The Netherlands and Weapons of Mass Destruction

The Netherlands is one of the peaceful producers of components that can be used for creating deadly agents, chemical weapons and other kinds of weapons of mass destruction. Several Dutch companies provided Iraq with components for these illegal weapons during 1980's.

Dutch production of weapons of mass destruction

Alongside other companies from the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Belgium, Spain, India, and Brazil, Dutch companies provided Saddam Hussein with chemical agents needed to engage in chemical warfare for use against Iranians and Kurdish civilians.

Two thousand Iranians who suffered from chemical warfare during the Iraqi imposed war (1980–1988) submitted an indictment some years ago with a Tehran court against nine companies that had provided Saddam Hussein with the deadly weapons. 455 American and European companies provided aid to Iraq during its aggression on Iran and two thirds of the companies were German. The United Nations published a 12,000-page report about the conflict and named the entire companies involved in the fiasco. An Iraqi special tribunal started trial of dictator Saddam Hussein after his fall. Iranian Chemical victims were absent in the closed-door trial and the grievances of Iran's victims was not a part of the agenda in the tribunal.[1]

Sale of WMD's by Dutch businessmen

A Dutch businessman called Frans van Anraat, 62, was accused of complicity in genocide for selling chemicals to Iraq in the 1980s knowing that Saddam Hussein might use them as weapons against Iranians and others. He has acknowledged that he sold chemicals to Saddam's regime. He exported tons of European-made chemicals between 1984 and 1988 that were turned into mustard and nerve gas most of them used on Iranians and the Kurds. He calmly went ahead with delivering such materials even after the gas attack on Halabja.[2]

Reexport from Iraq to the Netherlands for hiding

Illicit Iraqi WMD components were exported to the Netherlands. In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, an Iraqi SA-2 surface-to-air missile, one of at least 12, was discovered in a junk yard, replete with UN tags. [3]