The death of a 19-year-old handbag thief at the hands of the woman he robbed has reopened a raw wound in Dutch public life. Ali el B. was Moroccan. Germaine C. is Dutch. And the incident occurred within metres of where controversial film maker Theo van Gogh had been cut down just 11 weeks previously by a Moroccan enraged at his depiction of Islamic custom. Since the incident on Monday evening on Linnaeus Street to the east of central Amsterdam, politicians, commentators and legal academics have all had their say. Members of the large Moroccan community in the area have marched in silent mourning to their local mosque. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has felt obliged to come out in public support of Integration Minister Rita Verdonk, who remarked that if Ali el B. had not stolen a handbag, he would have come to no harm. Verdonk was merely trying to "calm feelings" in the Moroccan community after friends of the dead youth claimed he had been murdered, Balkende said, but he acknowledged the outcry revealed "the seriousness of the climate in the Netherlands". --More 2233 Local Time 1933 GMT
