Today’s papers try to separate the good from the bad in Ivory Coast, feature embarrassing revelations by a beleaguered war hero and warn of wild-west shoot-outs here in Holland. There’s also a look at the dark side of Russia’s police and a London bobby with a twist.

Ivory Coast: reputation of the West’s darling tarnished
The Dutch dailies continue to follow developments in Ivory Coast, as troops loyal to elected president Alassane Ouattara close in on the last bastion of his rival Laurent Gbagbo. Trouw’s front page shows the fireball resulting from a French and UN attack on Gbagbo’s bases in Abidjan but reports suggest it’s becoming more difficult for the West to separate the good guys from the bad.
Trouw contends that “Ouattara’s clean image has now been soiled” and that “the darling of the West is suddenly coming in for criticism”. The paper continues “not an ill word was spoken about Alassane Ouattara in recent months” but now “the Red Cross is accusing fighters allied to Ouattara of murders in Ivory Coast”.

NRC Handelsblad leads with “Ouattara suspected of bloodbath”, referring to the killing of up to 1,000 members of a tribe loyal to Gbagbo in a western provincial town. The paper wonders how things got this bad, recalling that last November’s elections were “the most expensive ever held in Africa” with donor countries convinced that a fair ballot would end the country’s woes.
But when sitting President Laurent Gbagbo refused to relinquish power “the UN protected Ouattara [...] and even threatened military intervention [...] but nothing happened”. As negotiations failed “Ouattara decided to fight and now he’s getting his hands dirty”. Meanwhile, the country counts the cost. “Abidjan was a battlefield this weekend. And in villages and towns around the country, international organisations count the dead and the women who have been raped.”

Marco Kroon: embarrassing revelations in war-hero drugs trial
All of the papers report on the trial of Dutch war hero Marco Kroon, the soldier awarded the Netherlands’ highest military honour by Queen Beatrix herself for bravery in Afghanistan. But now he’s on trial before a military tribunal for drugs offences and illegally trading in electroshock weapons.

AD pictures the “war hero in a tight spot” with his hand covering his face and asks “is Captain Marco Kroon a fantasist or the victim of a conspiracy?” The paper is referring to the defence’s claim that the soldier was drugged and framed. It goes on to reveal that Captain Kroon was offered a deal by the public prosecutors: admit to drugs use and avoid a public trial. But since that would have meant giving up his military career and his badge of honour, he refused. He’s quoted as saying “The Defence Department is sacred to me”.

Reading the account of yesterday’s proceedings you have to wonder if he made the right decision. AD reports that “almost his entire private life was ruthlessly exposed” in what was “a tough cross examination and an at times embarrassing spectacle”. Captain Kroon was forced to admit that the “something tasty” he referred to in intercepted messages to his drug-using girlfriend was not an illegal substance but items to spice up their sex life. Whatever the ultimate verdict, the court seems determined to “dig deep into the private life” of the decorated war hero.

Has the Wild West come to the Netherlands?
Today De Telegraaf is ringing alarm bells about the illegal weapons trade in the Netherlands. Its front-page features the news that seven men have been arrested for using illegal fully automatic weapons at a shooting range, the culmination of months of police investigation using hidden cameras. Police raids on the suspects’ homes resulted in a haul that included pistols, revolvers, explosives, thousands of rounds of ammunition and €22,000 in cash.

Under the headline “The Wild West comes to the Netherlands” the paper links the story to “a deadly wave of American-style shoot outs, many of them in our streets”. It reports that “firearms are gaining ground” and that “the pistol is replacing the knife in cases of murder and manslaughter”.

The paper talks to a researcher at the University of Twente who describes the trade in illegal ammunition as “a particularly lucrative criminal activity”, with the possibility of gun clubs selling on bullets for up to ten times the going rate. And since only the purchase of ammunition is registered – not what it’s used for – “it is impossible under current legislation to prove black market sales”. In the past, the gun clubs were keen to dismiss any involvement in illicit sales as “pure fantasy” but these latest arrests might yet change their minds.

Russian police: the painful road to reform
De Volkskrant devotes a two-page article to Russia “on the eve of police reform”. It describes Russia as a country where “police violence, corruption and extortion are so widespread that in opinion polls 70 percent of Russians say they fear and distrust the police.”

The paper reports that lack of ambition is not the problem with the reform plans “to reduce police rolls of over one million agents by 20 percent and to re-evaluate all employees”. Nevertheless “no one has faith in the implementation” since, as one observer puts it, “the interior ministry is being asked to reform itself [...] while it has nothing to gain by doing so”.

The paper tells the chilling tale of construction worker Wachid, beaten senseless after being arrested on trumped up charges and forced to sign a blank sheet of paper. Against all the odds he took the offending officer to court and won, but only after a 19-month ordeal of intimidation and pressure to accept bribes. But he held out and tells the paper proudly “In the 78-year history of this town, this is the first time a policeman has been convicted.”

London bobby with a Dutch twist
“I’m a London bobby”, Dutchman Tijs Broeke proudly proclaims in De Telegraaf today, providing yet more proof of the Dutch knack of popping up in all kinds of unexpected guises throughout the world.

To be strictly accurate, he’s actually a London-based communications manager, but he gets to don the uniform – complete with traditional bobby’s helmet – as a volunteer constable, helping out at peak times and special events. “When Prince Charles and Camilla were besieged by protestors, I was on hand to help out” he reveals, and he’ll be doing his bit during the upcoming royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton.

But Tijs’s favourite perk is making unsuspecting Dutch tourists jump by addressing them in their mother tongue. “Especially if they’re a bit drunk,” he chuckles. “Then they really do think they’ve had one too many!”