This could trigger, please exercise caution [The Guardian] Cover-up claims revive sex scandal Belgian establishment accused of closing ranks to block investigation By Stephen Bates in Brussel Wednesday April 21, 1999 Belgium is being convulsed by new revelations in the paedophile scandal that rocked the country more than two years ago and shook the state to its foundations. Anguish over the abduction and death of girls as young as eight at the hands of a convicted sex offender, Marc Dutroux, together with persistent allegations of official cover-ups, has been revived by an announcement that the chief investigating magistrate in the case wants to reopen medical evidence of sexual assault on the children. And, in further disclosures which Belgium is doing its best to ignore, a book by the highly respected chairman of a parliamentary inquiry into the case claims that his commission's findings were muzzled by political and judicial leaders to prevent details emerging of complicity in the crimes. The revelations, just seven weeks before a general election, could sink the chances of the prime minister, Jean-Luc Dehaene, whose government has been severely damaged by the scandal that made Belgium a byword for horror and incompetence in 1996. The parents of the two girls have reacted with outrage to the news that, 2 years on, the magistrate, Jacques Langlois, wants to reopen the autopsy specifically to see whether Melissa Russo and Julie Lejeune were sexually assaulted. The families, who have faced a nightmarish four years since their children disappeared, and will have to wait another two years before Mr Dutroux is tried, have experienced scarcely credible official callousness during their ordeal. On top of police scepticism when they originally reported that their children had vanished, and an incompetent police inquiry to trace them, the parents were even confronted by the original postmortems' gynaecological revelations of assault during a live television appearance after the bodies were found. Although Mr Langlois has said he does not want to open the children's graves, he has referred the original postmortem findings by three Belgian pathologists to a French expert, Michel Durignon, for medical review. For us it is a confirmation that the inquiry is being mishandled,' said Gino Russo, Melissa's father. 'We had our doubts but this confirms them. What on earth is there left to believe in in Belgium?' The children received what amounted almost to a state funeral in August 1996 after their bodies were found buried in Mr Dutroux's back garden in Charleroi. They had disappeared 14 months before, and had apparently starved to death, locked in a cell in Mr Dutroux's basement, while he served a three-month prison sentence for another crime. The bodies of two teenage girls were also found buried in the garden, with that of Bernard Weinstein, an associate with whom he had fallen out. Two other teenage girls were found alive in the basement cell after the police, who had previously searched the property three times without noticing it, finally broke into the house. Although there is plenty of evidence that Mr Dutroux kidnapped the children, allowed them to die and then buried them, Mr Langlois now apparently wants to establish whether he also sexually assaulted them and, if not, whether anyone else did during his absence in prison. Some psychologists' reports have cast doubts about whether Mr Dutroux is a sexual abuser of girls. Belgians have long been suspicious of an official cover-up of his activities, partly because of the sheer ineptitude of the police investigation and because he was released [Image] early after a previous conviction for sex offences. In a hidebound and bureaucratic country with one of the biggest black economies in Europe suspicions and conspiracy theories flourish - in this case that Mr Dutroux either received protection or that senior figures used his services. One of the rescued girls, Sabine Dardenne, 12, who was locked up in the cell for three months, told police of being taken to a 'beautiful white house' by Mr Dutroux and being sexually assaulted. A parliamentary inquiry in 1997 stilled some criticism by stating it had found no evidence of high-up involvement, but that is being called into direct question by its former chairman. Marc Verwilghen, the Flemish parliamentarian who became the most popular politician in the country after leading the inquiry, claims in a book that the Belgian establishment, including heads of the government, sought to stifle and ridicule his report. 'It is bad but human. Many people felt that the [parliamentary] commission [of inquiry] challenged their power,' he says in Paroles d'Homme. Mr Verwilghen claims that senior political and legal figures refused to cooperate with the inquiry. He says magistrates and police were officially told to refuse to answer certain questions, in what he describes as 'a characteristic smothering operation'. He specifically blames Mr Langlois for refusing to hand over evidence of official protection for Mr Dutroux. 'Langlois did not keep his promise I can say today that if we had received that information, our report would have been without doubt more precise and detailed For me, the Dutroux affair is a question of organised crime.' Mr Verwilghen also attacks Mr Dahaene, who has been prime minister since 1991, for his complacency. 'He knows [the problems of the justice system] but he has done nothing. Things are getting worse and Dehaene is content to just watch. These terrible events have left him cold. He hasn't budged.' Meanwhile, disciplinary sanctions have now been lifted against the only police officer accused of negligence from the Dutroux investigation. And Mr Dutroux waits in prison for a trial that may not begin before the spring of 2001. A catalogue of terror June 1995 Melissa Russo and Julie Lejeune are kidnapped while playing near their homes near Liege August 1995 - Ann Marchal,19 and Eefje Lambreks, 17, disappear while on holiday in Ostend November 1995 - Dutroux is sent to prison for three months for car crime June 1996 - Sabine Dardenne, 12, is kidnapped August 1996 - Sabine -and Laetitia Delheze, 14, who was kidnapped two weeks earlier - are rescued from cell in Dutroux's basement after he leads police to them. Bodies of Melissa and Julie found buried in his garden, together with his associate, Bernard Weinstein. Dutroux is arrested along with his wife, a lodger, an associate with political connections and a traffic policeman September 1996 - Bodies of Ann and Eefje are uncovered October 1996 - 350,000 angry Belgians march through Brussels to protest against police and judicial incompetence in the affair October 1997 - Belgian parliamentary inquiry headed by Marc Verwilghen accuses the police of bungling April 1998 - Dutroux escapes temporarily from police custody en route to court by taxi with two unarmed officers Autumn 2000-01 - Earliest that Dutroux and associates likely to come to trial ************************************************************** MINDCONTROL-L Mind Control and Psyops Mailing List To unsubscribe or subscribe: send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text: "unsubscribe MINDCONTROL-L" or "subscribe MINDCONTROL-L". Post to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wes Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, list moderator
