DAR AL HARB - NETHERLANDS: DUTCH NATIONAL SERVICE COULD BE PERFORMED IN MOROCCO

Amsterdam Mayor Proposes National Service in Morocco

AMSTERDAM, 01/06/07 - Mayor Job Cohen of Amsterdam is urging the reintroduction of national service. Moroccan youths could serve this in Morocco, he indicated yesterday in an interview in newspaper De Telegraaf.

Without using the word Moroccan, Cohen said that in Amsterdam "there is a group with which things are not going well, and something really has to be done about it." At the moment, young criminals are mostly only talked to endlessly by armies of social workers. "Bodies like Youth Care and Child Protection look at the interest of the individual and not at the nuisance that they cause," Cohen acknowledged.

"If you see," added Cohen, "how children in some families one by one go wrong, then I think 'that is not good". (..) "Police, justice, the social service institutions, they are all involved, everyone is doing their best, but it must go faster. There must be a single person who is given the authority ultimately to say 'this is how we are going to do it.'

The mayor must be able to take this decision, said Cohen. "If it really goes wrong, I want to be able to take measures in the families, for example taking the children out of the household and sending them to a boarding school."

Cohen, known for his adage 'let's keep things together', believes reintroducing national service is a good way to teach youngsters discipline, according to De Telegraaf. "That would be good for many youngsters". If they have dual nationality, then "they can choose to do the service in the Netherlands or in their country of origin," he stated.

The conservatives (VVD) yesterday deployed the spokesperson for their right wing, Rita Verdonk, to attack Cohen. The former Integration Minister complained in a reaction that Cohen does not dare to say that the problems in his city are caused by Moroccans. "He behaves as if it also involves other groups." Additionally, Verdonk complained, Cohen, who has been mayor for years, has so far filled his time with "tea-drinking" instead of action.

Christian democratic (CDA) MP Mirjam Sterk said on Radio 1 that as far as she was concerned, it must no longer be taboo to say that it is about Moroccans. She did say that in other municipalities, Antilleans are also sometimes involved.



Pertinent Links:

1) Amsterdam Mayor Proposes National Service in Morocco