Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 10 November 2008

Comments by US president elect Barack Obama about Denmark and other coalition partners’ failure to do more for Iraqi refugees has divided politicians. Politicians say the effort should be concentrated on the areas close to Iraq.

A brief on the BarackObama.com website states, “The State Department pledged to allow 7,000 Iraqi refugees into America, but has only let 190 into the United States. Obama would expedite the Department of Homeland Security’s review of Iraqi asylum applicants.

“Obama also would appeal to the Coalition’s original partners to expand their refugee quotas. Coalition partners such as Great Britain, Australia, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Japan have done woefully little to meet the refugee crisis, and must be encouraged to do more,” the Obama campaign organisation adds. “Arab governments, especially American allies such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, should also be enlisted.”

According to major Danish newswire Ritzau’s Bureau, the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, estimated that 4.7 million refugees were on the run in the spring of this year. Of these, 2.2 million were refugees within Iraq and a further half million are in countries bordering Iraq. Only a small number of refugees have sought asylum in Denmark.

The Obama criticism does not faze Karen Ellemann, integration spokesperson for the Liberals, one of the two coalition government parties.

While Ellemann agrees with the newly elected successor to George W Bush that much remains to be done in Iraq, she believes the main refugee focus should be on helping Iraqi refugees in the countries close to Iraq.

In an interview with Danish daily newspaper Politiken, Ellemann says, “When the coming US president criticises this, we should all listen and say that the man is not wrong in what he says.

“Everyone in the coalition has a joint responsibility for actively relieving the refugee situation,” Ellemann adds. “But it’s not a matter of unilaterally accepting more quota refugees. With the 500 quota refugees that Denmark has committed itself to receiving a year, we accept the number that we can integrate into our society. The effort in the countries neighbouring Iraq is extremely important and the money goes a lot further in those areas.”

Development minister Ulla Tørnæs, also from the Liberals, disagrees with Ellemann. Tørnæs told Ritzau that Obama has misunderstood the Danish effort towards refugees from Iraq, and she looks forward to a chance to speak with the coming Obama administration to clarify matters.

Noting that Denmark has given a total of DKr 200 million in 2007-2008 to help Iraqi refugees in countries neighbouring Iraq, she said, “Denmark has made a great effort in Iraq’s neighbours. That means Denmark is the greatest humanitarian donor per capita – and is third largest in absolute terms, surpassed only by the US and Japan.”

Pia Kjærsgaard, the leader of the Danish People’s Party, the main supporter of the Liberal-Conservative coalition government, downplays the criticism from the Obama camp. Instead, she wants the coming US president to clean up his own doorstep – including the Guantanamo base on Cuba – before criticising Denmark.

The major opposition party, the Social Democrats, agrees that Denmark has done too little for Iraqi refugees. The country should be ready to accept more of them.

“Obama criticises all the countries that participated in the war, including the US,” the party’s refugee spokesman, Henrik Dam Kristensen, told Ritzau. “But what is interesting is the future. I must assume that he will prepare a strategy for ending this unfortunate war. In this situation there can be a need for an additional humanitarian effort. And Denmark should participate in this, of course,” Kristensen said. “We participated when it was a matter of gunpowder and bullets, so we should also participate when it’s a humanitarian effort.”

He wants Denmark to take its fair share of Iraqi refugees without naming a figure.

Morten Østergaard, integration spokesman for the Social Liberals, feels Obama’s criticism is “very apt.”

“I agree completely with Obama,” he told Politiken. “The Danish government has not taken any responsibility for Iraq’s refugees.”

To Jyllands-Posten, another daily newspaper, Østergaard said, “The UN has thousands of Iraqi refugees in acute need of resettlement. Denmark has accepted very few. But I hope that this call from Obama will cause the Danish government to change its course. It’s Obama we must follow now, not Bush.”

Østergaard said he has several times called on the Danish government to visit Iraq and its neighbours and accept Iraqi refugees as quota refugees. No such visit has taken place, however.

“The government is running away from its responsibility,” Østergaard said.

Denmark issued residence permits to 802 people with refugee status from Iraq between 2003 and 30 September 2008; 43 of them were quota refugees. Between January 2003 and April 2008 Denmark was offered 104 quota refugees from Iraq, Politiken said, citing government sources.

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Obama not looking for more Danes in Afghanistan

By Michael de Laine

Copenhagen, 10 November 2008

US president elect Barack Obama will increase the US presence in Afghanistan but there will be no call for more Danish troops there, Denmark’s defence minister, Søren Gade, told the Berlingske Tidende newspaper.

“Compared with Denmark’s size, we are already making a large contribution,” the minister said.

The Danish contingent in Afghanistan numbers 650 and the addition of a field hospital next year will raise that number by 100.

But other Nato members will be called on to raise their contributions, the Danish minister foresaw. And many people in Europe make the mistake of thinking that Obama will not called for a larger European contribution.

He will, Gade said, adding that Afghanistan “will not be a walk in the park.”

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Obama is a man of war, says right-wing party leader

By Michael de Laine

Copenhagen 10 November 2008
While the leaders of Denmark’s Social Democrats and Socialist People’s Party were overjoyed by Barack Obama’s victory in the US presidential election last week, Pia Kjærsgaard, the leader of the right-wing Danish People’s Party, said they were misguided.

Kjærsgaard, who party is the main political supporter for the governing Liberal-Conservative coalition, said in her weekly party website newsletter that she was surprised by the other parties’ “wild hugging” of Obama.

“On a right-left axis, Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Svend Auken [both Social Democrats] and others are almost communists compared with Obama and McCain,” Kjærsgaard said.

“On an American scale, Obama might be a little left wing, but he’s far to the right of the Liberals on the Danish scale. And something like light-years away from the confused socialism that neither the Social Democrats nor the Socialist People’s Party can get themselves to throw over board.”

The Danish People’s Party leader added that she does not regard Obama as a man of peace. “He will be a president who will act where words don’t count,” she said. “And he’s both a man of war, supporting the missile defence system in Poland, near to Russia, and a supporter of the right to bear arms and of capital punishment.”