Obituary: Dutch PM who legalised same-sex marriage

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Obituary: Dutch PM who legalised same-sex marriage

Wim Kok, who has died aged 80, was prime minister of the Netherlands from 1994 to 2002, heading a "purple coalition" that legalised same-sex marriage, prostitution and euthanasia.

A former leader of the Dutch trade union movement who headed the Labour Party for 16 years, Kok was an accomplished negotiator.

Former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok has died, aged 80.

Former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok has died, aged 80. Credit: AP

However, his government will always be associated with the most shameful episode in the nation's recent history: the failure of Dutch troops to prevent the massacre of up to 8000 Muslim men by Bosnian Serbs in July 1995 in the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica.

Despite clear evidence of murder and brutality, the UN force's Dutch deputy commander signed a declaration with the Serb Ratko Mladic - later convicted of war crimes - that the Serbs had adhered to "all the regulations of the Geneva Convention", then drank a toast with him. The troops of his 13th Air Mobile Infantry Battalion flew home to a heroes' welcome.

That October, the report of a parliamentary commission exposed the craven way UN officials and Dutch officers had reacted to repeated threats, brutality and harassment from the Serbs by handing over civilians under their protection. It presented a sorry tale of impotence in the face of evil, with UN officials unwilling to discern the obvious through a fog of wishful thinking, and ordinary soldiers cowed by superior force, their morale at rock bottom as the Serbs cut off supplies and refused to let in replacements.

The UN had declared Srebrenica a "safe area" in April 1993 because of continuing Serb attacks on the Bosnian Muslims. Two years later, enraged by guerrilla raids from the enclave, Mladic decided to wipe it out. The Serbs overran one Dutch observation post after another with minimal resistance, taking 55 hostages. Muslim guerrillas threatened to kill the rest of the force if they gave up the remaining posts.

The Dutch pulled back to their compound at Potokari, where by July 11 1995 6000 Muslims, mainly women and children, had taken refuge, with 24,000 more outside. Next day, the Serbs began segregating the sexes and taking the men away; the Dutch then handed to the Serbs the people in the compound, including 250 men. Few of the men were heard of again.

Former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok, right, shakes hands with US President Bill Clinton in 1995 in Moscow's Red Square.

Former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok, right, shakes hands with US President Bill Clinton in 1995 in Moscow's Red Square.Credit: AP

Kok insisted the report revealed "no question of reprehensible negligence", saying the troops had had to operate in "barbarian circumstances". No minister resigned, and the coalition not only survived the revelations, but was re-elected in 1998.

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Nevertheless, the steady drip of opprobrium took its toll on Kok; he stood down as party leader late in 2001, and further disclosures about the near-cowardice of the Dutch force led him to resign as prime minister with weeks of his term still to run.

Willem Kok was born on September 29 1938 at Bergambacht in southern Holland, the son of a carpenter. Educated at Nijenrode Business University, he did his military service in 1959-60 and worked briefly for Unilever.

In 1961 he started at the Socialist NVV trade union federation, working his way up to become its chairman for 12 years from 1973.

Shortly after the death of General Franco in 1975, Kok had his passport confiscated by plain-clothes police when he tried to attend a 50th anniversary commemoration in Madrid of the death of Pablo Iglesias, the father of Spanish socialism.

Early in 1977, workers staged guerrilla strikes across Holland in an effort to break the government's ceiling for pay claims. Kok declared: "We want to show that we control the Dutch labour force now."

In 1982 the NVV merged with its Catholic counterpart after six years of close cooperation to form the country's largest trade union grouping, the FVV. Kok became its leader, mobilising resistance to what he claimed were the Thatcherite, monetarist policies of Ruud Lubbers's centre-Right government.

He stood down as a trade union leader before the 1986 election to enter politics, winning a seat in the Lower House. When Joop den Uyl retired that July after 20 years as Labour leader, Kok took his place, leading the opposition to Lubbers's government.

When the coalition broke up in May 1989, Kok asked Queen Beatrix for a dissolution. Labour went into that September's election on an anti-nuclear platform: withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Europe and cuts in Dutch defence spending.

Kok made a strong finish to the campaign, but both main parties lost seats. After eight weeks of negotiations Lubbers's Christian Democrats formed a coalition with Labour, and Kok became deputy prime minister.

In the run-up to conclusion of the Maastricht treaty, he pressed for member states to dovetail their economic plans as preparation for a single currency. In a snub to Jacques Delors, he insisted that any EC government should be free to opt out, but he also upset Norman Lamont by insisting on the text of the British opt-out being scrutinised line by line.

Lubbers retired before the May 1994 elections, at which the Socialists again lost seats but ended with one more than the Christian Democrats. Kok was invited to form a government - breaking off negotiations to attend John Smith's funeral in Edinburgh - and that August was installed as Prime Minister, heading the first coalition without Christian Democrat participation since 1908.

He joined John Major in criticising German calls for an exclusive fast-track club at the centre of the EU. He and Prince Bernhard floated the idea of inviting German officials to the 50th anniversary celebrations the following May of Holland's liberation from the Nazis, but dropped it after an angry reaction from resistance veterans.

Kok welcomed the election of Tony Blair's government in 1997 and was an early disciple of the "third way". Blair invited Kok to sell the benefits of a single currency to British business, and when in 2000 Blair persuaded the Lisbon EU summit to adopt a radical programme of economic reform, Kok was one of his key supporters.

In 1999 he was blamed by a parliamentary commission for failing to ensure that the crash of an El Al cargo jet into an Amsterdam apartment block with the loss of 43 lives was adequately investigated.

His administration was responsible, however, for a succession of liberalising reforms including the full legalisation of prostitution in 2000, of same-sex marriage the year after that, and the passing of the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act in 2002.

Kok announced his retirement as Labour leader in December 2001, standing down in favour of Ad Melkert. He intended to remain prime minister until elections in May 2002, but weeks before then a further report on Srebrenica from the Institute of War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies persuaded him he had no choice but to resign.

Out of office, he headed a group pressing for implementation of the Lisbon strategy, and after Dutch voters' rejection of the draft European Constitution in 2006 served on the d'Amato Group, which unofficially reworked it as the Treaty of Lisbon - which included Article 50 enabling a nation to withdraw.

Kok was president of the Club of Madrid from 2009 to 2013, and a member of the International Commission on Missing Persons and the board of the Anne Frank Foundation. He was vice-chairman of the Netherlands Bank.

Wim Kok married Rita Roukema in 1965. He adopted two children from her previous marriage, and they had a son of their own.

Willem Kok, September 29, 1938-October 20 2018

The Telegraph, London

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