US embassy removes flags with names of fallen Danish soldiers

Staff at the US embassy in Copenhagen have removed 44 flags decorated with the names of Danish soldiers that were killed in Afghanistan, put up after US President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of allied countries’ military contributions.

As yet unidentified activists put up the flags on Tuesday but they were removed later the same day by an embassy security guard, according to Danish media TV2,

In an interview with Fox News last week, Trump said that allied soldiers in Afghanistan, “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines” – causing pushback from European capitals.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Trump’s comments were “unacceptable”.

While the pavement outside the building is under jurisdiction of the City of Copenhagen, the flower boxes in which the flags were placed are the property of the embassy as part of counter-terrorism measures for perimeter security, the city’s municipality told Euractiv.

Copenhagen’s mayor for environmental affairs, Line Barfoed called the removal “disrespectful.” “The flags marked in a very nice and quiet manner the tremendous effort that the Danish soldiers deployed there made over several years,” she said in a statement to Euractiv.

“There was no malicious intent behind removing the flags” an embassy spokesperson told TV2, adding that if the embassy management had been aware of the purpose, the flags would have remained in place. Yet according to the outlet, embassy security staff was briefed on the action before they the flags were removed.

Denmark had one of the highest casualty rates per capita of the allied countries fighting in Afghanistan and Danish veterans have protested near the embassy recently.

Diplomatic ties between Copenhagen and Washington have been strained recently over Trump’s effort to seize Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory.

(jp)