On 4 and 6 June 2011 the main Dutch rightwing daily De Telegraaf published two page long articles about the Dutch activist Paul Kraaijer based on an interview with him that took place in Curacao (Antilles). Kraaijer lives since about a year in Surinam. In these articles Kraaijer claimed to have been a long time informer for Dutch police intelligence and the internal security service AIVD (formerly known as BVD).
The main facts as presented in the articles were the following:
In 1986 Kraaijer was working as an acting clerk at the court of justice in Zwolle. In his free time he played darts in a local pub that was also frequented by some criminals. He talked about this with a colleague at work. An officer of the Regional Intelligence Service (RID) of the Zwolle who was present by chance, approached him thereupon. He turned out to know the father of K and asked K. to collect information about a specific criminal at the pub against whom there was an arrest warrant and who was considered as armed and dangerous. Later he was also asked to inform about the local antimilitarist movement.
At the request of the RID, K. started to participate in the weekly demonstration at the US nuclear base at Darp near Havelte. One of the other participants was the famous ex-chaplain activist Kees Koning.
In 1990 K. came into contact with a young activist who wanted to occupy a crane in Mannheim that was being used to load ships with American war materials for the Gulf War. Apparently this action never took place.
In 1993 K. became active for the BVD for the first time. His contacts there asked him to establish a local group of the radical left Antifascist Action (AFA). “The AFA branch in Zwolle was in fact completely controlled by the BVD.” His house became the organizational and administrative centre. K. got “a fair allowance” for his services. His studio was being paid and expenses.
The informer organized a blockade of the entrance of the Zwolle town hall to prevent the installation of an extreme right councillor (Henk Ruitenberg, CP86). The action turned violent and was ended by the riot police. K. claims to have quickly won the trust of the AFA national leadership and became press speaker. This lead to intimidation and threats of the far right against K.
In 1998 K. halted his infiltration of AFA because he got a girlfriend. His runners were rather disappointed but warmed again when he became involved with a Dutch support group for the Kurdish PKK, the Kurdistan Information Centre (KIC) in Amsterdam. He wrote “articles” for the daily Trouw [in fact it were letters to the editor].
End of the nineties he was ordered to infiltrate in the anti-globalist movement in the preparation of the G-8 in Evian. Under the cover of writing an article for Trouw he mixed with the Dutch activists who went to the summit. From the Dutch police side this was badly prepared as there was no back-up on the spot.
In the context of attacks on cars of managers who were involved with animal experiments K. was in 2008 asked by his AIVD-runner Arie Valentijn to infiltrate in the animal rights movement. He became “deeply involved” and was also active in circles in Belgium and England of groups like SHAC and Sea Shepherd. He camped at animal rights gatherings such as in Sweden. The AIVD wanted him to become close to one of the leaders of the Dutch Anti Dierproeven Coalitie (ADC). who had been arrested in Denmark for the liberation of minks. He made contact with the activist during a demonstration in Venray (in the south of the Netherlands) and became “a member of the hard core”.
In July 2008 K. wrote on one of his weblogs report on a meeting of 300 animal rights activists in Britain near Huntingdon Life Science. He went to the meeting on instigation of the AIVD and the service had announced his arrival to the British colleagues. This time his AIVD-contact was present during his stay in London and in Peterborough near Huntingdon.
In November of the same year he was with activists in a car who were fantasizing over a possible arson attack on Glaxo Smith & Kline, a factory near Zeist. They were on a return journey from an action in Belgium. In the evening K. penned the conversation down in his “little journal” for the AIVD like he used to. The attack ostensibly never took place.
Around 2010 he came under his standard journalistic cover in contact with the “vegan streaker”, a well known Dutch animal rights activist. The AIVD instructed K. to approach him and two ex-girlfriends of the activist in Amsterdam and Zeeland. One of the women told K. that she thought the activist had a weapon. The AIVD suspected the activist to be involved with a plot to attach the Dutch queen. In the house of K. a conversation took place between K., again posing as a journalist, and the activist about actions on Queens Day (April 30). The following day the vegan streaker was arrested.
When K. was preparing his emigration to Surinam he gave the activist one of his two laptops. According to K. the laptop was doctored with by the AIVD who could from then on intercept all data traffic from this laptop.
In 2010 he said farewell to his AIVD-contact who made it clear to him that all contacts would henceforth be broken. The RID officer said that he might take contact again behind the back of the AIVD.
Still in Zwolle he once wrote an article about the animal rights movement in Overijssel for a presentation to the regional police commissioner.
If arrested K. got a bonus compensation for each day in prison.
Inside RID-IJsselland (the regional force) only four people knew that he was an informer. The meetings with his runner took place in public places far from Zwolle or “safehouses” (holyday homes of police officers), rented rooms or in the house of a police officer in a separate room.
Note: It has to be stressed that there is not a single independent confirmation of K.’s role as an informer. Questions in parliament have been answered without giving any information in that respect. There are big gaps in his supposed career an agent. It is perfectly possible that he has only occasionally supplied low grade background information like names and addresses. At first face some of the facts (for instance in the streaker episode) doesn’t seem to fit. In the reactions the Dutch antifascists tends to play down his role (only active for a number of short periods) whereas the animal rights people are playing it cool (he was only involved in public actions, has done some useful work for us).
What completely lacks in de Telegraaf is K.s involvement during the nineties in the political party GroenLinks (GreenLeft) in Zwolle. There are reports that he has been employed as an assistant of the green councillors in Zwolle, a paid job. In the party he was a well known figure because he was threatened by the far right. His case has been on the agenda of the party executive at the time. This could make it a case of infiltration in a political party.
Kees Kalkman.
Full text of the articles in De Telegraaf:
Part 1: http://krakenpost.nl/archief/Jun/0111.html
Part 2: http://www.krakenpost.nl/archief/Jun/0015.html
Discussion on Indymedia: http://indymedia.nl/nl/2011/06/76517.shtml
Some of it in English: http://indymedia.nl/nl/2011/06/76547.shtml
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