At a debate in Amsterdam, organised by the newspaper de Volkskrant, the five former office holders from across the political spectrum all said that it is wrong for the current government to refuse such an inquiry. The debate was held on the occasion of the impending inauguration of the new US President, Barack Obama.

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who was not present at the debate, has consistently turned down requests from parliament for an inquiry into the Dutch role in the 2003 invasion, saying that it would yield no new information. The three parties in the governing coalition, two Christian Democrat parties plus Labour, agreed in 2007 to let the matter rest during their period in office.

The Netherlands gave political but not military support to the US and British action in 2003. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, now the secretary general of Nato, was the minister of foreign affairs in the Netherlands at the time.

Desire of the people

Hans van Mierlo, the former leader of the left-wing liberal party D66 and minister of foreign affairs from 1994-1998, called the prime minister's attitute "a shame". He said it is not up to the prime minister to decide whether to respond to the desire of the people to know what happened. His successor, right-wing VVD liberal, Jozias van Aartsen, said he agreed with Van Mierlo "one on one".

Ben Bot, a Christian Democrat who was in office between 2003 and 2007, said an inquiry is "necessary". He is not expecting anything new to emerge, but expects it to have a "purifying" effect.

His fellow Christian Democrat Hans van den Broek said that "this uncertainty should not be allowed to continue". He reminded his fellow debaters that the US and the UK did conduct an inquiry into the Iraq decison-making in order establish the lessons learnt. "The Dutch cabinet apparently thinks that we learnt nothing and we don't need to learn anything."

The doyen of the former foreign ministers, Labour statesman Max van der Stoel, said he agreed with Van den Broek.