International

Despite the promises made by armed forces commanding officer Dick Berlijn that soldiers in Afghanistan would enjoy the highest level of security possible, they will not in fact be housed in armoured barracks. Armoured cabins will be used on the base in Uruzgan for the command centre, the dining hall and the infirmary, but not for the rooms in which Dutch soldiers will sleep.

The Defence Ministry's preferred solution consists of an arrangement in which prefabricated cabins are positioned up against each other, their roofs reinforced with steel plates and the whole surrounded by stone shrapnel-resistant walls. According to SP foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel, MP, however, “Such protection is not sufficient when it comes to grenades. This is not some unfounded fear, because in Iraq a grenade was indeed thrown through a roof, though happily it turned out to be a dud and so there were no casualties.

“The government must take every possible measure to increase these soldiers' security, and it doesn't seem to me that this is being done. I have therefore put a parliamentary question to the minister, asking for clarification of the position.”