US embassy cable - 03THEHAGUE1900

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 001900 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: ETTC, IZ, NL, UNSC 
SUBJECT: IRAQI ASSETS: DUTCH POSITION ON FREEZING AND 
CONFISCATION 
 
REF: a) State 186972  B) State 211439 
 
(U) MinFin officials told us that Finance Minister Zalm sent 
the following letter to Secretary Snow in response to 
communication in ref A. 
 
Begin Text of Letter 
 
(U) In reply to your letter of 27 June, I would like to 
assure you that the Netherlands fully supports the 
provisions laid down in United Nations Security Council 
Resolution 1483 and is taking steps to implement them in our 
legal and financial system. 
 
(U) An EU-regulation recently came into force stipulating 
that all funds and economic resources of the previous 
government of Iraq and of any public bodies, corporations, 
including companies established under private law in which 
the public authorities have a majority stake, should be 
frozen. Also all funds and economic resources belonging to, 
or owned by or held by former president Saddam Hussein, 
senior officials of his regime, immediate members of their 
families or any legal persons or entities owned or 
controlled by these persons should be frozen. 
This EU-regulation has now the force of law in the 
Netherlands. All financial institutions in the Netherlands 
will be informed by the financial supervisors of the new 
regulations. 
 
(SBU) Funds and economic resources that are frozen pursuant 
to the EU-regulation mentioned above shall only be unfrozen 
for the purpose of their transfer to the Development Fund of 
Iraq, under the conditions set out in UNSCR 1483 (2003). 
Before funds and other economic resources can be transferred 
they will have to be confiscated. At this moment, according 
to Dutch law, confiscation of (any) funds is only possible 
after a criminal conviction. In order to be able to 
confiscate and transfer funds to the Development Fund of 
Iraq, new legislation will be drafted which will enable us 
to confiscate funds and resources without a conviction of 
the owners of the funds. 
 
END TEXT OF LETTER 
 
Russel