Dispute over Danish documentary
on military operations in Afghanistan

Source
Article in Danish
Dagbladet Information
Denmark
Friday, January 26, 2007
A documentary recently aired in Denmark has put Anders Fogh Rasmussen's government in an awkward position. In "The secret War", filmmakers Christoffer Guldbrandsen and Nils Giversen accuse the government of having known that Danish soldiers stationed in Afghanistan handed over Afghan prisoners to US troops in 2002. The prisoners are reported to have been tortured afterwards. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has now accused the Danish broadcasters of employing dubious journalistic tactics. The newspaper comments: "Unfortunately, it looks like this manoeuvre will succeed and divert the public's attention from the fundamental issue at hand: was it right to hand over captured Afghans to American interrogators even though their fate was unclear? You just need to take a look at what the media will be focussing on today and tomorrow: not on Afghanistan; not on the question of whether Denmark violated the Geneva Conventions the first time our soldiers fought in a real war. No, the focus of attention now is an indecipherable dispute between the Danish broadcasters on the one hand and the Prime Minister - and media with close ties to the government - on the other."

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