Justice has so far been relatively powerless to prosecute those who make money out of conflicts that result in the deaths of millions of civilians. Recently, the Netherlands has taken the initiative to tackle the problem. On 18 March, Gus van Kouwenhoven, a 62-year-old Dutchman, was arrested and accused of war crimes for breaking the embargo on selling arms to Liberia. In the mid-1990s, Dutch courts investigated the role of «Mr Gus» in trafficking drugs through Liberia. In 2001, the UN identified him as a key player in the violence in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Belonging to the inner circle of former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, the Dutchman allegedly supplied Taylor with arms in exchange for timber. His company, the Oriental Timber Company (OTC), created a militia of 2,500 men that allegedly participated in the massacre of civilians. In return for money from the timber company, Gus van Kouwenhoven received protection of his financial assets, which included a hotel and a casino. In 2003, the Dutchman had to leave Liberia after the Security Council banned timber exports from Liberia and ordered OTC to be closed down. The prosecutor of the Sierra Leone Special Court, who had failed to indict certain businessmen who had cashed in on the civil war in Sierra Leone, welcomed his arrest. The Dutch courts have also started proceedings against another national, 62-year-old Frans van Anraat. In December 2004, Van Anraat was arrested and accused of selling US and Japanese chemicals, which were used to produce poison gas, to Saddam Hussein\'s regime. On 18 March, in the presence of some of the survivors of the chemical gas attack against the Kurdish Iraqi town of Halabja, the Dutch public prosecutor read out the charges against him, including complicity in genocide. «He was conscious of the fact that his materials were going to be used for poison gas attacks,» said prosecutor Fred Teeuwen. Van Anraat\'s trial opens in November.