Millionaire's daughter kidnapped (accused of arming Iraq with chemicals)

Millionaire's daughter kidnapped
By ARTHUR MAX - Associated Press

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Armed men broke into an upscale Amsterdam home and kidnapped the daughter of a millionaire whose fortune came from selling chemicals, including to Iraq in the 1980s, police said. Her children were left unharmed.

Police said the gunmen stormed into the home of Claudia Melchers, 37, late Monday and took her away. They said they were treating it as a kidnapping.

Melchers, who runs a catering company, is the daughter of Hans Melchers, who owns Melchemie Holland BV, which supplied chemicals to Iraq in the 1980s. It was unclear whether the kidnapping was related to the company’s business dealings.

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Melchemie has been at the center of accusations in the Dutch media of illegally supplying banned chemicals to Iraq in 1984, but it has denied intentionally violating export restrictions.

A statement posted on Melchemie’s Web site acknowledged overlooking a chemical that could be used for poison gas in an export deal with Iraq but said the company recalled the shipment before it reached its destination.

It called the shipment “a one-time mistake” for which it paid a fine currently equivalent to more than $55,000. In 1989, it supplied chemicals to Iraq that were not under any international bans, the Web statement said.

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http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/09/14/1216629-ap.html