Eight years after the first Dutch F-16 flew over Iraq, the Ministry of Defense uncovered locations where the Netherlands conducted airstrikes. For the first time, journalists, NGOs and lawmakers can control how many civilians died in these bomb attacks against ISIS targets.
Research by NOS, Nieuwsuur and NRC shows that more civilians have died than previously thought. This has been suspected for years. Why does this only come out now? And why did it take eight years for the Department of Defense to open?
The reconstruction of how promises were not kept was based on cabinet American investigations, and the image of a clean war could persist for years.
When the Rutte II cabinet decided in 2014 to take part in the international fight against IS with Dutch F-16s, the promise was clear. Attacks will only take place if preliminary calculations show that no civilians will be killed. The commander of the armed forces, General Tom Middendorp, says the chamber has the ability to “destroy targets in a very targeted and precise manner without collateral damage” (.pdf).
Should something go wrong unexpectedly, “all these cases will be seriously investigated,” then, six months later, Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis promised. “If an airstrike is likely to cause civilian casualties, the report will be reviewed by the country or countries that carried out the airstrike at that time and place.” could receive compensation.
At least that’s the word.
It is immediately clear that not only IS fighters have died in the sensitive bombings of the international coalition. When reports of hundreds of civilian deaths appeared in the international media throughout 2015, the House of Representatives will want to know if these attacks were perpetrated by the Netherlands.
“According to the available information, the Dutch did not participate,” Minister Hennis wrote to the Chamber. This is not true, because it will come out later, because by this time the Department of Defense already knows that the Americans are investigating an incident that occurred a few weeks ago in Hawija, in which at least seventy civilians were killed.
A few months later, the shutters on Defense finally closed. SP MP Harry van Bommel asks again whether the Netherlands was really involved, and he makes explicit reference to a report that also mentions the incident in Hawija. The government’s response was, “For operational and internal security reasons, we do not comment on specific cases.”
This will also be the mantra of the next cabinets. The statement said that the pilots and national security were at stake. The House of Representatives must trust the Cabinet that no civilians were killed in the Dutch attacks. Attempts by journalists from AD, RTL and NOS to learn more about the bombings fail because of the security argument.
While it has become increasingly clear over the years that thousands of civilians have died in international airstrikes, the Dutch bombing never seems to go wrong. The Department of Defense first confirmed civilian deaths only in 2018. That’s almost four years after the mission started. According to then Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld, civilians died in one incident and “probably” in one second. It doesn’t mention what specific attacks are involved.
The government understands nothing about criticism of politics. Speaking to EenVandaag, Foreign Minister Stef Blok said, “I think it’s actually unfair to these men and women who are doing this hard work here that we say we are not transparent.” “It’s not like the information is intentionally withheld.”
That pertinent information has not been shared, however, becomes painfully clear in 2019 when research by the NOS and NRC showed that one of the incidents Minister Bijleveld mentioned was related to the bombing that destroyed an entire neighborhood in Hawija. Minister Bijleveld acknowledges that in addition to this attack, the Netherlands also carried out the accidental bombing of two families’ homes in Mosul in the same year. For the first time, the Ministry of Defense spoke openly about certain events.
Although Minister Jeanine Hennis promised to seek compensation for each incident, this did not happen in these two cases. This was not possible, according to the Department of Defense, “as it resulted in the disclosure of the exact location, date and estimated number of civilian casualties.”
But even after 2019, data about attacks will not be transferred for security reasons. It is also now clear, as Hennis has said before, that the Netherlands is not investigating reports of civilian deaths, leaving it to US military headquarters, Centcom. “They have all the knowledge and experience and can do it with great authority,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said of Centcom in early 2020. “You are the referee.” Therefore, the House has no doubt that the Americans are conducting a thorough investigation.
But even this word turns out to be worthless.
Two years ago, the Pentagon was informed that there was something to be said about their investigation. In 2018, the American defense will review its own quality. Hundreds of studies are analyzed. The diplomatic decision of the researchers is that the quality of the studies is largely “and some can be seen as limiting”.
“The process is designed to run literally thousands of reports relatively quickly,” said Lewis Lawrence, one of the researchers. “Reviews actually. We don’t call it research anymore.” Americans mostly watch their own video footage and pay almost no attention to local sources.
The New York Times comes to the same conclusion after obtaining 1,311 inquiries through the courts in 2021 and visiting more than a hundred affected places in Iraq and Syria. In only one case, Centcom investigators visited the crime scene. On only two occasions did they interview witnesses or survivors. The documents show that “transparency and accountability obligations have been replaced by transparency and impunity”.
The result: 80 percent of reports are dismissed as “incredible” by Pentagon researchers. No one hears these reports anymore, and the Netherlands has not received any.
According to the Department of Defense, this is not due to the quality of the investigations. “There is not enough information for many reports of possible civilian casualties,” Secretary Bijleveld told the House of Representatives. But Airwars, an NGO that often works with Centcom, saw this argument as flawed. They examined 37 cases where they were able to provide Centcom with all the requested information. In only three cases, Centcom ultimately found the report credible.
After years of criticism, the US Secretary of Defense plans to submit an “ambitious and necessary” action plan (.pdf) to reduce civilian deaths in the summer of 2022. One of the starting points is to establish new procedures for civilian death investigations and then take local resources seriously.
At the same time, things were changing in the Netherlands, where a new defense minister took over. Since the Hawija controversy, a group of DoD officials has been developing new guidelines for civilian deaths for future missions. When SP MP Jasper van Dijk asks again about all the dates and locations of the bombings in early 2022, they recommend an answer.
After the Homeland Security and Counter-Terrorism Coordinator also gave the green light – national security does not appear to be in danger – Minister Kajsa Ollongren decided to agree. The downside of this air warfare can now be studied.
Source: NOS
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
