The Belgian government has offered formal apologies to Italy for last Tuesday's brutal arrest of Mario Borghezio, an Italian member of the European Parliament (MEP). The Belgian Ministery of Foreign Affairs assured the Italian ambassador to Brussels that in future it will do "everything possible to guarantee the immunity of MEPs." How Belgium can give this assurance without punishing those who are responsible for last Tuesday's police violence is not clear. Brussels is the capital of the European Union and houses the EU institutions.
The Belgian authorities have so far not offered apologies to Belgian MEP Frank Vanhecke, the leader of the Flemish-secessionist Vlaams Belang, which is the largest party in the Flemish Regional Parliament. Borghezio and Vanhecke were arrested together, but Vanhecke was publicly humiliated by policemen subjecting him to a genital hold. This is police behaviour which as The Washington Times wrote yesterday "would get any American policeman thrown off the force."
People who have been molested and/or arrested by the Belgian police last Tuesday and want to press charges can contact Belgian lawyer Hugo Coveliers (in Dutch, English, German or French) who will press charges on their behalf.
Paul Belien is the editor of Secessie and The Brussels Journal. Paul is a columnist at the Flemish weekly Pallieterke and at the Flemish monthly Doorbraak and a regular contributor to the Flemish conservative monthly Nucleus, which he co-founded in 1990. Older articles by Paul Belien, Brussels Journal Paul can be reached at: paul.belien@pandora.be
