NO MORE SAY DUTCH ─ Out of Afghanistan

The Netherlands leads countries to say enough is enough
Re-reported, edited excerpts for Today’s Insight News by Carolyn Bennett

Dutch troops’ participation in Afghanistan has today caused the Dutch government to collapse. A rift in political parties rose over extending Dutch troops in the U.S./NATO-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan resulting in Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende offering his government’s resignation to the constitutional head-of-state, Queen Beatrix.

The standoff began after the Labour Party leader, Deputy Prime Minister Wouter Bos, “drew a line in the sand” over extending the Dutch mission in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan.

The collapse of the coalition government in the Netherlands automatically means that Dutch forces will be withdrawn from the Afghan province of Uruzgan as of 1 August. The withdrawal of the 1,500 military personnel currently in the province will be completed by the end of December. The move is mandatory under a government decision taken in late 2007, in which the Netherlands signed up for another two-year stint in Uruzgan beginning on 1 August 2008. The Netherlands is the first country of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to withdraw its troops.

News of the government collapse came in the early hours of Saturday morning following 16 hours of crisis meetings and days of speculation that differences between coalition [political] parties had become too great to bridge. The Prime Minister’s representative, Henk Brons, has confirmed that Mr Balkenende has officially tendered the resignations of the 12 Labour (PvdA) ministers to Queen Beatrix. Though she is currently on holiday in Austria, Netherlands Queen Beatrix is expected to curtail her vacation in light of the governmental crisis.

Twenty-one Dutch military personnel have died since the latest Dutch mission in Afghanistan began in March 2006. Sixteen soldiers died in combat or by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Five others died in accidents. The only Dutch contribution to ISAF that is expected to remain consists of four F-16 fighter planes based at Kandahar Airfield and in Uruzgan some civilian personnel of the foreign affairs and development aid ministries.

Sources and notes
“Dutch government falls over Afghanistan mission,” http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/dutch-government-falls-over-afghanistan-mission
“Dutch Deputy PM Bos reacts to Dutch cabinet fall,” February 20, 1010, http://www.rnw.nl/english/video/dutch-deputy-pm-bos-reacts-dutch-cabinet-fall
“Dutch troops to leave Uruzgan after cabinet collapse,” http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/dutch-troops-leave-uruzgan-after-cabinet-collapse
The Dutch Labour Party (Dutch: Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA), literally ‘Party of Labour’) is a social-democratic political party in the Netherlands [Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Labour_Party]