Rebuttal to Ambassador Bekin's letter to Congressmen Pitts, Wolf, and Smith Regarding Concerns on Criminal Complaints Against Dutch Secretary-General Joris Demmink
The following is a rebuttal to the August 17, 2012 letter from Dutch Ambassador, R.S. Bekink to U.S. Congressman Joseph Pitts:
1.Dutch Weak Link
Ambassador Bekink denies Congressman Pitts’ observation that “the Netherlands may be susceptible to becoming a ‘weak link’ in the chain of anti-sex trafficking efforts.”
The Ambassador is wrong, as many reports point to the Netherlands as ground zero for trafficking in Europe. Investigative reporter Nick Davies in a November 27, 2000 Guardian article describes Amsterdam as a center for pedophiles. More recently, in November 2010, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights urged Holland to continue and intensify its efforts to combat trafficking as the Netherlands remains a destination and transit country for trafficking.
It is difficult to understand why the Ambassador would take offense to the Congressmen Pitts’s observation, especially when the Dutch government has taken steps to weaken, not strengthen, their anti-trafficking efforts by eliminating federal anti-vice squads during a recent government re-organization.
2.Tier 1 Status
The U.S. government recognizing the Netherlands as Tier 1 status in the most recent State Department report on Trafficking in Persons was a monumental mistake that needs to be acknowledged and corrected. Lobbying from the Dutch government and U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands resulted in Holland’s Tier 1 status, with little serious investigation of Dutch anti-trafficking actions taking place. There are nearly no truly independent child advocacy groups existing in the Netherlands, with nearly all such groups under direct or indirect control of the Dutch government.
