A COURT in The Hague turned down a demand by a dozen plaintiffs who wanted to force the Dutch government to arrest US President George W Bush when he visits the Netherlands on Saturday.

The judgement was made public today.
Mr Bush will be in the south of the Netherlands this weekend to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.

The left-wing organisations and activists, accused Mr Bush of "numerous grave violations of the Geneva Conventions".

They also said the president was responsible for the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq and Washington's refusal to recognise the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world's first permanent war crimes court.

In the judgement, dated yesterday, the court said that the case was political and that the demands "could have far-reaching consequences for US-Dutch relations".

...Yeah, god forbid US-Dutch relations could be strained... I looked up the statistics about the Nether-regions and at the close of the stats page was this: major European producer of ecstasy, illicit amphetamines, and other synthetic drugs; important gateway for cocaine, heroin, and hashish entering Europe; major source of US-bound ecstasy; large financial sector vulnerable to money laundering

...yeah, we don't want to lose that supply chain