"Government should protect Hirsi Ali" 02/10/2007 00:00

2 October 2007

HILVERSUM – Former VVD minister Rita Verdonk thinks the government should provide security for Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who returned to the Netherlands on Monday.
 
She responded on the television programme NOVA on Monday night to the forced return of Hirsi Ali. The Netherlands reportedly no longer wants to pay the costs for the former VVD MP's security in the US, where she has been working for a right-wing think tank (American Enterprise Institute) since September.

Verdonk said that the Dutch government is responsible for the safety of its citizens. Hirsi Ali is under threat in the Netherlands while she makes use of her democratic right to free expression.

The government must then choose: tackle terrorists or protect its citizens, is Verdonk's reasoning. The government should also pay the security costs, or recover them from the US government or Hirsi Ali's employer in the US, she added.

Verdonk clashed last spring with Hirsi Ali, who is originally Somali, when Verdonk contested Hirsi Ali's Dutch citizenship. She later came back on this assertion, but her attitude at the time ultimately led to the fall of Balkenende's second government. Verdonk is currently at odds with her own party. She was expelled from the VVD faction but has refused to resign.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Subject: Dutch news