Saturday April 9th, Kritische Studenten Utrecht have held up a banner that protested the Dutch military action in Afghanistan and mocked with militarism. The occasion was the UCU History and Heritage Festival at the UCU campus, organized by the Utrecht College Students Association and financed by the University Utrecht (with the amount of nearly 20.000 Euro’s).
The one-day event was meant to showcase the open character of the campus and the links with what the campus formerly was: an army barrack. A veterans’ musical band, de Fanfarekorps der Genie, performed at the festival. KSU takes the invitation and the performance as more than a mere historical reference and objected to it as an undesirable public relations event for the Armed Forces of the Netherlands and untrue advertisement of the nature of military organizations.