Free Republic

LANGUAGE wars between French and Flemish-speakers in Belgium have reignited, sparking riots, bringing the Government to the brink of collapse and prompting some commentators to say that the country is “finished”.The dispute, over whether 120,000 French-speakers living in Flemish areas should have the right to elect French- speaking politicians, arouses high passions in a country split between the two languages. As the apparently innocuous spat in an electoral district just outside Brussels escalated out of control, demonstrations ended in violent confrontations with police. Senior government ministers cancelled all other work for emergency negotiations, but failed to broker a deal over...

"Survival" of Belgium as a unified country was called into question last night after a row between French and Dutch speakers brought the government to the verge of collapse. The wrangle has already brought down the government four times in the past three years but the latest spat is the gravest yet and threatens to split the country into Flemish areas and French-speaking areas. King Albert II warned politicians that the political crisis "seriously threatens" the country's role in Europe, after the Prime Minister, Yves Leterme tendered his resignation. Mr Leterme stepped down after talks broke down over plants to...

Dutch politician Geert Wilders called on Israel to build more settlements in the West Bank in defiance of international demands for a construction freeze on Sunday. Wilders stated that building must continue so Israel can create defensible borders — by annexing the West Bank. Wilders is known in the Netherlands and Europe as a staunch critic of Islam and political Islamism. Wilders also said on Sunday in Tel Aviv that neighboring Jordan should take in Palestinians.

A DUTCH woman who joined Colombia's largest rebel group only to complain of disillusionment in a diary found in 2007 at an abandoned jungle camp has now appeared in a video pledging allegiance to the guerrillas. In a brief interview, Tanja Nijmeier, speaking in Spanish, said she was not being held against her will and was proud to belong to the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. "Just come and try to 'free' me and we'll receive you here with AK (Kalashnikov rifles],, with mines, with mortars, with everything," she said in the video, which Colombian journalist Jorge...

TUCSON — Dutch fighter pilots will soon be training high over Southern Arizona. The Arizona Air National Guard says the Royal Netherlands Air Force is resuming F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot training at Tucson International Airport after a three-year absence. The 162nd Fighter Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard will welcome the first Dutch pilots and aircraft Oct. 29. The Dutch plan to base 14 of their own jets in Tucson to participate in basic F-16 flight training and instructor pilot certification. Training is set to be in full swing by January 2011. A spokesman for the 162nd Fighter Wing...

MPs from across the political spectrum want to reduce the number of JSF fighter jets the Netherlands is planning to buy to below the 85 on the provisional order books, the Telegraaf reports on Monday. The need to make government spending cuts and the rising cost of the aircraft are forcing a rethink, the paper says. Labour, the Socialists, left-wing greens GroenLinks and anti-Islam PVV all want the total number reduced or the order scrapped altogether, while the Christian Democrats say the figure of 85 is no longer set in stone. The Liberal democratic party D66 also says it would...

Angela Merkel does not make the covers of Dutch newspapers very often. But the German chancellor's assertion last week that "multiculturalism has absolutely failed" in her country was headline news in the Netherlands. As far as the Dutch are concerned, the Germans - whom they consider to sometimes be politically behind the times - have finally woken up. The Netherlands' dream of a happy, harmonious multicultural society burst on a grey autumn morning six years ago in Amsterdam. On November 2, 2004, an Islamic extremist gunned down Dutch filmmaker and Islam critic Theo van Gogh in the street, then slit...

Below are three videos of the expert witness testimony for the defense by Simon Admiraal in the Geert Wilders trial. The transcript of his sworn testimony was read out last week in court by one of the trial judges. Mr. Admiraal, in contrast to Wafa Sultan (whose testimony followed his) is a Western scholar of Islam, and specializes in radical Islamic preachers, particularly in Rotterdam. Once again, to have this material broadcast live on Dutch television and read into the public record of the trial is a milestone of enormous (and devastating) significance. If I were a member of the...

Wilders’ impact felt as Dutch coalition sworn in By Stanley Pignal in Brussels Published: October 13 2010 17:48 | Last updated: October 13 2010 17:48 A government supported by the anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders is to take office in the Netherlands on Thursday, with plans to harden immigration rules and cut public spending. In a nod to tradition, Mark Rutte, the incoming prime minister, and members of his government will stand on the balcony of the royal palace in The Hague to accept a mandate from Queen Beatrix to form the country’s first minority administration since the second world war.

The Netherlands' new coalition government is expected to maintain the nation's commitment to the test phase of Lockheed Martin's F-35 programme, although a decision on whether the type will replace its Lockheed F-16s will not be made for several more years. A conceptual agreement made by the right-wing VVD and PVV parties and the Christian Democrats to form a new cabinet includes plans to buy a second F-35 test aircraft in 2011 and to fully participate in the Joint Strike Fighter's operational test and evaluation. A ruling on further Dutch participation in the F-35 programme had been put on hold...

Coffee shops legally selling cannabis have been a feature of Amsterdam’s streets for more than 30 years, both a magnet for younger tourists and a symbol of the Dutch brand of liberal exceptionalism. But the fragrant haze found in the city’s 200 or so establishments could be dispersed under plans by the incoming government, which is looking to roll back the “tolerance policy” that has allowed such coffee shops to operate since 1976. Coinciding with a tightening of laws around prostitution – another tolerated industry – the authorities’ new stance on cannabis is raising questions as to whether Dutch society...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch history student has unearthed the world's oldest share, dating back to 1606 and issued by the sea trading firm Dutch East India Company. Locked away in forgotten city archives, the share was made out to Pieter Harmensz, a male resident of the Dutch city Enkhuizen who served as an assistant to the city's mayors. After his death in 1638, Harmensz left the share to his widow and their daughter Ada and the document eventually ended up in Enkhuizen archives, kept in the northwestern city Hoorn. As the Netherlands' largest trading company in the 17th and...

Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who is about to stand trial for “hate speech” against Muslims, has suggested a ten-point program to save the West from being jihadically overrun. The times are so surreal. Wilders, who is also due to speak on 9/11 in downtown Manhattan, near Ground Zero suggests that we must: 1. Stop cultural relativism. We need an article in our constitutions that lays down that we have a Jewish-Christian and humanism culture. 2. Stop pretending that Islam is a religion. Islam is a totalitarian ideology. In other words, the right to religious freedom should not apply to...

MADRID – A 14-year-old Dutch sailor aiming to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world says she has reached Spain's Canary Islands off northwest Africa but declined Thursday to say where exactly she was. "Now I'm in the Canary Islands with the first stage of my trip behind me," Laura Dekker wrote on her website. "It was a great first stage that I can look back on with a good feeling. The message was posted Wednesday but gave no details as to where on the seven-island archipelago she was. In an email Thursday to The Associated Press,...

A 14-year-old Dutch sailor departed in secrecy from Portugal Saturday on her quest to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, avoiding the media because her manager said she didn't want the attention. Laura Dekker said goodbye to her father and friends at an undisclosed Portuguese port enroute to Spain's Canary Islands or Portugal's Madeira Island despite almost windless conditions in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal, according to manager Peter Klarenbeek. (...) The attempt has been criticized by Dutch child protection authorities who questioned the wisdom of a child risking the world's oceans alone....

The number of reported Dutch cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide rose 13 percent last year, the government said on Wednesday, spurring talk of a possible “euthanasia hospital” to help people end their lives. The annual report of the regional commissions that oversee the Netherlands’ euthanasia law said there were 2,636 cases in 2009, the vast majority of them euthanasia, or “mercy killing“, as opposed to assisted suicide, or helping someone to die. That represented about 2 per cent of all Dutch deaths last year, based on figures from Statistics Netherlands. Of the cases, slightly over 80 percent were cancer...

She writes that if we don’t stop the Taliban, American and Dutch women will be subject to the horrors of the life of a Pashtun peasant maiden, possibly cooking dinner over an livestock dung fire, being forced to wear unfashionable clothes, etc. As the Taliban succeed, their power across Afghanistan will spread; and with that, similar movements, inspired by their achievements, will gain strength–indeed, already are gaining strength–across the region, in countries from Somalia to Iran, and onward to Holland and the U.S.A. There will be women there, as well. We must not abandon them. It really is starting to...

THE HAGUE, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Dutch troops ended Sunday it' s four years mission in Afghanistan and handed over the responsibility in the Afghan province of Uruzgan to the U.S. and Australia, makes the Netherlands the first NATO member to leave Afghanistan. According to the Dutch Defense Ministry, the Dutch troops had 24 casualties and 140 injuries during the last four years. "But we have brought the people of Uruzgan major improvements." "It hurts because it marks the end of the Dutch leading role in Afghanistan, I want to say goodbye to the people here we have intensive...

Almost 2,000 Dutch troops have been deployed in the Uruzgan region, where the Taliban is active and opium production is high. The final contingent of 250 Dutch soldiers will be withdrawn on Sunday... Qari Yusuf Ahmadii, a Taliban spokesman, told the Volksrant newspaper that he looked forward to other countries following the "brave" Dutch example. But rank-and-file soldiers are angry over the retreat..."They are not happy to leave. They want to finish what they started. The mission is not completed,"

Anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders has emerged as a possible member of the next Dutch government after the centrist Christian Democrats agreed to informal talks with Wilders and the VVD party that won recent Dutch elections. Wilders says the Christian Democrats' move is "positive news" and he is prepared to start the talks as soon as possible.