The Dutch Ministry of Defense informs that part of the Hawk anti-missile defense system arrived in Romania. Dutch authorities refused to comment on the cases of cancer caused by the system to Dutch military personnel. Indeed, this will amount to admitting that they lied when stating that they informed their Romanian counterparts, before striking the deal.
Romanian authorities, be they officials in the ministry of defense or parliamentarians, do not show any interest for the topic, but Dutch civil servants have a lot of answering to do.
Parliamentarian Krista van Velzen questioned again the Dutch Ministry of Defense about the lies allegedly stated by deputy minister Cees van der Knaap, as showed in a previous article in Jurnalul National.
Part of that answer was that some of the Hawk systems were already transported to Romania. This is another piece of information the Romanian Ministry of Defense failed to make public.
On 1 February, van der Knaap stated in the Dutch Parliament, following an inquiry from van Velzen, that the Romanians "were aware of the controversies ssurrounding the Hawk missile defense systemt ⦠and they are pleased, and so are we, for being able to buy them from us."
Van Velzen asked the ministry at the time if the Romanian officials were fully informed of the health issues caused by the Hawk anti-missile defense system, and if it was not better to keep them on Dutch territory for safe storage. She also wanted to know if the Dutch ministry would agree to take back the systems already sold to Romania.
Van der Knaap answered then that his Romanian counterparts were fully informed and that he would not agree with canceling the contract.
The Romanian Ministry of Defense contradicted then the claims made by Van der Knaap, stating that it was not informed of the high incidence of cancer cases to Dutch military
