Press release - Foundation Nos Ke Boneiru Bek and Brighter Path Foundation mission
to Caricom Guyana and Surinam April 2018
Willemstad, Aril 16th 2018
Representatives of the Nos Kier Boneiru Bek
Foundation from Bonaire, the Brighter Path Foundation, and the illegally
deposed Government of St. Eustatius, travelled to Guyana and Suriname with the
object to solicit solidarity in condemnation of and to expose the blatant
violations of human rights, the continued colonial administration, the contempt
for identity and culture of the local people by the Dutch government in The
Hague and its local collaborators in the islands of Bonaire and St. Eustatius.
They received a warm welcome and experienced sympathy and were given support.
They met with his Hon. Mr. Carl B. Greenidge, Vice-President and Minister of
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Guyana, with his excellency Mr Colin
Granderson assistant Secretary- General CARICOM, Ms Karen de Sousa founder and coordinator of
Red Thread a woman and child human rights
organization and was awarded the Caribbean Award for Excellence, and with honourable Ms Indranie Chanderpal member of
parliament in the opposition and president of commission for equal rights of the
woman, and with honourable Mr Clement J Rohee
ex-minister of Foreign Affairs, ex-minister of Home Affairs and
president of Guyana Peace Council, with
Mr drs. Andre Misiekaba, Faction
coalition leader of the Parliament of Suriname, Chair of the Permanent
Committee for Foreign Affairs, Chair of the Permanent Committee for Internal
Affairs, Chair of the Permanent Committee for Defense, and Chair of the
Permanent Committee for Environment and Climate Change of the National Assembly
of the Republic of Suriname, and with honourable mr Chan Santokhi ex-minister
of Foreign Affairs and faction leader of opposition of the Nationaale Assamblee Republic of Suriname. At the
meetings the following topics were discussed.
Bonaire and St. Eustatius are two small
islands in the Dutch Caribbean which since October 10, 2010 were forced in a
subordinate direct relationship with the (European) Netherlands at the
dissolution of The Netherlands Antilles. This happened against the will of the
people of both islands who expressed their desire in separate referenda to
retain or possibly expand their level of autonomy. Effectively, the islands are
currently governed in a constitutional status that was firmly and clearly
rejected by the people.
Since October 10, 2010 the Dutch government
has continued pursuing an aggressive colonial policy of imposing laws contrary
to local customs and cultural traditions, undermining and limiting the
responsibilities of local democratically elected parliaments and governments,
and appointing European Dutch citizens in the local administration and demoting
local heads of departments.
Furthermore, the Dutch government took away
all restrictions on immigration of European Dutch to the islands and encouraged
their immigration by offering them tax holidays and financial benefits NOT
available to the local people. Having wiped out the local businesses by
demanding immediate payment of taxes allegedly owed over the five years prior
to October 10, 2010, the economy in Bonaire is now largely in the hands of European
Dutch. In Bonaire, the immigration has come to such a level that it makes the
local people fear for genocide by substitution. The same trend is visible in
St. Eustatius. With the right to vote in local elections obtained in 90 days (a
Dutch law), these Dutch immigrants could soon outnumber locals in the
electorate and replace them in the representative bodies, making the exclusion
of local people complete.
On October 10, 2010 the Netherlands usurped
the responsibilities for healthcare, education, and social affairs. Since then,
despite allegedly big investments in the healthcare system, the crude death
rate has gone up significantly and is out of proportion compared to the numbers
in the wider Caribbean. In education, changes were made in the educational
system in Bonaire that adversely affected the local students by limiting them
to the lower levels of the system, and hence segregation between the European
Dutch and local people. Despite three reports by independent organizations,
which stated that the minimum wage was too low, and the average income was
well-below the poverty level, the Dutch Government has only ordered a next
report to come to the establishment of an acceptable social minimum. The
effective tax pressure is as high in the islands as it is in the European part
of the kingdom with a lower average income. At the same time the cost of living
in the islands is about twice the level of the cost of living in the European
Netherlands, while the social benefits in the islands are less than half
compared to the European Netherlands. By now building the second biggest (per
capita) prison in the world, the Dutch government says to invest in the social
well-being of the Bonerians.
Despite the promise of reluctance in
introducing new laws, the Dutch government pushed highly controversial Dutch
laws without input from the islands and experienced locally as immoral and as a
threat to the identity and culture. In November 2017, the islands were annexed
and incorporated in the Dutch constitution, again despite fierce opposition
from the islands and despite the referenda in Bonaire in 2015 and 2014 in St.
Eustatius. On top of it, a paragraph was included giving the Dutch government
the right to deviate from the constitution and declare parts of the constitution
not-applicable to the islands without giving a reason, thus making the status
of second class citizens of the people of our islands legal.
Ultimately, the undemocratic and colonial
actions of the government in The Netherlands resulted on February 7, 2018 in
King Willem-Alexander signing a law into effect, that passed through the Dutch
parliament unanimously in the record time of two days, by which the legislative
and executive branches of government of St. Eustatius were thrown out and
replaced by a sole (Dutch) Government Commissioner, appointed by and
accountable to the Dutch minister of the Interior in The Hague alone. By the
same law, the elections for the legislative body of St. Eustatius, slated for
March 2019, were postponed indefinitely. The law was passed based on a report
compiled by two persons appointed by the Dutch Minister of the Interior in
which the local government was accused of corruption, nepotism, and fraud. All
accusations have so far remained without proof.
The people of Bonaire and St. Eustatius
reach out to their brothers and sisters in the Caribbean to increase the
awareness about the persistent colonial behavior of the Dutch government toward
the islands and help them in their struggle to acquire their measure of
self-governance as is stipulated in the resolutions of the United Nations. By
removing these and the other islands of the Dutch Antilles from the UN list of
non-self-governing countries and territories under false pretense in 1954, the
Dutch achieved to escape reporting to the United Nations on the decolonization
of the islands and had and have their wicked way with the islands.
The NGO’s Nos Kier Boneiru Bek and Brighter
Path, joined by the deposed legitimately and democratically elected government
of St. Eustatius, strive for re-enlisting on the list of non-self-governing
countries and territories of the United Nations and for acquisition of their
measure of self-governance to guarantee the human rights of the local people of
Bonaire and St. Eustatius now trampled on and taken away by a Dutch government.
This quest has brought them to the doors of CARICOM and the governments of the
member states.
END
