According to the NRC, the Dutch government appeared to be involved in paying ransom to Nigerian pirates. That goes completely against our own ransom policy. In this article from One today a negotiator explains how this is possible. And guess what? The Netherlands goes to great lengths to pay pirates a ransom, if necessary employers or relatives of the kidnapped people will pay for it!
In terms of ransom, the Dutch government actually does the same as the VVD with our asylum policy: use hard language and act tough, but in practice just show zero point zero balls. The standard procedure for a pirate hijack seems more like a lot of nagging and hoping that the pirates get tired of the bullshit. The article provides an example:
“Also in 2009, a Belgian ship with a Dutch captain on board was hijacked by Somali pirates. It took 71 days and 171 telephone calls to release the crew. In addition, a considerable amount of ransom has been paid. ”
The negotiator says that the Dutch government does not normally do business with kidnappers and never pays ransom, because: “If they do, it gives the impression that they are willing to lay down money for the hostages. That is something we do not want, because it will make it more attractive for criminals to hold Dutch citizens hostage. ”
But what do they do? Help build a road or arrange medicine for the community. The government will then probably contribute to companies that have to carry out such projects (or even worse: those companies pay everything out of their own pocket). In any case, it comes down to the same for those pirates: kidnapping Dutch citizens is attractive. The government is more concerned with avoiding the legal consequences for terrorist financing.
Worst of all, the negotiator in that article does not seem to be bothered by this slack manner. When asked whether we maintain the hijackers’ earnings model in this way, he replies: “Giving in to the demands of hijackers is not the problem. That’s the instability. The kidnapping industry is being sustained by a bad economy, unreliable governments and malfunctioning legal systems. ”
Yes dude, just give them brand new infrastructure, an internship and enough money, and they will stop automatically! It is high time that military personnel were once again deployed for the safety of our citizens. Don’t negotiate, just shoot straight away. Then they learn quickly enough how unattractive the hijacking of a Dutch ship has become.
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