AMSTERDAM - Faced with a community backlash against ethnic crime and headline-stealing violence, Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner has in principle backed the idea of sentencing immigrants who commit crime differently than Dutch nationals. But the conservative Christian Democrat CDA minister stressed in an interview with the Amnesty International magazine that he was in favour of "different", rather than tougher sentencing.
Complete article: http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=1&story_id=269 5 Meanwhile, demonstrators on Monday gathered in Maastricht for opening by Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the summit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Balkenende is to address representatives from 55 countries during a reception at the local government building for Limburg Province, het Gouvernement, where the Maastricht Treaty for the EU was signed in 1992. The meeting in the southern Dutch city will discuss a range of issues including the political crisis in Georgia, racism and discrimination, and the battle against human smuggling and the international drugs trade. In his opening speech, Balkenende mentioned three "alarming" developments in recent years: terrorism, slavery and smuggling people, and growing intolerance and discrimination. Citing ex-minister for foreign affairs Max van der Stoel (also exOSCE commissioner for minorities) in answer to the question of what to do, Balkenende declared "In history a consensus has emerged about the rights of the individual. That is what we call civilisation. That is what I adhere to." Today Balkenende is talking with Russian foreign affairs minister Ivanov and Georgian interim president Burdzjanadze, and then will return to The Hague. Foreign Affairs minister and incumbent NATO leader De Hoop Scheffer is chairing the summit, which features a visit of Colin Powell tomorrow.
