IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
AMSTERDAM – The Dutch government collapsed Saturday, February 20, over a dispute between coalition parties on extending the Netherlands’ military mission in Afghanistan.
"Later today, I will offer to her majesty the Queen the resignations of the ministers and deputy ministers of the (Labour Party) PvdA," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told reporters, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The centre-left government cracked after the PvdA rejected a NATO request to extend the mandate of the Dutch mission in Afghanistan until August 2011, a year later than originally planned.
Balkenende’s centre-right Christian Democrats party wanted to keep the Dutch troops until 2001, a move rejected by the PvdA.
More than 15 hours of talks between the two parties and acrimonious exchanges failed to resolve the standoff.
"As the leader of the cabinet, I came to the conclusion that there is no fruitful path for the CDA, PvdA and Christian Union to take into the future," Balkenende said.
"For days we have seen that unity has been affected by ... statements that clash with recent cabinet decisions. These statements place a political mortgage on collegial deliberation."
This was Balkenende's fourth government in a row in eight years. All have collapsed before their mandate expired.
Around 1,950 Dutch troops are deployed in Afghanistan under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
The Dutch mission, which started in 2006, has already once been extended by two years and has cost 21 soldiers' lives.
Recrimination
The PvdA said that keeping the Dutch troops for more one year in Afghanistan goes against the will of the Dutch public.
"No good reason" for an extension of the mission has been forthcoming, Deputy Prime Minister, who leads the PvdA, said.
"Under the circumstances, the PvdA could no longer credibly form part of this cabinet.
"The PvdA remains committed to the cabinet decision of 2007 to end the Dutch contribution to the military mission in Uruzgan in December 2010."
The government collapse comes amid rising recriminations across Europe over the open-ended conflict in Afghanistan.
Nine years after the US invasion, the country is plagued by a deadly violence between the Taliban and US-led foreign troops.
Nearly 15,000 US-led troops launched last week a major offensive into Taliban stronghold of Helmand.
"We've been talking about Marjah for months and at no point did we say anything but it's going to be a tough fight," said US Marines Captain Abraham Sipe, spokesman at Taskforce Leatherneck in Helmand.
"There are pockets throughout the city where stiffer resistance has been met. But there was never any doubt there would be a significant IED threat," he said, referring to improvised explosive devices.
At least 22 foreign troops were killed last week, including 12 in Helmand.
The new casualties bring to 85 the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year, according to the icasualties.org website.
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