Anti-terror raid ends 14-hour siege in Dutch capital

AN anti-terror raid in the Dutch capital ended yesterday evening without any loss of life after a violent 14-hour siege.

The house, in a built-up area of The Hague, was booby-trapped and suspects with close links to terrorist cells targeting key political and industrial targets were captured.

Three police officers were wounded in a grenade blast earlier during the raid. One of two still in hospital is said to be in a serious condition. One of those taken into custody was injured in the shoulder.

Earlier, a Muslim school in the Brabant region in the south of the country was gutted amid continuing racial tension following the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, a critic of Islam who was shot, stabbed and had his throat cut.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Pieter Balkenende told members of the Muslim community in Brabant where he visited the burnt-out shell of the Muslim school - the 11th such attack in recent days - that it was vital for everybody who believed in democracy to pull together and not allow “extremism and hate to triumph”.

Visibly upset, he told Muslim families that the Netherlands was a safe country and they and their children should feel that they belonged. School head Ismail Taspinar said: “It is terrible that children should become victims in all of this; they have done nothing, yet they are made to feel the hate and the outrage; I am sure that Theo van Gogh would be on their side.” Daubed on the sides of the burnt-out shell of a building yesterday was the symbol of the Dutch fascist group White Power and the words “Theo RIP”.

Minister of State responsible for Integration Frank Fahy, who is in the Netherlands, expressed his shock and concern at the ongoing events.

The minister, who arrived for a conference of European ministers on integration which ends today in Groningen, said he was also appalled by the murder of the Dutch filmmaker and columnist and what has happened in the aftermath. The most important thing, Mr Fahy stressed, was “the return of calm and that there would be no further heightening of tensions or outbreaks of senseless violence”.

Addressing the conference in Groningen, Dutch Minister for Integration Rita Verdonk, who has been described as an enemy of Islam by fanatics, asked whether the Netherlands has been too liberal and tolerant in its immigration policies.

She said measures to fight against radicalism were uppermost and said the events of the past week pointed to the need to raise the “whole issue of integration to a new level”.

There were conflicting reports last night about whether the 14-hour siege in The Hague was connected with the ongoing van Gogh investigation.

For much of the day it was stressed that the anti-terror raid had nothing to do with the investigation.

But shortly after two men were taken out of the building, another report stated that the arrests were in fact connected with the murder. It was reported that the door to the suspected terrorists’ hideout was booby-trapped and a consignment of weapons was found inside. During the day, scuffles broke out between Dutch and Muslim residents, fuelling an already tense situation which has the nation soul-searching about where its “open door” liberal polices have left the country 27 years after their introduction.

Critics believe that the Dutch paid only lip service to the whole issue of integration, creating separate neighbourhoods for its immigrant population.