International

SP Member of Parliament and foreign policy spokesman Harry van Bommel is urging the government to put pressure on the United States to launch a thorough investigation into revelations from whistleblower website Wikileaks. The revelations concern torture of prisoners in Iraq. Van Bommel is at the same time asking the Minister of Defence to look into whether any prisoners handed over by the Netherlands have been the victims of such torture. The SP intends to put the Wikileaks revelations on the agenda for next Tuesday's debate on the 'regeringsverklaring' – government declaration - a formal speech in which a new prime minister sets out his government's policies.

Wikileaks yesterday made it known that the United States had failed to investigate hundreds of instances of abuse committed by the Iraqi police and army. The accusations were based on 400,000 documents placed on the whistleblower group's website on Friday. "We are only now getting sight of the extent of the horrors of the war with Iraq," says Van Bommel "In view of the Netherlands' support for this war and later participation in the occupation of Iraq, it is of the greatest importance that the extent of Dutch responsibility is determined with precision. It is possible that we too bear part of the responsibility for war crimes."