Netherlands: debate on internal security service (1)
01 January 1991
Netherlands: debate on internal security service
artdoc June=1991
The Dutch parliament on March 14 had an unusually long 6 hour discussion
on the re-organization of the Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst (BVD), the
Dutch domestic security service. Another unusual aspect was, that all the
political parties from left to right seemed to share more or less the same
view points on the necessity for changes in the functioning of the BVD and
in the present system of parliamentary oversight. This resulted in a joint
motion by the conservative VVD and the Green Left party asking for a
stricter formulation of the tasks and prerogatives of the BVD, a motion
supported by a majority in parliament. MP's insisted on a limited role of
the security service, restricting its tasks to the prevention of major
threats and not to the investigation of smaller offences like burglaries
and small-scale political violence. Law enforcement, i.e. acting upon
specific crimes, should remain the prerogative of the regular police
services. Minister of the Interior Ms. Ien Dales promised the MPs that she
would maintain more openness with respect to non-operational security
matters that involve policy decisions. She would also provide parliament
with an annual report of all relevant risks to Dutch security.
All major parties asked to consider establishing an independent expert
oversight committee shaped to the Canadian model, to be the eyes and ears
of parliament. However, Ms. Dales told them she did not favour the idea at
all. Recently many other governments like the Luxembourg, Hungarian and
Spanish that were looking for a new model of security oversight, turned to
the Dutch to ask for English translations of the Dutch Intelligence and
Security Services Act. The minister preferred considering an enlargement
of the parliamentary security and intelligence oversight committee, which
at present consists only of the chairpersons of the 4 major political
parties who are required to maintain an absolute secrecy towards all
outsiders, including their party experts. Their workload is such that they
rarely find time to meet at all, let alone carry out investigations on
their own initiative. On questions about the co-operation with foreign
security services, the minister told parliament that all operations of
friendly security services on Dutch soil were co-ordinated with their Dutch
counterparts, and that she was always personally informed of such
operations. International co-operation according to Ms. Dales, amounted to
the transmission of information, obtained from border controls; joint
evaluations of information and risk assessments; attuning and co-ordination
procedures. Most important in this was the Trevi co-operation framework.
Another parliamentary debate on the BVD is expected at the end of April,
this time on the restructuring of the BVD archives. Minister Dales has
recently declared that she did not want any dossiers on persons to be
destroyed before late 1993. This amounts to a considerable change of
policy: in early 1991 the schedule was still planned for the destruction
of hundreds of thousands of files on persons to take place this summer.
This is generally seen as a success for the Vereniging Voorkom Vernietiging
(Association to Prevent Destruction), a group of researchers, journalists,
activists and privacy protectors that wants a broader discussion before
irreversible actions take place. See Statewatch no 1, p2-3.
Statewatch no 2, May/June 1991