Dutch Commission Finds No Legal Justification for Iraq War

The Hague, January 12. The American-British invasion of Iraq in 2003 lacked a mandate under international law. Prime Minister Balkenende has claimed otherwise. Moreover, in the run-up to the Iraq war, Parliament was not fully informed.

This was especially the case when it came to the U.S. request for military support.

Those are the most important conclusions of the investigation report by the Davids Commission. On Balkenende’s role, the commission writes: “The Prime Minister initially gave little or no direction to debates on the Iraq issue.”

This independent commission examined the background of the decision-making on the Dutch political support for the war in Iraq. This morning, the commission’s chairman Willibrord Davids, former president of the Supreme Court, presented the report to Balkenende.

The commission expresses sharp criticism over the way the former Balkenende government came to its position, and subsequently defended it. “Because the government and ruling parties entrenched themselves behind their first position, a substantive exchange of views between government and parliament on the Iraq policy did not get off the ground.”

Information from its own intelligence services was selectively and without nuances passed on to Parliament.

There is also “a certain insincerity” in the way the government persisted in claiming that the dismantling of Iraq’s weapons arsenal was the goal of the invasion, while it knew that the objective of the Americans was regime change – the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

For years, the Prime Minister opposed an investigation, but after persistent political, social and public pressure, felt compelled to allow an investigation. Because ”the dynamics began to take a life of their own,” said the Prime Minister in February of last year. The commission wrote that such an investigation could have better been conducted earlier.

According to Davids, no evidence was found of Dutch military commitment to the invasion. The first Balkenende government decided to support the invasion of Iraq because Iraq ignored the Security Council resolutions. That reasoning is erroneous, the commission concludes. “The government did itself a disservice by basing its policy on a position that in international law could not be properly defended.”

The commission was able to freely do its job. There was no question of a “cover-up commission,” said Davids. “There were no attempts to influence, let alone pressure. There were limits under the law, for example as it relates to information from intelligence agencies.” Neither the Prime Minister nor the government had reacted before the deadline for the newspaper.