Dutch gov't collapse

[SuperR]

Err.. What's up with that??? I don't think I remember a government resigning enmasse like that in the West in the last 10 years, unless I have memory lapses.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020416/wl_nm/dutch_politics_dc

 

[Greadius]

Parlimentary politics always sound so dramatic! I read government collapse and thought the Netherlands were in anarchy.

Of course, that would be normal for the Dutch

Good political move. If his government was sagging in the polls, and the election is very close, this type of major slight would have killed them.
Even though its largely symbolic (a month from elections anyway... if I read it right), it will help from the backlash of the report. They're willing to be held accountable for the governments mistakes.

 

[damunzy]

So they resigned out of shame for not doing a better job and not because they were mad?

 

[willemvanoranje]

No. It all had to do with the Yugoslavian civil war and the role of Dutch UN-Soldiers in the Srebrenica-enclave (which was mainly conquered by the Serves because the damn NATO refused to bomb the Serves). Indeed, in a month there come elections, and yes the government lost a lot of popularity, but has still chances to get re-elected.

 

[CurtSibling]

I can't see the dutch government collapsing causing any major
global repercussions...

Sorry.

 

[ainwood]

Originally posted by CurtSibling
I can't see the dutch government collapsing causing any major
global repercussions...

Sorry.

Not the point.



I understood that it was two high-ranking people who were involved at the Srebronicia (SP??) time who resigned first, and the rest followed them.

 

[Zwelgje]

Originally posted by ainwood
I understood that it was two high-ranking people who were involved at the Srebronicia (SP??) time who resigned first, and the rest followed them.

They were not high-ranking people, they were ministers, one was in the Srebrenica peroid a minister who took care of giving money to the third world countries but he always wants to be the person who has the highest moral standards of everybody on the whole planet.....so he thought that the dutch government did wrong and as a consequence the government had to resign. The other person is the minister of defence at the moment but wasn''t involved in the Srebrenica period.

The whole point is that back in '96 dutch troops were send to Srebrenica to defend an enclave filled with muslims. The Serbs wanted to kill the muslims and went into the enclave with tanks to do so. The dutch troops had only armored vehicles and were lightly armed and as they had no chance against the Serbs they called for air support and support of artillery but they got nothing. So they decided to choose to not be shot to pieces but in exchange for that they had to move out of the enclave. As a result of that the Serbs took control over the enclave and killed all men in there (7000 in total).
Now there has been written a report on the whole issue by a dutch research organization in which it says that the whole operation was badly prepared and the government is largely to blame for the impossible situation the troops came in. This conclusion means that the government is partly responsible for the massacre and therefore the goverment resigned yesterday.

The dutch people aren't impressed however, there was an election coming up in a month anyway and the goverment will remain in place untill a new government is formed. The only thing is that they will not make any important decisions like which plane will replace the F16 (Joint Strike Fighter or the European plane) and some decisions on important internal issues will be postponed too. But that's what the government has been doing for the past years anyway so nothing changes, really......