|
|
||
 |
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
|
It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
||
Posted on 04/15/2003 12:03:30 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows
Dutch politician's killer gets 18 years
The assassin of Dutch populist politician Pim Fortuyn was jailed for 18 years today.
Animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf admitted shooting Mr Fortuyn at point-blank range nine days before the elections last May which swept the taboo-breaking politician's novice party into power.
Mr Fortuyn, 54, a homosexual who courted controversy by calling for an immigration freeze and criticising Islam, was shot outside a radio station in Hilversum, near Amsterdam. Van der Graaf was arrested minutes later.
"The accused went about his plan to kill the victim with calm consideration," the presiding judge told a court in Amsterdam.
|
|
||
|
|
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
|
It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
||
Wim Kok will pay a high price for his crimes (including probably appointing the judge who presided over this case).
Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok leaves after informing Queen Beatrix of his cabinet's resignation
Tuesday, Apr. 16, 2002
The entire Dutch government resigned today in an unexpected and sudden reaction to last week's publication of the long-awaited report into the role of the Dutch in the massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men in Srebenica in 1995. The fall of the government comes just four weeks before a general election and as a shock in a country renowned for its level-headed politics.
On April 10, the NIOD (Dutch Institute for War Documentation) report on Srebenica concluded that Dutch soldiers serving with the U.N. in Bosnia had been saddled with "an impossible mission to protect an ill-defined safe area." It said that Dutch political leaders sent forces to Bosnia without a proper analysis of the possible consequences and that the U.N.'s policy for the area was unclear. But the report clearly stated that the Dutch battalion at Srebenica could not have prevented the massacre.
The NIOD report was commissioned by the government in 1996 and is the latest in a series of investigations into the fall of Srebenica carried out by various Dutch and foreign bodies, including the U.N., which concluded that Dutch soldiers could have done little to prevent the massacre. The NIOD report too largely exonerates the 500 or so Dutch soldiers (it is estimated that around 20% of these are suffering from post traumatic stress), putting the blame on military and political leaders.
The current political drama unfolded when the outspoken Labour minister Jan Pronk precipitated the planned parliamentary debate on the NIOD report planned for April 25 by making it clear that politicians should take responsibility for their "failure" in preventing the Srebrenica massacre. Despite a cabinet agreement that any response to the report would be made collectively, Pronk said he had reached his own conclusions in terms of resigning. Pronk is currently Environment Minister but was closely involved in the events in Srebenica as Development Cooperation Minister and was one of the first politicians to speak of a "genocide" in 1995.
Pronk, a known maverick in the Dutch government, was repeatedly warned this week that he does not have the exclusive right to the moral high ground and is not the only MP with a conscience. This view was shared by Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok, who himself was visibly emotional in his initial reactions to the NIOD's report and is one of the handful of cabinet members who was in power in 1995. There is growing irritation that Pronk has waited until now — seven years after the fall of Srebenica — before considering his resignation.
But Pronk is not the only minister who broke ranks to publicly question the tenability of his position following the NIOD report. A similar stance was adopted by Defense Minister Frank de Grave [who was not an MP in 1995] but his possible resignation was not considered a political threat to the rest of the government because of his particular portfolio.
The consequences of the fall of the Dutch government for the forthcoming election in May are not yet clear. Kok was to stand down from national politics anyway but aspersions have already been cast on the position of two potential prime ministerial candidates: Labor leader Ad Melkert and right-wing liberal leader Hans Dijkstal, who were both ministers during the 1995 government.
The Dutch government agreed to send troops to the U.N. mission in Bosnia in 1993 under the Ruud Lubbers government. In 1995 the Serbs took over the so-called U.N. 'safe haven' of Srebenica and allowed Dutch soldiers to leave after they had handed over around 5,000 refugees they had been sheltering on their base. Dutch soldiers were accused of standing by, or even assisting, Serbs in separating Muslim boys and men who were later murdered.
A group of relatives of the murdered Muslims invited to the Netherlands for the publication of the report walked out of the report's presentation in protest. They said the report does not go far enough and contains omissions and inaccuracies. The NIOD has since agreed to rectify a passage in the report's conclusion which originally said the murdered men had been soldiers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.