THE HAGUE, 15/06/06 - Terrorist suspects taken prisoner by Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan will not land up in Guantanamo Bay, according to Foreign Minister Ben Bot. The Netherlands has concluded a memorandum of understanding with the Afghan government, he said in a Lower House debate on the Dutch mission in Uruzgan.
As a result of earlier operations by Dutch special forces in Afghanistan, twelve Afghans landed up in the American prison in Bagram. The new agreements however specify that the Afghans can no longer transfer any prisoners taken by the Netherlands to third countries such as the US without the Netherlands' approval.
The US holds prisoners in Guantanamo and Bagram without any form of legal recourse. The Americans claim they are illegal fighters with no rights under the Geneva conventions. The Dutch government already called earlier for Guantanamo to be closed down, as did the EU in March.
Before the cabinet decided last December to send 1,400 troops to Uruzgan, Bot had already insisted to the Afghans that prisoners could be 'monitored' by Dutch military or diplomats. If the Dutch take suspected terrorists prisoner, they will be transferred within 96 hours to the Afghans and not the Americans.
In the debate, Bot revealed that the Afghan regime has no interest in an expansion of the prison in Kandahar with an extra wing where a regime according to Western humanitarian standards would apply. The intention was that Dutch and Canadian military would manage the wing. The Netherlands may now contribute funds for a more "humane situation" in prisons in Kabul, according to Bot.
The House also debated with the cabinet on the media coverage of the mission. Embedded journalists working in Uruzgan are censured by the defence ministry, the socialists (SP) and leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) claimed. Defence Minister Henk Kamp rejected this suggestion by stating there are no restrictions for the journalists, though they are not allowed to report anything that could endanger the safety of the soldiers.
Labour (PvdA) and the other leftwing parties demanded more openness by the government on developments in Uruzgan. Last weekend, the Dutch commander on the spot, Colonel Henk Morsink, said that Dutch soldiers there had probably already killed "some dozens" of Taliban fighters. The Lower House was not informed about this. Kamp countered that he cannot give any information based only on suppositions.
There was also criticism of centre-left (D66) Minister Alexander Pechtold, who recently suggested that the cabinet should reconsider the operation. PvdA MP Koenders termed Pechtold's remarks "dangerous and irresponsible." Pechtold's fellow-party member Bert Bakker also criticised the doubts sowed by the D66 minister. Within the cabinet, Pechtold has not been taken very seriously for some time.
Finally, Kamp reported that soldiers going to Uruzgan will be there for at most four months. In total, the troops will be in Uruzgan for two years, but there is sufficient manpower to allow everyone to participate for just one period, he said.
