US embassy angers Danish veterans by removing flags / Photo: © Ritzau Scanpix/AFP
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US embassy angers Danish veterans by removing flags
Danish veterans on Wednesday criticised the US embassy in Copenhagen for removing national flags put up in front of the mission to honour Danish soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
The embassy later backtracked, telling Danish media it would not have taken the flags down if it had been aware of the intention behind them.
US President Donald Trump last week angered some allies by downplaying the role of non-US NATO troops in the Afghanistan war, saying in an interview that NATO troops "stayed a little back, a little off the front lines".
In response, 44 Danish flags, which carried the names of the 44 Danish soldiers killed in Afghanistan, were put up on Tuesday in flower beds outside the US embassy in Copenhagen.
Danish media film showed embassy staff taking down the flags on Wednesday morning.
The embassy originally told Danish media that it had removed the flags because they had been put up without coordination with the embassy. But the move was slammed by politicians and veterans' representatives.
"This was an unnecessary action, which has been perceived as a provocation by many Danes," Carsten Rasmussen, chairman of the Danish Veteran Association, told AFP.
He added that many felt Trump's comments represented a "a betrayal" of their brothers in arms.
Jens-Kristian Lutken, a Copenhagen city official representing the Liberal Party (Venstre), called the embassy's move and the questioning of Danish efforts in Afghanistan "completely unacceptable".
"We have fought alongside the Americans in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, and we have lost many soldiers in Afghanistan – per capita, as many as the Americans have lost," he told broadcaster TV2.
Following the news of the removal, new flags were put up on Wednesday. The embassy told the Berlingske newspaper that the new flags would be left in place.
"If the American ambassador is fully aware of what is going on in Denmark, then they will know what this is all about. They will know that it seems like a provocation," Rasmussen told AFP about the original move to take down the flags.
The US embassy in Copenhagen did not immediately respond to AFP's request for a comment.
N.Fournier--BTB