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THE HAGUE, 06/06/08 - The National Anti-terrorism Coordinator (NCTb) has decided to withdraw personal protection from MP Rita Verdonk. She is baffled, she said on TV programme Knevel&Van de Brink. According to Verdonk, Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin informed her by letter last Tuesday that her bodyguards would be withdrawn on 4 June. She is only still being 'escorted.' This means that instead of permanent bodyguards, she will only have a car behind her following at a distance. Verdonk is the leader and founder of Proud of the Netherlands (TON). The party, currently running second in the polls, was set...

Former Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, known for her hard-line policies and no-nonsense approach, is the anchorwoman behind a new political movement, launched in Amsterdam on Thursday. Called Proud of the Netherlands, its central aim is to defend the Dutch national character. At the launch of her new political movement, Rita Verdonk spoke forcefully about the need to protect and revitalize the Dutch identity: "What drives me are all the people who want to be proud of our country... Too many people have lost this pride. Many are worried about the Netherlands, worried about Dutch culture." Freedom from foreign control She...

THE HAGUE, 07/02/08 - Independent MP Rita Verdonk is officially launching her political 'movement' Trots op Nederland (Proud of the Netherlands) on 3 April. She will lay out her principles at a meeting in Amsterdam. Verdonk announced her movement last autumn after she was expelled from the conservative (VVD) party for persistent criticisms of VVD leader Mark Rutte. Little has been heard of Verdonk in recent months, and she does not have a party programme. Nonetheless, she has continued to score highly in the polls. Proud of the Netherlands (TON) stood at 13 to 18 seats last week in the...

THE Dutch government has announced that it would seek a way of banning the wearing of burqas and other Muslim face veils in public places, possibly becoming the first European country to impose such a ruling. The announcement comes at a time when the debate on such veils and whether they prevent Muslims from integrating has gathered momentum across Europe and drawn comments from leaders such as Britain's Tony Blair and Italy's Romano Prodi. Last December Dutch lawmakers voted in favour of a proposal by far-right politician Geert Wilders to outlaw face-coverings, partly on security grounds, and asked Immigration Minister...

A DRACONIAN new law is expected to force immigrants to the Netherlands to sit a tough exam on Dutch history, geography and culture or face heavy fines. The rules, drafted by the country’s hardline immigration minister, “Iron Rita” Verdonk, and likely to be approved this autumn, will set a challenge for up to half a million mainly Muslim immigrants, including some who have lived in Holland for 30 years. The legislation, which is due to come into force on January 1 next year, requires immigrants to attend 600 hours of coursework before being tested. Failure to attend the course or...

AMSTERDAM – Immigration minister Rita Verdonk says gay asylum seekers from Iran should be sent back home. Six months ago she had refused to send them back because two gay Iranian men had been executed there. Verdonk said in a letter to the Second Chamber that there was no question of anyone being executed or sentenced to death purely on the basis of their being gay, although she did concede that gay sex was punishable by death by Iranian interpretation of Islamic law. Even so, gay asylum seekers should be returned, she said, based on information from the Foreign Office...

AMSTERDAM — A shot was fired recently at the window of the office used by Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk. She was not there at the time. Weapons experts attached to the Defence Ministry think the shot was fired at the office in the Justice Ministry complex in The Hague from a nearby building, RTL Nieuws reported on Thursday evening. Sources in the Hague confirmed the story. It is not clear when the shot was fired and when the incident was first detected. The window of her office was said to be damaged. RTL claimed that as a result...

AMSTERDAM — Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk has ordered three imams accused of being a threat to public order and national security to get out of the Netherlands. The trio have been accused of preaching a militant anti-western message at Al Fourkaan mosque in Eindhoven and allowing young people to be recruited for Jihad. They will be expelled if they do not leave the country voluntarily, Verdonk has vowed. She has given them a month in which they can challenge her order but they cannot stay in the Netherlands pending the outcome of any appeal. Lawyer Marq Wijngaarden is...

AMSTERDAM — Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk is moving to deport three Muslim clerics because of accusations they represent a threat to public order and national security. The three imams will be declared undesirable aliens and two of them will have their residence permits cancelled, the first such action has been taken against clerics. In the third imam's case, an application for an extension of a residence permit will be refused. The Dutch security service AIVD said one of the imams originates from Bosnia and a second comes from Kenya. The origin of the third imam was not released, newspaper De...

WHEN Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician, collected his post from the letterbox on Wednesday he got an unpleasant surprise. Among the bills and junk mail was a letter addressing him as “ugly dog”. It told him he would soon be beheaded. It was an unnerving way to start the day. Only 24 hours earlier Theo van Gogh, the film maker who had often attacked radical Muslims, had been riding along on his bicycle when a Muslim fanatic first shot and then butchered him on a busy street with the nonchalance of an abattoir worker.