International

The parliamentary debate over US-Dutch relations today took an unpleasant turn when the right-wing attempted to block voting on a resolution brought forward by the small centrist party D66. SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel was forced to use a roundabout procedure in order to save the motion, which called for an enquiry into the Netherlands' support for the war in Iraq. Earlier in the day's debate Mr van Bommel had Christian Democrat Foreign Minister Ben Bot on the ropes when he said that "Either you accept that the US is guilty of human rights abuses and declare that this is justified because it serves a higher interest, the fight against terrorism, which as far as I'm concerned means that our country would be added, along with the US, to the list of rogue states, or you don't accept the US policy, which decision would lead to certain conclusions. For example that cooperation with the US in those areas where people are being held in secret prisons must be ended."

SP foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel is urging Foreign Minister Ben Bot to summon the American Ambassador in The Hague in order to demand that President Bush's government apologise for lying about alleged links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. The announcement that the longstanding, confident assertion that such links existed turns out to have been wrong should give the Dutch government occasion to call for formal talks with its American counterpart. The Netherlands should, moreover, demand that the US close its secret prisons, with the alternative being that we curtail our cooperation in Afghanistan.