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Oct. 22, 2005 A few days back I wrote an article about the world court and how it would have been much more preferable to try him in the Hague with the world court. It seems some people take offense at the world court, not surprisingly it would be a self-declared republican that does it. But it wasn't just that mr. Ken Hughes disagreed with my article as to what would be better (something I have no problem with) or that he has some issues with the world court, something I would also have few problems with, it was his attack on my country that really was uncalled for. So let me give mister Hughes some historical perspective and some good old dutch home truths. THE NETHERLANDS ++ KEN HUGHES: Now let’s address Peter’s underline accusations and innuendos the US and some European countries are co-conspirators in Saddam Hussein’s atrocities. Of course that wouldn’t include the Netherlands, The only ties they had to Saddam was probably shipping him tulips in violation of the UN embargo.++ Now correct me if I am wrong but in my article I clearly wrote: - it is also not because it would embarrass the USA (because Germany, the Netherlands, France, Russia were just as bad if not worse). Now I don't know how other people might have read it but I wrote that Germany, the Netherlands, France and Russia were just as bad with regard to helping Saddam IF NOT WORSE!! So mr. Hughes, please explain where I wrote the Netherlands wasn't included?? In fact at this moment in time dutch business man Frans van Anraath is being prosecuted by the dutch ministry of justice for helping Saddam gas the Kurds of Halabja. The DA of the case has spent time in Iraq collecting the necessary evidence that will prosecute the first EU citizen for crimes in Iraq (during the Saddam Era). Mr. van Anraath supplied Saddam with chemicals that were used in the production of poisonous gas used in Halabja. That is how serious the dutch take their war-criminals, they prosecute them. ++KEN HUGHES: Twice in the 20th century, America and Briton went to the aid of Mainland Europe to rid it of dictators, something our Dutch friends seen to overlook.++ We forget?? I wonder how many times mr. Hughes has been in the Netherlands, not much from his totally ignorant statement, please read, I am not calling mr. Hughes ignorant, just his statement. Mr. Hughes may not know this so here goes: - every year thousands of British, American and Canadian war heroes are coming to the Netherlands to be celebrated for their sacrifices in WW2 - the American war memorial in Margraten (situated about 20 miles from where I live) is a place where thousands of dutch people and entire school classes have adopted graves from American soldiers that died during the second world war. Making sure there are flowers placed at the graves on important dates like memorial day. - we have a national remembrance every year on may the forth remembering the fallen of WW2 and the day after that on may the fifth we have "liberation day" where we celebrate our freedom from the German occupation with lot's of parades honoring the heroes of WW2 - Or as president Bush spoke earlier this year when he and our queen celebrated the sacrifice of the American who fell in WW2: In the Voice of America's radio broadcast from London on the first V-E Day, the announcer asked Europe to "think of these Americans as your dead, too." In Dutch hearts, they already were. The Americans saw the Dutch spirit in action within weeks of liberation, when this new cemetery marked its first Memorial Day. It was still a time of hardship and want and deprivation; yet Dutch citizens from 60 local villages collected 20 truckloads of flowers so that every American grave here would be decorated when the sun came up on Memorial Day. And in the six decades since, the Dutch have continued this wonderful tradition by adopting and attending to the graves of the people they never met. Your kindness has brought comfort to thousands of American families separated from their loved ones here by an ocean. And on behalf of a grateful America, I thank you for treating our men and women as your sons and daughters. So yeah Mr. Hughes, we have really forgotten the sacrifice of those all those who died to free the world from the Nazis. And then Mr. Hughes starts with the insults: ++ KEN HUGHES: when the German Army entered Holland without a shot being fired defending the country++ Did we not fire a shot mr. Hughes?? Didn't we?? How much history have you actually enjoyed if I might be so bold?? The dutch army defended themselves with great vigor and courage against a superior germane war machine. We fought back with all our might and where holding our own using tactics that slowed the Germans down to a crawl until the Germans did what they do best, they bombed the harbor town of Rotterdam killing almost 1,000 people, destroying 30,000 homes in a sea of flames and making about 80,000 people homeless. After they did this they threatened to repeat that performance in Amsterdam, Utrecht and any other mayor dutch town. Faced with so much evil and afraid for the lives of their citizens the dutch government capitulated after 4 days, the army put down their weapons 2 days later. ++ KEN HUGHES: Tell us how you say in your language, “ It’s Better To Live In Slavery Than Shed One Drop Of Blood For Freedom”. I’m sure the Dutch have words for it. In fact, I’m sure all the Old European Countries have a way of saying it. [As long as it’s not their blood.] ++ Do you know how many dutch people died in WW2 Mr. Hughes?? How many were the victim of this war?? How dangerous the work of the brave men and women from the resistance was? How thousands of dutch Jews survived because countless families risked their lives to hide them from the Nazis?? Hundreds of thousands of men were transported to Germany to do forced labor. In 1944 a dutch group of resistance fighters killed 3 German soldiers and took 1 wounded soldier prisoner. When the German commander demanded the soldier back or else, the resistance fighters complied. The Germans took all 661 boys and men from the nearby town of Putten and put them on a train to Auschwitz, only 49 survived. In 1945 another group of dutch resistance fighters killed 2 Germans and wounded SS general Rauter, the Germans rounded up 116 men and transported them to the place where the ambush took place, they were executed right there and then and buried nearby. In Gestapo prisons all over the country prisoners were taken out of the cells and executed for the ambush. In total 263 people died there, 116 at the site of the ambush and 147 executed prisoners. All in all more than 250,000 dutch people died during WW2. And not just in the Netherlands but also in what is now called Indonesia the dutch died for the freedom of their country. And thank you for disrespecting the dutch soldiers and merchant marines that fought in the second world war. And a further thank you for disrespecting the dutch soldiers that have stood with the USA in Korea, the first gulf war, Afghanistan and Iraq. And for all the dutch soldiers and police-officers who risked their lives with peacekeeping efforts/assistance to allies in former Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Namibia, Sinai, Angola, Haiti, Liberia, Turkey, Eritrea/Ethiopia, Macedonia, Albania, Cyprus, Syria, Georgia, Rwanda, Mozambique, South Africa, Cambodia, Yemen, Congo and so on and so on. How was it again mr. Hughes?? ++ KEN HUGHES: The Netherlands has a policy of never getting involved ++ Yeah, as a member of Nato and a active member in the UN, we never get involved anywhere. I must be pretending that dutch marines are searching the Afghan mountains as we speak for Osama and his buddies and that Dutch soldiers were stationed in both Iraq and Afghanistan. My brother in law who served in Iraq in 2004 is also very not involved in keeping the world save. THE WORLD COURT?? Here is another problem with reasoning mr. Hughes has used in his story. Mr. Milosevic is being tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and not the any-called world court, check your facts please mr. Hughes. In fact the only world court we know is the UN highest court, and that court only deals in issues between states and could never prosecute Saddam. But there are more problems with mr. Hughes's contentions, he claims the trying mr. Milosevic is the most ineffectual judicial body in the world, and I guess he is basing this almost completely on the trial of mr. Milosevic which has been so long due to the rules of the Tribunal created by the security council and the bad health of Milosevic.. A few facts about the ICTY in the Hague: - 56 Accused are currently in custody at the Detention Unit - 24 Accused are on provisional release - 9 Accused are at large - 39 Accused at pre-trial stage - 10 Accused referred to national jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 11bis - 12 Accused currently at trial (one of them being Slobodan Milosevic) - 10 Accused are at the Appeal stage - 40 Accused have been found guilty So to go around and say the ICTY is the most ineffectual court in the world is not correct according to the facts at least, the court is busy with trying numerous war criminals.It is great these kinds of people are being tried at all and thanks to the workings of the ICTY a lot of war-criminals are serving their sentences right now. By the way mr. Hughes, the court that should and could try Saddam is called the International Criminal Court, and they cannot be called ineffective either because they have just started up and are yet to try their first case. The only things done so far are procedural of nature (appointing judges, procedural rules) and 5 arrest warrants were issued on October 13th 2005. As soon as those men are arrested and transfered we will see how effective the court really is in trying war crimes. AND FOR THE RECORD In your own story you wrote something about addressing underlying accusations that the US and some European countries are co-conspirators to Saddam Hussein's atrocities, remember? ++ KEN HUGHES: Now let’s address Peter’s underline accusations and innuendos the US and some European countries are co-conspirators in Saddam Hussein’s atrocities.++ Let's indeed do that mr. Hughes, starting with the atrocities are not just the gassing of the Kurds, defeating the Shi'ite uprising post first gulf war and the invasion of Kuwait but also the atrocities committed in the Iran-Iraq war by Saddam. And about the help to Saddam mr. Hughes, I was talking about the stages before there was an embargo against Iraq. The help Saddam got from Europe, the US and China: - As I said before (and showed before) the Netherlands also provided Saddam with dual grade technology, supplies and weapons (some even after the embargo) - before the Iran-Iraq war the Soviet Union was Saddams biggest benefactor - after the Iran-Iraq war started the biggest sellers of weapons were the Soviet Union, France, Egypt and China. These countries kept selling huge supplies of weapons to Saddam until he invaded Kuwait - After Abu Nidal was ejected from Iraq the US started aiding Saddam: # From 1983 to 1990 the U.S. government approved around $200 million in arms sales to Iraq, according to the Stockholm International Peace Institute (SIPRI) Now although that was only 1% of the total sale of arms to Saddam during that period, the USA also sold Iraq helicopters which, although designated for civilian use, were immediately deployed by Iraq in its war with Iran. # An investigation by the Senate Banking Committee in 1994 showed that the U.S. Department of Commerce had approved, for the purpose of research, dual use biological agents to Iraq, agents like Anthrax, clostridium botulinum (for creating botulism), histoplasma capsulatum (can lead to fatal lung-disease), brucella melitensis (causes chronic fatigue, loss of appetite, profuse sweating when at rest, pain in joints and muscles, insomnia, nausea, and damage to major organs) and Clostridium perfringens (a highly toxic bacteria which causes gas gangrene). They delivered those agents knowing as early as 1983 that Saddam was using chemical weapons on an almost daily basis in his war with Iran. # Between 1983 and 1990, Iraq received $5 billion in credits from the Commodity Credit Corporation program run by the Department of Agriculture # the U.S. also provided Hussein with other loans. An example is the loan from the U.S Export-Import Bank, they extended more than $684 million in credits to Iraq to build an oil pipeline through Jordan with the construction being undertaken by Californian construction firm Bechtel Corporation. But to come back to my own article, I never called the US a co-conspirator of anything, that is your perception of what I wrote and not what I actually wrote. I only wrote that "western powers and communist powers" gave Saddam the means to commit the atrocities he committed and I stand by that observation because it is the truth. ------------ About the author: Peter van der Vliet is a 36 year old man who lives in the Netherlands, he is a keen visitor of several internet messageboards and loves to write in the English language. Peter is a keen follower of international politics and worldhistory. Email: peter_van_der_vliet@yahoo.co.uk Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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