Netherlands: Hundreds held during Summit
01 May 1997
A week of demonstrations and disturbances during the recent EU intergovernmental conference has led to the Dutch government consider new public order legislation. More than 50,000 people demonstrated on June 15, leading to over 300 arrests.
The demonstration held on the afternoon of the 15 June saw groups from all over the EU converge on Amsterdam. Organisations represented included trade unions, political parties, national campaigns and community groups. The demonstration began peacefully but along the route widespread disturbances led the organisers to complain about "heavy-handed policing".
However the incident which has raised serious questions about Dutch public order enforcement began on the evening of the 15 June, when a group of 300 demonstrators gathered outside "café Vrankrijk", a well known squat in Amsterdam, with the aim of holding a peaceful protest outside police headquarters supporting others already being held by the police. All 300 were eventually detained before they ever reached their destination under "Wetsartikel 140" (Article 140), a law aimed at serious organised crime which criminalises "membership of an organisation which aims to commit crimes".
When the protesters eventually came before the court their lawyers successfully argued that even if one accepted that there was an organisation present on the day that "aimed to commit crimes", there was no evidence that any individual arrested was a member of that organisation. This meant that of the 300 demonstrators arrested not one has yet been successfully prosecuted under this law.
This outcome has led to heated debates in parliament, with a majority eventually agreeing that "Wetsartikel 140 " was too strong a measure to be used for this purpose. They also felt that the people held should have been brought before a court quickly rather than at the end of the IGC, thereby avoiding the necessity of holding people who had not committed any crime in custody for three days.
Some MPs also complained about the treatment of individual protesters at the hands of the police, claiming that some were made to stand in a courtyard for hours and were refused permission to make a phone call. They have called for a public inquiry into these allegations.
In all 607 people were arrested at the various demonstrations. On Monday 16 June 143 people were arrested at the Nieuwmarkt when around 500 people gathered to walk round the different hotels where the EU Prime Ministers were staying and, in a playful fashion, sought to keep them awake by cheering loudly and blowing whistles. All the arrests took place outside the hotel Mr Chirac was staying in - the other Prime Minister staying at this hotel was Mr Blair.
On the morning of Tuesday 17 June the authorities started deporting over 100 of those arrested before the first cases were dismissed by the court. Most were charged under Article 140, which if they had been brought to court, would have been thrown out and there would have been no grounds for deportation. However, it appears in some cases people were handed back to German and Belgium police at the borders. Those held from the UK had their names sent over to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) to be checked out.
In Denmark the issue has been raised in parliament by the Red-Green Alliance. They complained about the treatment of 29 Danes arrested in Amsterdam - twelve of whom were send back by military plane, escorted by a Dutch fighter-bomber the first part of the way.
Some of the Danes were deported without their belongings. The Danish consul in Amsterdam was furious because she was not allowed to visit the arrested Danes in the "holding centres". The Red-Green Alliance has asked the government if Danish authorities gave information to Europol, Interpol, the Schengen Information System or to the Dutch police, and whether the fingerprints and photographs taken have been destroyed.
The wider issues raised in