Dutch scout out Iraqi mission - out the feasibility of dispatching 600 troops

expatica.com ^

[chance33_98]

Dutch scout out Iraqi mission

9 May 2003

AMSTERDAM — A team of five Dutch military officers are travelling to southern Iraq to scout out the feasibility of dispatching 600 troops to take part in the multinational stabilisation force in the war-torn Islamic nation.

A spokesman for Defence Minister, Henk Kamp, said on Friday that the detachment departed from the Valkenburg airstrip on Thursday night, Dutch associated press ANP reported. It was not immediately known how long the mission would take.

But he said the team would travel to southern Iraq, where British forces are set to take command of the stabilisation force being formed over the next few weeks.

The area includes the city of Basra, where Iraqi forces loyal to Saddam Hussein provided stiff resistance to British troops after the US frontline swept through the region earlier this year in its push towards the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The Dutch reconnaissance team is under the command of a colonel and will gather information of a "military, technical and operational nature", the Defence Ministry said. The team will seek suitable camp sites and report as quickly as possible to the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant-Admiral Luuk Kroon.

The caretaker Cabinet is relying on the team's findings in order to make a decision in favour or against Dutch participation in the Iraqi stablisation force. A decision is expected on 16 May, after which the Lower House of Parliament must give final approval before the dispatch of the troops.

The Dutch contribution for six months in Iraq would involve 600 marines, plus supporting troops. Apache helicopters might also be dispatched for reconnaissance tasks.

The United Nations Security Council has not yet given approval to the deployment of a stabilisation force in Iraq, a fact that could prove a stumbling block in a Dutch decision in favour of the mission. The cabinet is striving for Security Council approval, but does not consider it absolutely necessary.

The cabinet must also agree to the costs of the peacekeeping mission because the Defence Ministry has previously admitted it cannot bear the full cost of the mission alone.

Dutch peacekeeping troops are already stationed in Kabul, the Afghan capital, as part of the ISAF force. Together with German troops, the Dutch contingent has temporary command over the Afghan mission, but is faced with frequent rocket attacks.

The Dutch are also well known for a tragic failure at Srebrenica in July 1995, when the lightly armed Dutchbat UN peacekeeping troops surrendered to invading Serb forces, resulting in the murder of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys the Dutch were dispatched to protect.

The tragedy led to the resignation of the "Purple" coalition Labour PvdA, Liberal VVD and Democrat D66 government early last year after the Dutch war documentation institute, NIOD, largely blamed the nation's politicians and military chiefs for the disaster.