When Nato Secretary-General, Jaap De Hoop Scheffer recently made some rather hopelessly inadequate comments about new marriage laws in Afghanistan, laws that are at best dubious in both Islamic law as well as International law, he must have forgotten about some of his own rather dubious practices that he had presided over as Nato Secretary-General or had knowledge of as a member of a Dutch Government that in, human rights terms, smells of abuses and inadequacies.
So while Mr Jaap De Hoop Scheffer preaches human rights and other values let us now have a look at the values that De Hoop Scheffer appears to be accustomed to.
Prior to becoming Nato Secretary-General, De Hoop Scheffer was a member of and indeed a Minister in a Government that breached and still breaches some basic values in terms of International Law Conventions, Human rights Laws as well as other international rulings that Holland, as a signatory to almost all of these conventions, vowed to abide by.
Yet it was the Dutch Government in which De Hoop Scheffer was a member that locked up asylum seekers on barges in Rotterdam harbour for months on end without proper legal representation, services and other normal amenities that even the most brutal regimes would allow people they had locked up.
It was was also the Dutch Government in which De Hoop Scheffer was a member that was responsible for a number of detainees being burned to death at Schiphol Airport because it had failed to provide proper and adequate safety facilities.
It was also the Dutch Government in which De Hoop Scheffer was a member that failed and still fails to provide proper legal representation to asylum seekers and illegal immigrants locking them up for months on end.
And then we have a Dutch Government that decided that people who moved away from Holland were no longer Dutch Citizens, a ruling that flies in face of all International Laws and Conventions and that are highly illegal in EU terms, International terms and even illegal in terms of the Dutch Constitution.
While De Hoop Scheffer was a Government Minister, he failed to ensure that the Dutch Civil Service agencies and staff thereof were reflecting the wishes of the Dutch population the end result now being that the current flock of public servants are writing their own rules as they see fit in order to serve themselves.
In Nato terms, the record of De Hoop Scheffer, as Nato Secretary-General is not much better.
He failed to reign in Turkish Nato troops in Northern Iraq. He failed to ensure the extra-ordinary rendition conducted by the Bush regime was stopped and accounted for and he failed to ensure that the US did not use Nato bases for illegal transportation of captured persons despite being advised by base commanders that these practices were taking place.
De Hoop Scheffer has also presided over a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan, a war that, in its present form, is unwinable. Perhaps the Secretary-General might have at least consulted with Russians in order to ascertain as to why the Russian got a bloody nose in Afghanistan.
To conclude I perhaps take the liberty of advising Jaap De Hoop Scheffer that before he starts preaching to others, he might like to get his own house in order first.
So there it is. Not a bit of Dutch courage, just rather a lot of Dutch hypocrisy.
So while Mr Jaap De Hoop Scheffer preaches human rights and other values let us now have a look at the values that De Hoop Scheffer appears to be accustomed to.
Prior to becoming Nato Secretary-General, De Hoop Scheffer was a member of and indeed a Minister in a Government that breached and still breaches some basic values in terms of International Law Conventions, Human rights Laws as well as other international rulings that Holland, as a signatory to almost all of these conventions, vowed to abide by.
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It was also the Dutch Government in which De Hoop Scheffer was a member that failed and still fails to provide proper legal representation to asylum seekers and illegal immigrants locking them up for months on end.It was was also the Dutch Government in which De Hoop Scheffer was a member that was responsible for a number of detainees being burned to death at Schiphol Airport because it had failed to provide proper and adequate safety facilities.
It was also the Dutch Government in which De Hoop Scheffer was a member that failed and still fails to provide proper legal representation to asylum seekers and illegal immigrants locking them up for months on end.
And then we have a Dutch Government that decided that people who moved away from Holland were no longer Dutch Citizens, a ruling that flies in face of all International Laws and Conventions and that are highly illegal in EU terms, International terms and even illegal in terms of the Dutch Constitution.
While De Hoop Scheffer was a Government Minister, he failed to ensure that the Dutch Civil Service agencies and staff thereof were reflecting the wishes of the Dutch population the end result now being that the current flock of public servants are writing their own rules as they see fit in order to serve themselves.
In Nato terms, the record of De Hoop Scheffer, as Nato Secretary-General is not much better.
He failed to reign in Turkish Nato troops in Northern Iraq. He failed to ensure the extra-ordinary rendition conducted by the Bush regime was stopped and accounted for and he failed to ensure that the US did not use Nato bases for illegal transportation of captured persons despite being advised by base commanders that these practices were taking place.
De Hoop Scheffer has also presided over a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan, a war that, in its present form, is unwinable. Perhaps the Secretary-General might have at least consulted with Russians in order to ascertain as to why the Russian got a bloody nose in Afghanistan.
To conclude I perhaps take the liberty of advising Jaap De Hoop Scheffer that before he starts preaching to others, he might like to get his own house in order first.
So there it is. Not a bit of Dutch courage, just rather a lot of Dutch hypocrisy.
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