To: the State-Secretary of Kingdom Relations Mr. Raymond
Knops
2500 EA the Hague, the Netherlands
Bonaire, May 14, 2019
Subject: autonomy or self-governance is not a choice- it
is the most fundamental inalienable right of the peoples
Honorable Mr. Knops:
We took note of your recent press media communications that
you don't see the BES-islands, Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius in the future
as autonomous self-governing islands. Reason given that they are too small. I
would like to remind you that Bonaire is a nation and according to UN General
Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of December 14, 1960; - “that inadequacy of
political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as
pretext for delaying our fundamental inalienable right to self-governance”
You also declared that your undemocratic intervention, coup d’état,
overthrowing the legitimate democratic elected government in Sint Eustatius in
February 2018, had a disciplinary effect on the Bonaire government, as your
recent visit to Bonaire, the government spoke much more friendly. This is
evident as the leaders of government of Bonaire, both commissioners Mr
Tjin-Asjoe and Mrs Den Heijer, with their subservient vision, publicly voiced, that
“we cannot eat bread with autonomy”.
Firstly, we recognize and respect your right of expression
so you may have a personal opinion on our current illegal state-structure.
However, we herewith want to bring to your attention that neither you nor your
government and your Bonaire friendly local government possess any legal rights or
power to deny the peoples of Bonaire and the other BES-islands, principally
Sint Eustatius right to self-determination and self-governance.
Both islands in their respective referendum of 2014 and 2015
rejected this illegally imposed colonial status and both island parliaments, as
representation of their peoples, ratified these as legal democratic decisions
of the peoples.
Instead of assisting our islands
in enhancing their autonomy, your government, a member of the UN Security
Council, has limited the development towards more autonomy, and now declares
that we will never regain back our autonomy.
This constitutes a grave
violation of the Charter of the Kingdom based on the agreements signed with the
United Nations Organization in 1954. Your government’s continued irresponsible and
undemocratic decisions and actions have caused a setback in the governing of
the islands which has led to a re-colonization that violates the Charter of the
United Nations, especially article 73 chapter XI and article 103 chapter XVI,
and resolutions 742, 747, 945, 1514 and 1541, all which address the sacred
rights of the Peoples of Bonaire and Sint Eustatius.
Our mutual colonial history, which you voiced to me
personally that you don't know and don't care of, is a very dark one, with your
government legalizing crimes and inhumanity, your laws to piracy,
smuggling(drugs), slave-trading, making you the cruelest colonizer world
history. We may have expected, with time to have grown out of this horrific
barbaric culture, that you would have become civilized. But, your recent
declarations exposed your truth again, that nothing changed throughout the
centuries, and you have put a suit over the plunderer of the defenseless
Bonaire peoples.
Our response is by quoting Ghandi: “that throughout history
the way of truth has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for
a time, they seemed invincible. But in the end, they always fall”.
We the peoples of Bonaire maintain our hopes high that “we
shall overcome” and you shall respect, protect and comply with our inherited
and acquired rights. We possess the same rights as you, to be as free and to be
as equal and as human as yourself and all European-Dutch citizens of the
Kingdom.
We urge the international community to also take note of this
illegal colonial status forced upon us, and exert the necessary pressure to
make the Dutch comply with natural and international law!
Sincerely,
James Finies
We Want Bonaire Back
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