Dutch news in brief – 7 June 2004

Murdered sons cremated

About 800 people attended the Saturday morning funeral for the three boys who were stabbed and beaten to death by their mother on the night of 28 May. The funeral was held at the Sint Willibrorduskerk in Berghem and the bodies of the three boys — Dion, 8, Esli, 7, and Tygo, 5 — were cremated at about 2.30pm in the town of Beuningen. At the family’s request, a much smaller crowd of mourners attended the cremation. The 36-year-old mother, Liesbeth van Schaijk, was cremated on Friday. She had committed suicide after murdering her sons.

Shell to scrap up to 600 jobs

Anglo-Dutch oil and energy firm Shell announced on Monday evening it is to scrap 450-600 jobs at its Dutch division. The company has refused to rule out compulsory redundancies, but Shell also said it would do its level best to avoid compulsory lay-offs, newspaper De Telegraaf reported. The announcement was made at the close of stock market trading on Monday. The company’s computer division department will be most affected by the job losses.

Anti-fascist protestors clash with police

Police arrested on Saturday afternoon about 350 left-wing anti-fascist activists after a demonstration turned violent in The Hague. Police conducted several actions to control the protestors, who were marching against extreme-right demonstrators from the Nederlandse Volks Unie who had also assembled in The Hague. As clashes between police and anti-fascist activists turned violent near the US embassy on the Korte Voorhout, three protestors were injured and two police officers were slightly injured. Most of the arrested protestors were released that night with a fine or court summons, but police were still questioning 20 others on Sunday on public violence allegations.

Dutch given more time for Karremans report

The United Nations Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal granted the Dutch government more time last week to produce a report explaining the attempts made to track down the commander of Dutch troops sent to protect the Srebrenica enclave in 1995. Colonel Thom Karremans has retired and recently said he had fled to Spain after feeling threatened in the Netherlands. At least 7,000 Muslim men and boys were executed by Serbian troops after they overran the UN-protected Muslim enclave at Srebrenica. The UN tribunal in The Hague wants to hear testimony from Karremans between 16 and 22 June and has given the Dutch government until Friday to report back on his whereabouts.

NS punctuality allows second price rise

Dutch rail operator NS will has announced it intends to increase ticket prices for the second time this year. After the 4 percent price rise in January, the price of tickets will now increase by another 2.075 percent. The NS had previously reached an agreement with consumer protection groups that it may raise prices if a sufficient number of trains travel on time. In the past 12 months, 84.4 percent of NS trains have run on time, meeting the conditions laid out by the consumer groups. It is not yet known when the price rise will take effect.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news