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News 2008

28 December 2008

Cabinet must condemn Israeli violence

The SP condemns Israel’s excessive and violent actions conducted via air raids on Gaza, and calls on the government to join it in these condemnations.

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23 December 2008

Iraq: Senate sets course for parliamentary enquiry

The Senate’s disappointment regarding the answers given by the government to more than a hundred questions on the Iraq war represents a first step towards a parliamentary enquiry. This is the conclusion drawn by SP Senator Arjan Vliegenthart following this afternoon’s deliberations in the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. “The Senate can do nothing with the answers given,” says Vliegenthart. “The government continues to refuse openness. Now that the VVD has ceased to rule out an enquiry this remains a possibility.” The right wing VVD, now after the SP the second biggest party of opposition, was a member of the governing coalition that took the decision to support the war. “The government has only itself to blame, given the contemptuous way it has treated the Senate.”

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19 December 2008

Afghanistan: Premier sends Obama wrong message

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel has asked Premier Jan-Peter Balkenende for an explanation of his statements during a recent television interview to the effect that he has received ‘calls’ from advisors to US President-elect Obama who are said to have asked him whether the Netherlands would be willing to prolong its military presence in Afghanistan beyond the currently agreed date of August 2010. Balkenende promised in response that the matter would be considered anew. “With this promise Balkenende has sent a message which is completely wrong,” says Van Bommel. “He is promising to reconsider the original resolve to withdraw before the end of 2010.”

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19 December 2008

Government’s answers on Iraq war: 100 times nothing

The SP is extremely disappointed by the government’s responses to its questions regarding Dutch involvement in the war against Iraq. “We have been forced to wait more than six months for these answers,” says SP Senator Arjan Vliegenthart. “That’s a very long time. This gave me high expectations, but what has arrived is worthless: to our hundred questions, a hundred times nothing. A parliamentary enquiry remains therefore an absolute necessity.”

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18 December 2008

Agriculture Minister told to push for EU ban on foie gras

On the initiative of the SP, Agriculture Minister Gerda Verburg has been instructed by Parliament to return to Brussels to negotiate a ban on the force-feeding of ducks and geese with other EU member states. Foie gras, produced from the livers of geese and ducks which have been force-fed to the point where these organs become morbidly fat, is regarded as a delicacy, but can be made only at the cost of serious maltreatment of the fowl.

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18 December 2008

Afghanistan: SP demands openness over dangers

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel has demanded an explanation from the Minister of Foreign Affairs regarding the supplying of troops in Afghanistan. According to reports in the international press, supply lines are subject to daily attacks by the Taliban and other militias in pursuit of booty.

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