’ to the Van den Bergh-Committee, the committee which is in charge of the investigations into allegations about abuses by the Dutch army in Iraq. According to the officers almost a hundred Iraqi prisoners were detained blindfolded without food and drink a whole day long, whilst access to toilets was denied to them. Furthermore, the plastic handcuffs of some of the detainees allegedly were tightened to such an extent that the blood supply to their hands stopped. And, to conclude, the ‘dignity of the prisoners was violated’, because, according to the officers, executives shot photo’s of them for private use.
abuse,
al-samawah,
dutch army,
human rights violations,
iraq,
volkskrant
Use of Hooding, Electrodes and a Stun Baton? · 18 May 2007, 13:18 CET by Charles Vermeulen
In November 2006 Dutch daily de Volkskrant reported about the possible use of torture of Iraqi prisoners by the Military Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands (‘Militaire Inlichtingen en Veiligheidsdienst’, MIVD) in buildings of the Coalition Provisional Authority in the town of Al-Samawah in 2003. (The Dutch army had occupied the southern Iraqi province of al-Muthanna as part of the Stabilisation Force Iraq (SFI) from July 2003 till April 2005.) A lot of political turmoil ensued after the report and the then Dutch government was forced to set up an inquiry into the matter (‘Van den Berg-Committee’). Last Tuesday’s edition of Dutch current affairs program NOVA says it laid hands on some findings of this inquiry (‘Het Feitenrelaas’), which will probably be published by the Van den Berg-Committee only sometime in June. According to these findings, NOVA says, captured Iraqi prisoners were hooded and besides water and noise a stun baton (‘electrodestok’) was used during their interrogations, which were carried out by the MIVD. According to a witness, military jurist Misha Geeratz, possible 5 to 10 prisoners were subjected to those interrogation techniques, all probably no longer than a few hours.
Unfortunately, the NOVA report remains unclear on some important issues. First of all, on the use of water and noise. Were water and noise used to deprive the prisoners of sleep or ‘just’ to intimidate or humiliate them? The report, for instance, shows a fragment of a paper with the line ‘keeping detainees awake with water’ (‘het wakker houden van gedetineerden met water’) without discussing or showing the context of the line. Because of this the fragment doesn’t prove anything at all. It might, for example, be that the paragraph of which the line is part of discusses the possibilty that the MIVD applied the technique of sleep deprivation only to reject this possibility as unlikely a few lines further on. To continue, the report discusses a disturbing message from the British headquarters in Basra to the Dutch: a detainee told the British he was ill-treated by Dutch soldiers during his interrogation. According to him water was thrown upon him and sounds were used as well as electrodes. Especially the latter suggests the use of outright torture by the Dutch. But the report also shows fragments of paper with lines with the word ‘stun baton’ (‘electrodestok’) in it. Apparently, the inquiry committee found two different torture tools which were possibly used by the MIVD: electrodes and a stun baton. The report mentions that a prisoner said he was ill-treated with electrodes. But what about the use of a stun baton? Are testimonies available in which the use of a stun baton is mentioned and, if so, how and on what scale were they used?
To conclude, the following is worth mentioning. The interrogations of Iraqi prisoners were performed by an MIVD lieutenant-colonel, two non-commissioned officers, both of the MIVD too, and an interpreter. Officially the MIVD wasn’t allowed to perform interrogations without the presence of a ‘military jurist’. Nevertheless, on October 17, 2003 a message came from ‘the Hague’, in which the military jurists ‘were requested to acquiesce in’ the fact that the MIVD determines who are allowed to be present during their interrogations. And so did the three MIVD officers according the report: they forbade others to attend at least some of their interrogations. ‘Some of their interrogations’ because the report doesn’t explicitly states that others were denied access to all of the MIVD interrogations.
al-samawah,
coalition provisional authority,
dutch army,
electrodestok,
hooding,
iraq,
mivd,
netherlands,
sleep deprivation,
stabilisation force iraq,
stun baton,
torture,
volkskrant
On the MIVD Interrogation Methods in Iraq · 12 December 2006, 07:37 CET by Charles Vermeulen
Almost a month ago Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant reported that the Military Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands (‘Militaire Inlichtingen en Veiligheidsdienst’, MIVD) tortured dozens of Iraqi prisoners in buildings of the Coalition Provisional Authority in the town of Al-Samawah in 2003. After this disclosure a discussion ensued whether the MIVD actually tortured or whether its interrogation methods in Iraq had been somewhat ‘rough’. A commission was established by Defence Minister Henk Kamp and his colleague Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Minister of Justice, to investigate the matter.
Yesterday’s edition of daily NRC Handelsblad (frontpage + page 3) in the mean while has acquired new documents, originating from the Ministry of Defence, which shed new light on the issue. According to these documents water was thrown on the detainee’s by the MIVD interrogators, not so much to keep them awake, but as a means of punishing a detainee who ‘told lies’. Likewise, detainees weren’t exposed to loud music to prevent communication between them, but painful load music (‘white noise’) was used to put pressure on the prisoners.
Now, especially the water component of this new revelation is interesting: water wasn’t thrown on the detainees to keep them awake, but to force them to give information which the MIVD wanted. According to two Dutch professors, Willem van Genugten and Liesbeth Zegveld, who were quoted by NRC Handelsblad, this makes throwing water on a detainee an illegal method of interrogation. Accordingly, NRC Handelsblad implicitly presents ‘wettening detainees to keep them awake’ as a legal method. But what if ‘keeping detainees awake’ actually entailed the ‘torture lite’ interrogation method of ‘deprivation of sleep’? That would sound a lot worse than the allegation that water was thrown as a means of punishment. Therefore, signs that water was used to keep detainees awake shouldn’t be treated as something soothing. On the contrary, these are disturbing signs which require a thorough investigation.
al-samawah,
coalition provisional authority,
deprivation of sleep,
iraq,
liesbeth zegveld,
mivd,
netherlands,
sleep deprivation,
volkskrant,
willem van genugten
'Investigators Intimidated by Dutch Marines' · 22 November 2006, 11:02 CET by Charles Vermeulen
The reporting by Dutch daily de Volkskrant on the alleged torture of Iraqi detainees by the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) in Al-Muthanna in 2003 continues. To start with, last Friday de Volkskrant reported that the MIVD had ‘tortured’ dozens of Iraqi prisoners. Today’s edition of the newspaper states that the marines also raided houses, although they weren’t authorized to do so. But even more remarkable is the following. On his weblog (in Dutch, CV) defence minister Henk Kamp condemned previous Volkskrant reporting on the detainee issue, for the newspaper had failed to mention that the military police (marechaussee) had investigated the issue and had propounded it to the the Counsel for the Prosecution (‘Openbaar Ministerie’ or ‘OM’). The OM, in turn, had concluded on the basis of the marechaussee investigation that criminal investigation was unnecessary. But today’s edition of de Volkskrant includes a report that undermines the minister’s criticism. According to the newspaper ‘discriminating remarks’ as «nazi’s» and «kankerjoden» (‘fucking Jews’, literally ‘cancer Jews’) were used to intimidate the investigators and, more shockingly, at least one investigating military policeman had been threatened with death by Dutch marines. Shortly after the first publication on the issue in de Volkskrant political leader of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) Wouter Bos responded that ’[t]here is a smell of a cover-up coming off’ the case. Minister Kamp rebuked him for jumping to conclusions, but as it appears, the minister has to explain even more.
Update – De Volkskrant says that today’s report is based on a confidential letter of commander of Dutch military police (‘Koninklijke Marechaussee’, ‘KMAR’) Cees Neisingh, dated on 18 November 2003.
al-muthanna,
dutch marines,
henk kamp,
iraq,
mivd,
volkskrant,
wouter bos
Torture or No Torture? (3) · 18 November 2006, 08:18 CET by Charles Vermeulen
In a previous posting I mentioned professor Willem van Genugten who states that the applied interrogation methods of the MIVD amounted to torture. I failed to mention on what grounds the methods should be labeled ‘torture’, according to Van Genugten. In de Volkskrant, however, he underpinned his statement by referring to three articles of the third Geneva Convention:
Article 3 forbids ‘violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture’ and (...) ‘outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment’.
Article 13: ‘Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated’ (...) Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.
Article 14: ‘Prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour.’
Update – Professor Frits Kalshoven, which I mentioned in the same, previous posting, agrees that the Convention prohibits the MIVD conduct, but denies, on the other hand, that it amounts to torture. In today’s edition of Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad (AD) Kalshoven stresses that ’(...) [t]orture is ever so much worse’.
frits kalshoven,
geneva convention,
kalshoven,
mivd,
netherlands,
torture,
van genugten,
volkskrant,
willem van genugten
Political Turmoil After Volkskrant Report · 17 November 2006, 22:26 CET by Charles Vermeulen
The report published by de Volkskrant this morning created a lot of political turmoil in the Netherlands. A survey of the events that ensued the publication can be found in the International Heral Tribune.
de volkskrant,
netherlands,
volkskrant
Dutch Tortured Too in Iraq · 17 November 2006, 07:23 CET by Charles Vermeulen
Today Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant reports that the Military Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands (‘Militaire Inlichtingen en Veiligheidsdienst’, MIVD) tortured dozens of Iraqi prisoners in buildings of the Coalition Provisional Authority in the town of Al-Samawah in 2003. The Dutch army had occupied southern Iraq province of al-Muthanna as part of the Stabilisation Force Iraq (SFI) from July 2003 shortly after Gulf War II till April 2005. The prisoners were put on goggles, as a result of which they couldn’t see anything. Intermittently their glasses were put of after which they were exposed to glaring light. To keep them awake they were wetted and their hearing was exposed to extremely high sounds. According to de Volkskrant even now retired Chief of Staff Luuk Kroon was informed about what was going on at the time, but Kroon chose to ignore the advise of Kees Neisingh, major-general of the military police, to propound it to the Counsel for the Prosecution (‘Openbaar Ministerie’ or ‘OM’). Whether Defence Minister Henk Kamp was informed remains unsure for the time being. De Volkskrant furthermore reports that according to some ‘secret memo’ of a juridical department of the Ministery of Defence the Dutch forces in Iraq weren’t even allowed to interrogate any one at all.
al-muthanna,
henk kamp,
iraq,
luuk kroon,
mivd,
netherlands,
sfi,
stabilisation force iraq,
torture,
volkskrant