Dutch government to discuss Afghan ultimatum

Amsterdam - The Dutch government is set Friday to debate a demand by the junior coalition party Labor to reject NATO's request to keep troops in Afghanistan for another year. An emergency debate on the subject in parliament Thursday fuelled speculation about a breakdown of the coalition government and the possibility of early elections.

On February 9, the government said NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen had formally requested Dutch forces to remain active in the southern Afghan province of Uruzghan until August 2011, in order to train local security staff.

The government has said it would take a decision before March 1.

The leading coalition party, the Christian Democrats, supports extending the military mission.

But Labor's leader and Deputy Prime Minister Wouter Bos Wednesday reiterated his party's opposition to any further Dutch troops - and demanded that position was recognized by the government by Friday, after the weekly cabinet meeting.

The Netherlands is due to withdraw its troops from Uruzghan by the end of 2010. It has some 1,880 troops in Afghanistan, 1,250 of them stationed in Uruzghan. The Dutch International Security Assistance Force mission, which started in 2006 and was extended in 2008, is due to end in August.

Twenty-one Dutch soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2006.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/310142,dutch-government-to-discuss-afghan-ultimatum.html.