The Netherlands loves playing the part of a model country where human rights and peaceful resolutions to conflicts are concerned. However, activists say the country at the same time allows transshipments of arms to conflict areas such as Sri Lanka. Criminal organisations like the Mexican drug cartels are thought to indirectly benefit from a Dutch reluctance to enforce the rules regarding transshipments.

The Netherlands produces and exports a variety of weaponry including naval vessels and advanced military electronics. And the country usually closely checks the destination of its exports to ensure they do not fall in the wrong hands. However, Dutch government oversight is much less strict - if not completely absent - where it concerns transshipments of arms passing through the port of Rotterdam or Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Frank Slijper of the NGO Campagne tegen Wapenhandel (Campaign against the Arms Trade) says many of these exporting countries do not adhere strictly to international rules.

Sri Lanka
“Research that we conducted shows that countries such as the Czech Republic and Bulgaria do not apply the rules as strictly as the Netherlands does. As a result, 20,000 Czech machine guns were shipped to Sri Lanka via Rotterdam.”

The shipment Mr Slijper is referring to was sent to Sri Lanka shortly before a 2009 government offensive in which the Tamil rebels were definitively defeated. The United Nations says at least 7,000 people were killed and government forces reportedly committed human rights violations.

Guide lines
Arms transshipments have been the subject of heated discussion in the Netherlands for quite some time. Activists and progressive parties are urging stricter inspections of transshipments. In 2008, European guidelines on arms exports were tightened, and the number of transshipments via the Netherlands has since been halved.

However, almost none of the transshipments originating from ‘friendly nations’ are ever inspected. The countries involved include EU and NATO member states, as well as Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. These countries will have checked the destination of the shipment so there is no need for the Netherlands to repeat the inspection, or so the reasoning goes.

Cluster munitions
But Dutch GreenLeft MP Arjan el Fassed, who is to ask the government questions on the issue, says the rules are subject to interpretation, and there is no guarantee that the weapons end up in the right hands. The MP accuses the Netherlands of using double standards in its transshipments policies. For instance where cluster munitions are concerned.

“The Netherlands is about to ratify a treaty against cluster munitions. We are opposed to the use of cluster munitions because their use constitutes a violation of human rights, but a country which produces cluster munitions can still export these weapons via the Netherlands.”

In addition to Sri Lanka, a report by Campagne tegen Wapenhandel (CtW) lists a number of controversial destinations including Algeria, Kenya, Colombia and Honduras. However, even when the destination is less controversial, such as the United States, CtW argues that a careful evaluation of whether the arms could fall in the wrong hands would still be in order.

Many of the arms shipped to the United States are intended for private users. Neighbouring Mexico has been complaining for years about the large numbers of weapons finding their way to the drug cartels via the United States. CtW argues that the Netherlands plays a part in this, albeit indirectly.

Conscientious
In a reaction, the Economic Affairs Ministry emphasises the extensive nature of international procedures regarding weapons exports, and that the Netherlands assumes its allies apply them diligently. The main coalition party, the conservative VVD, endorses this point of view. VVD MP Afke Schaart says she will re-evaluate the rules should it become clear they do not work, but says she sees no reason to for the time being. Ms Schaart emphasised the high standards applied by the Netherlands in the field of the weapons trade:

“I believe our standards are adequate, and high compared to the rest of the World. And I want to keep them that way for now. I see no reason to make any changes.”

(gsh)