Updated on
Summary
An investigation found the Dutch government supported the war in Iraq without legal backing but said Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende had little to do with the initial planning for the Netherlands' participation in the war. The United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq from the 1990s did not give a mandate to the US-British military intervention in 2003, the Dutch Committee of Inquiry on Iraq said in its 550-page-long report. The committee said the Netherlands gave political support to the war because of a risk Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, which later proved to be absent, and to support its NATO allies the United States and Britain, who led the invasion. The United States invasion probably also targeted a regime change in Iraq but a military intervention on this ground was not supported by international law, and the Dutch government was aware of this, the committee said. The report also said the Dutch government did not adequately inform parliament in 2002 and 2003 about a U.S. request to support the invasion's planning, or about the timing of Dutch logistic support given to prepare the invasion. Keeping information from parliament in the Netherlands is considered a political sin and a reason for MPs to call for a minister's resignation. Iraq Committee chairman Willibrord Davis did not want to say what the possible political implications would be. The Commission concludes that there was no legitimacy under international law for the military attack on Iraq. It is not the task of this commission to make any further political conclusions, Davis said. Multiple Dutch party leaders immediately called for the government to answer questions in parliament. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who also held the job in 2003, had opposed an investigation for years but ordered it last February after continued media reports questioned the legality of the Netherlands' support. Balkenende was not actively involved in the cabinet's decision making process to support the Iraq invasion until Jan. 2003, while preparations had already started five months earlier during a Foreign Affairs Ministry meeting, the committee said.
