Radio Netherlands, The Dutch military mission to Iraq is drawing to a close, with the formal transfer to the British military of the Dutch base in southern Iraq having taken place on 7 March. The troops are not yet back from Iraq, but the Dutch ministry of defence is already planning the next mission – this time to Afghanistan – leaving parliament with a sense that it has been completely sidelined regarding this particular plan.
The Dutch government now wants to send 150 commandos to Afghanistan to assist US forces in tracking down leading figures from the al-Qaeda network, including its leader Osama bin Laden, and rooting out remaining elements of the fundamentalist Taliban regime that once ruled the country. It will be the first active involvement in 'aggressive' military operations by the Dutch troops, who have only taken part previously in international peacekeeping operations.
The commandos will be deployed as part of 'Operation Enduring Freedom', the mission which came about as an immediate consequence of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Back in 2001, NATO decided that those attacks were to be regarded as an assault on all the alliance's members, and the Dutch contribution to the military effort in Afghanistan is a direct result of that decision.
The cabinet's plan to send in commandos is not only based on the assistance obligation within the NATO context, but also on Article 97 of the Dutch constitution. This article states that the armed forces exist to protect the interests of the Kingdom and the rule of international law. In other words: terrorists in Afghanistan can be seen as an indirect threat to the Netherlands. On that basis, the cabinet can take such a decision without recourse to parliament. Although it's standard political practice to seek parliamentary approval for missions of this kind, the current government of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende does not believe that parliament's consent is necessary.
Although this may be justifiable on constitutional grounds, parliament's lower house feels it has been kept out of the picture because it has had no say in the matter and, moreover, because the cabinet originally wanted to keep the new mission to Afghanistan under wraps.
Harry van Bommel, an MP for the Socialist Party, one of the smaller opposition groups, believes the commandos are being sent to Afghanistan to placate the United States following the withdrawal of Dutch troops from Iraq. Indeed, Washington had exerted great pressure on The Hague to extend the Dutch mission to Iraq's southern al-Muthanna province.
The air of secrecy surrounding the mission to Afghanistan contrasts sharply with the handling of previous military missions. It's a cause of major irritation to parliamentarians that they've been allowed to have a say when relatively 'safe' missions are in preparation, but are kept out of the picture in the event of a mission which entails a real possibility of fatalities among Dutch troops. And this criticism comes not just from the left-wing opposition, but from coalition government parties, too.
In order to prevent a further erosion of parliament's role in such matters, an inquiry is to be held shortly into the decision-making process that leads to the deployment of troops outside the country. It would appear that MPs have seen the writing on the wall and are worried about the future: the country has committed more than 4,000 troops to NATO's planned Response Force. That force is due to be available for deployment within five days in the event of crisis situations, and parliament clearly fears it may be left with nothing whatsoever to say about such deployment if and when the time comes.
