Mounting Protests Against Execution

The leaders of all Dutch political parties suppressed horror and outrage today over Iraq’s execution of a Dutch-born Jew. Leon Aaronson, and that country’s insistence, until this week, that Aaronson was alive although he was hanged in Baghdad three months ago. The permanent foreign affairs committee of the Dutch Parliament has submitted a number of questions on the matter to Foreign Minister Max Van Der Stoel who is currently on an official visit to Turkey.

The Iraqis, who finally admitted carrying out their death sentence against Aaronson, continued to insist that he was an Israeli spy. The Iraqi Charge d’Affaires at The Hague, Ismail al Kahdl, told newsmen, after being summoned to the Foreign Ministry yesterday, that “It has been proved that Aaronson is an Israeli citizen and as a Zionist spy who caused my country much damage and suffering, he was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court and executed,”

Aaronson, a male nurse devoted his life to helping the sick and injured in underdeveloped countries of Africa and Asia and was on a medical mission to the Kurds in northern Iraq when he was seized by Iraqi soldiers last March 24. Dutch authorities noted that even if Aaronson held dual citizenship–and there is no evidence to bear this out–he was still a subject of The Netherlands where he was born and where his wife, children and parents live.

JOURNALIST RECALLS SEEING AARONSON

Jan Beekmans, a member of Parliament of the Progressive Party, recalled that he inquired about Aaronson when he visited Iraq last January. He said he was given to understand by various Iraqi officials at the time, including the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, that Aaronson was still alive. He said he was shocked to learn yesterday that the man had been executed three months ago. Beekmans said that in view of the “present humanitarian climate in Iraq which seeks approaches to Western countries,” Aaronson’s execution is astonishing.

Rienko Wilton, a Dutch journalist, was probably one of the last Westerners to see Aaronson alive. He said he met him in Kurdistan last March when Iraqi troops were advancing on the Kurds. Against all advice, Aaronson marched in the direction of the approaching Iraqi troops. Wilton said on a radio interview today. Wilton said Aaronson was in possession of a new Dutch passport but he had thrown away all of his documents and was dressed as a Kurd.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi-Ambassador to the Benelux countries, Sayid Mukhlis, who resides in Brussels, claimed that he had the flu and could not come to The Hague where he had been summoned by the Dutch government in connection with Aaronson’s death.