Yearbook 2008
Netherlands. According to
Countryaah reports, immigrant anti-immigrant right-wing
politician Geert Wilders at the beginning of the year
attracted attention with plans to produce an Islam-critical
short film, according to his own task to inform about Islam
as a totalitarian ideology. The movie "Fitna", released on
the Internet in March, featured quotes from the Qur'an mixed
with images of acts of violence committed by Muslims. The
film was criticized by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende
and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, among many others, and
no TV station in the Netherlands wanted to show it. Several
Muslim countries called for a boycott of goods from the
Netherlands.
At the end of the year, a smoking ban in public places
came into force. The ban only applied to tobacco; it
remained allowed to smoke cannabis in special so-called
coffee shops.
A court in The Hague ruled in September that the
Netherlands could not be held responsible for the failure of
the Dutchbat peace force to protect the civilian population
that was subjected to a massacre in Srebrenica in Bosnia in
1995. About 6,000 survivors had sued the Netherlands for
compensation. The Court rejected the request on the grounds
that the force was under UN command. The Srebrenica
massacre, when 8,000 Muslim boys and men were killed by
Bosnians, has been classified by the UN as genocide.
The Dutch-Belgian financial group Fortis became the first
bank in Europe to fall victim to the escalating financial
crisis. The bank was divided into three parts: one in the
Netherlands, one in Belgium and one in Luxembourg. The Dutch
part was completely taken over by the state in early
October. Later, the government also stepped in and took over
parts of the banking and insurance giant ING and pumped in
EUR 10 billion into the company. A total of EUR 200 billion
of support packages were promised to the banking sector.
|
