International

SP Member of Parliament Ewout Irrgang is urging the government to do all in its power to persuade European Union partners to adopt a ban on politicians from Kenya involved in the ongoing blood-letting in the country from travelling to Europe. The SP development spokesman raised the demand during Tuesday's debate with Minister for Development Cooperation Bert Koenders.

Former ministers from the first government headed by current Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, which was in power at the time of the US-British invasion of Iraq in 2003, have recently declared their backing for an enquiry into the Netherlands' support for the attack – but anonymously. They should come out of the shadows and declare their support openly, according to a call endorsed by the whole of Parliament during a debate on the matter requested by SP foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel, which took place on Wednesday. His request was provoked by a report from the United States which revealed that during the run-up to the war the US government lied on 935 occasions over the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.