Dutch ministers resign over airport fire
Two months before Dutch elections, the conservative government suffered a setback today with the resignation of two ministers who accepted blame for safety faults in an airport jail that led to the deaths of 11 prisoners.
The resignations followed a damning report by a prestigious commission that concluded the deaths last year of illegal immigrants and suspected drug smugglers in their cells at the facility adjacent to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport could have been avoided had the facility been built and run according to regulations.
The report was bad news for Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who has struggled to be ahead in the polls against opposition leader Wouter Bos of the Labour Party in the run-up to the November 22 vote. The latest surveys gave Balkenende a slight edge.
Balkenende’s government resigned last June when the smallest of the three coalition partner bolted in a dispute with the hardline immigration minister, precipitating elections nearly a year ahead of schedule.
Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and Housing Minister Sybilla Dekker both resigned, taking the brunt of the blame in the report by the Safety Investigation Council, which cited a long list of shortcomings at the airport detention facility in preparing for disaster and dealing with the fire after it broke out.
The report also criticised Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk for the treatment of the prisoners who survived the fire – some of whom were later deported before they could testify to the commission – but her failings were not deemed central enough to warrant her resignation.
Ironically, Verdonk, as Donner’s senior deputy, will take over responsibility for the Justice Ministry until a new government is formed.
After the report was released, Donner and Dekker moved quickly to contain the fallout, sending their resignation letters to Queen Beatrix to avoid a drawn out debate over responsibility. Balkenende said it was their decision to quit.
The resignation cleared the way for the Cabinet to fix the problems outlined in the report, Balkenende said, without commenting on the potential political damage.
In a brief statement to parliament, Dekker acknowledged the casualty toll in the October 27 fire was worsened by the haste with which the airport facility was built, at a time when the public was worried about rising crime.
“Because of this public and political urgency, there was great pressure to expand the detention facility for drug smugglers,” Dekker said.
“Disasters can never be excluded, no matter what rules you make,” Dekker said.
The report said there would have been “fewer or no victims to mourn if the fire security had received (proper) attention from the organisations involved.”
Council chairman Pieter van Vollenhoven, who is the queen’s brother-in-law and politically neutral, declined to respond to questions about criminal liability or negligence. “It’s not up to us to determine guilt,” he said. That would be up to public prosecutors.
Although the fire had not been a campaign issue so far, opposition parties were sharply critical.
“The building wasn’t in order, the procedures weren’t in order, people weren’t trained, the co-operation wasn’t good and as the clincher, the care afterward was also substandard,” said Aleid Wolfsen, of the Labour Party. “It could hardly be worse.”
The long-awaited report apportioned blame among the justice ministry, the building inspection service under the housing ministry, and the Haarlemmermeer municipality, which has jurisdiction over the airport.
The 310-page report said among the shortcomings were the lack of training in emergency procedures for the prison guards, faulty smoke and ventilation ducts and problems of access for fire trucks.
The victims were detainees from Suriname, Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, Dominican Republic, Romania and Bulgaria. They all died of carbon monoxide poisoning from inhaling smoke.
A prisoner believed to have started the blaze is being prosecuted for arson and manslaughter, but Van Vollenhoven said it was unclear from his investigations if the fire was started deliberately or accidentally. Prosecutors also are investigating two guards for negligence. Relatives of victims also have launched civil proceedings.
“I do not believe people are angry enough about this,” said Toekaja Artist, the mother of Robbert Arah who died in the blaze, said outside the parliament building.
Janna Kodde, a protester who was unrelated to any of the victims, said she was pessimistic that the political fallout would damage conservative parties in the elections.
“There are many people who think refugees should not be locked up, but they keep voting for the parties from the right. So it’s difficult to say if this will be a hot issue for the coming election,” she said.
