Queen’s Day Attack at Apeldoorn – one year later
The afternoon of April 30, 2009 in Apeldoorn was the sight of an attempted terrorist attack on the Dutch Royal Family. Almost out of nowhere that afternoon, during the Koninginnedag parade, a black Suzuki plowed though the crowd of parade-watchers, numerous people were killed (eight in total), including the attacker, and 12 others badly injured. This horrific attack was also witnessed by members of the Royal Family from their open air bus. This attempted terrorist attack, by a “lone wolf,” should be rightfully viewed as yet another national tragedy of the Dutch nation, rattling its already shaky national identity.
Karst Tates was not a Muslim, but after the attack there was the usual Dutch-Islamophobic, knee-jerk reaction toward Muslims. One blogger even believes that Tates was also trying to take out a group of Antilles performers (see video). In the imminent aftermath of the attacks we find that the papers speculated that Tates was suspected of holding extreme right views. The badly injured Tates (who died later) told police that he was aiming at the Royal Family. The government police report concluded that people on the bus could have been minor to seriously injured.We really don’t know, still to this day, about who Karst Tates was, as the last years of his life were spent very much alone. It is said that the investigators did not find much evidence. Tates did not own a computer and no farewell letter was found. His parents said that he might have gone crazy and that he kept to himself. He made no commitment to see his mother for her birthday on May 3rd. This lack of foresight for the future was noted by the police psychological report. Police psychological report did not mention any right-wing extremist affiliation, only that Tates acted alone and that Tates called Prince Willem Alexander “a fascist.
”We should be able to learn more – and this appears to be missing…as the Dutch have some of the finest police and intelligence services in the world. Something is lagging here…well-too-I have also noticed that more space is given to “Islamic terrorism” than for right-wing extremism in Dutch police and intelligence reports. Maybe they missed something in the over-obsession over “Islamic terrorism” that there is also a real threat coming from the right-wing extremism, especially since the Geert Wilders Frankenstein is supported by right-wing extremists in the Netherlands, as well as from the UK and the US!
Maybe Karst Tates was een PVV stemmer and a Wilders’ sympathizer? So – Karst Tates motives remain a mystery, taken to his grave (so it seems), but it is known that a friend said he had a dislike for the House of Orange (also see here-Dutch), and, second, Tates was described as sporting tattoos that were of an extremist right orientation. We could say that we should know more about Tates far-right connections. It is also known that the extremist right has no love for the House of Orange. The only kind of “extremism” and “terrorism” that appear to matter to Dutch and European security and mass media institutions are “Islamic” and “Muslim.”So- if the Theo van Gogh murder is described as “the Netherlands 9-11″ – then the Queen’s Day 2009 attack is the Netherlands’ Oklahoma City..?
Some are still questioning if Queen’s Day will ever be the same, and site security concerns. Apparently, Queen Beatrix like to have a lot of her grand kids around, like any other grandma, on outings. Sure this has merit for security concerns. Let’s hope that this terrorist attack by a possible right-wing extremist, “lone wolf” does not dampen this wonderful Dutch national holiday. Dutch national idenity is a bit in shambles these days, tends to question itself – and a tradition like this helps keep what’s left together. Don’t run and hide after this attack on “Dutchness” -but they should boldly continue…
See this year’s remembrances’ articles:Queen’s Day evokes painful memories of 2009 attackDutch Queen Beatrix unveils monument to spectators killed in last year’s national day attackYou can read even more about Karst Tates and the questioning of who he was and his motives (in Dutch) at this site.
