Volkert van der Graaf: Portrait of a Vegan
Chive Mynde
http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/rnb/archives/00003029.html
BBC, Apr. 15, 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1974572.stm
The man who shot anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn started out
as a passionate animal rights activist who fought against factory
farming and struggled to explain his veganism at dinner parties.
But Volkert van der Graaf - sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment - was
also a perfectionist with rigid morals who felt it his duty to protect
weaker groups in society.
He saw Fortuyn as a threat to those groups, comparing his rise to that
of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s.
But he said during the trial that he was now "struggling" with the
question of whether his act was acceptable.
'Green Robin Hood'
Volkert van der Graaf is 33, Dutch, white and from the town of
Harderwijk, east of Amsterdam.
An interview with Van der Graaf three years ago on the website of the
group Animal Freedom - which stresses that he was not a member -
reveals a man committed to animal rights from an early age.
One newspaper last year dubbed him "the Green Robin Hood".
At 15 years old, he worked caring for oil-covered birds in Zeeland.
As a student in Wageningen, home to a major university specialising in
life sciences and agriculture, he joined an anti-vivisection group.
He was also active with the Inter-University Consultation on Animal
Use - an organisation which he said aimed to reduce the use of
laboratory animals in education.
At the time of the Animal Freedom interview, Van der Graaf said he
worked for Environment Offensive, a group aimed at "stopping the
expansion of factory farming".
"Through legal procedures we fight permits for factory farms and fur
farms, using the law as our tool," the interview reads, fuelling
speculation that Van der Graaf had been angered by Mr Fortuyn's stated
plan to lift restrictions on fur farming if elected.
Personal struggle
Van der Graaf says his parents would not let him give up meat as a
teenager, but he later became a vegan.
"Sometimes when you have dinner with other people, you encounter
incomprehension," he said.
The text suggests a personal struggle with the ethical issues
surrounding the human treatment of animals - ranging from concern for
the worms he used while fishing as boy, to whether his diet should
exclude "eco-eggs".
"Many animal protectors act from the assumption that 'nature is
good'," he said, "but every dark side of humans can also be found in
nature".
"Protecting animals is civilizing people," he said.
A man said to be a member of Environment Offensive told Dutch
television that Van der Graaf had started out believing that the law
was his weapon.
Dramatic confession
"Something must have gone wrong, something derailed," the activist was
quoted as saying, referring to Fortuyn's killing.
On 6 May 2002, just nine days before the Dutch general election, Van
der Graaf shot Fortuyn five times at close range as he left a radio
studio in the central town of Hilversum.
He was arrested minutes after the shooting, and made a dramatic
confession to the court at his first appearance there on 27 March.
The two-and-a-half week trial generated enormous public interest, and
was frequently punctuated by vocal contributions from Fortuyn's
supporters.
The final reading of the verdict - which fell short of the life
sentence demanded by prosecutors - prompted booing and a mass walk-out
from the courtroom.
nemo
Chive Mynde <chive...@BotanyMail.com> wrote in message
news:99c986d8.0306...@posting.google.com...
> [Volkert van der Graaf] Profile: Fortuyn killer
> http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/rnb/archives/00003029.html
>
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