VČSPORTA, LONDON
زير
Miss M E MacGlashan
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HKD 340
RECEIVES
PFCTRY
WILDOMAL.
W44 APR 1991
RECEIVE
Western European Department
FCO
1290 27
pa on Palsupert
file
ie Denmark
BRITISH EMBASSY,
COPENHAGEN.
12 February 1991
Alth
26
Мамара the McCullaugh for adica
a reph
на
Dear
Manc
THE TAMIL AFFAIR AND THE DANISH PRIME MINISTER
---1----
Compared to some of the countries in WED's parish Denmark' s politics generally look a little anaemic, so I hope the fact that our first letter to you is about a scandal will not give a misleading impression. As neither sex nor money is involved, at least it is not too red-blooded a business.
a
2. The point of this letter, which follows on from Dick Thomson's teleletter of 29 January to Jim McCulloch, is to draw your attention to the very awkward position in which Schlüter finds himself as a result of the Tamil affair. For an overview of the detail the Department might like to have the enclosed chronology of events as they effect Schlüter. In outline, the problem he faces is that it is now generally accepted that his Minister of Justice until January 1989, Ninn-Hansen, illegally prevented a large number of Tamil refugees from being reunited in Denmark with their families (the court of inquiry looking into the matter is not expected to publish its findings until the end of the year, but at this stage there seems to be little doubt about what the outcome is going to be for Ninn-Hansen). As far as Schlüter is concerned, the key question is how much he was told about Ninn-Hansen's mishandling of the Tamil cases in January 1989 by the new Justice Minister (H P Clausen, now Speaker of the Folketing). Unfortunately for him there is no right answer to this question. If he was fully briefed, his subsequent dismissive statements about the matter were part of an attempted cover-up. On the other hand if he was not adequately briefed, the charge is that he failed to carry out a proper investigation before exonerating Ninn-Hansen (Danish Prime Ministers have a legal responsibility to supervise the actions of their Ministers, especially if there is any question of impropriety). At this stage the evidence suggests a cover-up rather than the less serious, but still potentially politically fatal, sin of omission.
3. In the long run there does not seem to be any obvious way out for the Prime Minister. If he had got rid of Ninn-Hansen at an earlier stage the steam would have gone out of the affair. Likewise if Ninn-Hansen had gone of his own accord, but he shows
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