International

SP foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel has today asked Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen to put human rights and the disputed election result at the centre of discussion of events in Iran. According to Van Bommel the minister was wrong to mix discussion of alleged electoral fraud with that of Iran's nuclear programme and the possible extension of sanctions against the country. "In the short term this does not represent support for the people of Iran, rather the opposite. To isolate Iran further would be to encourage dictatorship."

The government must commission an enquiry into the usefulness and necessity of the large number of working visits made by Members of Parliament to developing countries under the auspices of the Netherlands Institute for Multi-Party Democracy (NIMD). According to SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel, the involvement of political parties in the NIMD should be subject to closer scrutiny. "The Institute is known in developing countries as the 'Dutch Parliament's travel agency'," he says. This year alone MPs have travelled to Guatemala and Ghana, while this week sees yet another trip, this time to Nairobi. "I doubt whether this is useful and necessary," says Van Bommel, explaining why he had proposed an enquiry into the matter in a motion also backed by Labour (PvdA) Member Chantal Gill’ard.