The House of Representatives wants an independent investigation into the fireworks disaster in Enschede of May 13, 2000. The SP’s passed parliamentary motion states that “reports of social abuses” must be investigated.
The reason is a year-long investigation by the former MEP and whistleblower Paul van Buitenen. He investigated the course of events before, during and after the disaster and wrote a report of more than 1400 pages about it.
The House now wants to commission an investigation into which Van Buitenen’s findings are involved. He concluded, among other things, that the rules for the storage of fireworks were not good and that a systematic attempt was made to keep the government out of harm’s way during investigations.
Residential area destroyed
The fireworks disaster caused a fire at the Enschede fireworks company SE Fireworks. How that started has never been established, but the exploding fireworks set off a chain reaction that led to gigantic explosions.
A total of 23 people were killed, 947 people were injured and an entire residential area was destroyed. The owners of the company were given a year in prison for storing too many and too heavy fireworks at their company.
In February, the Council of State decided that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management must release more documents about the Dutch fireworks policy at the time of the fireworks disaster. The case was brought by former director Rudi Bakker of the exploded company and his son.
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