Danish PM rejects investigation into Denmark's participation into Iraq war

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen rejected calls by the opposition to open an investigation into Denmark's participation in the Iraq war, Ritzau news bureau reported on Thursday.

The Socialist People's Party and the Red-Green Alliance demanded the investigation in order to provide lawmakers with a frame of reference, should a similar decision need to be made in the future.

Rasmussen rejected the call, saying he feared that such an investigation would easily turn into a political squabble.

"We don't need an investigation. We need a free and open debate where we let our opinions wrestle," said Rasmussen in his reply.

Denmark has 550 soldiers under British command in the southern city of Basra. The government, with the tentative support of the main opposition parties, has supported the US-led invasion of Iraq from the start.

The Socialist People's Party was not amongst the supporters, and its chairman, Willy Soevndal, had requested'an independent investigation into the entire Iraq coalition's basis for waging war,and the means used by it, as well as the Iraq war's influence on increased risks of terror, according to Ritzau.

Though the two parties had their requests rejected, Rasmussen did agree with them that the US was not helping its case by refusing to allow Manfred Nowak, the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, access to its Guantanamo detention facility.

"I am far from satisfied with the way the US has handled this matter," Rasmussen said, adding that the best way to pressure the US to allow Nowak to talk to detainees was through the European Union, not through Rasmussen's personal contacts with US President Bush.

Source: Xinhua