Dutch's shameless UN speech

Open letter to Prime Minister Rutte                                                     29^th September, 2022

Subject: Prime Minister Mark Rutte speech at the 77^th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA): hypocrisy and truth at the same time?

Honorable Prime Minister (PM) Rutte,

We took note of your address on the war in Ukraine at the opening of the 77^th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) where you took the prestigious world stage of the United Nations (UN) to present your government’s actions and future plans.

In our view and experience as a people of Bonaire that lived and endured your government’s illegal annexation on the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on October 10, 2010, we only can say that everything your honorable expressed on that world podium is exactly, in every aspect, true for our Bonerian People.

In our continued efforts to expose Dutch atrocities and seek justice for our Bonaire people, we are in the process to relist Bonaire on the Non-Self-Governing-Territories of the UN. Since we have no representation who could stand up for our truth and our rights on the UN stage, we will evaluate the address you gave. We will do this in direct clear words, the same way as you expressed your government’s views, and plans on the conflict in Ukraine. PM Rutte, your vocabulary shocked us, and quoting your own words, “delusional, deceitful, and outright lies”. And then, yet on the other hand, we were very puzzled because you spoke about, freedom, self-determination, rule of law, determine their own future, the people’s right to choose their own path, fundamental principles of the UN charter etc. We think, PM Rutte, your speech is hypocritical at the highest level, because it was made at the highest level of the diplomatic world stage, the UNGA. Our assessment below of your speech is solely based on facts, quoting your own words. 

Quoting H E Prime Minister Mark Rutte:

PM Rutte UN speech: “we have to make a choice between “might is right” and an international community living in peace under the laws of justice...”

The UN declared that colonialism is a crime against humanity, then why does your government continue to enforce by “might” colonial legislation and policies over our island Bonaire and the other Caribbean islands? Then why has our small island Bonaire international airport been taken over by your Dutch government, and transformed and expanded rapidly to beyond commercial norms to seemingly military norms?

PM Rutte UN speech: “the people would only want to be left in peace... to decide their own future... we must uphold the international rule of law....it is a sovereign people’s right to choose its own path...it is about freedom.... who long for peace and justice...whose voices are not being heard. Yes PM Rutte, the Bonerian people would like to be left in peace. We would like you to stop the European-Dutch settlers-migration encouraged by the Netherlands incentives depopulating and making our Bonerian people a minority in their own island where the European Dutch immigrant on arrival can vote in 90 days in Bonaire local elections. Did your government uphold international rule of law when your government unilaterally annexed and embedded Bonaire in your constitution without equal rights and against the wishes of the people?  

PM Rutte speech: “we must uphold the fundamental principles of the UN charter ...principles we agreed to after the painful lessons of history.... to stand collectively for what we laid down in the UN Charter.... The Hague, the legal capital of the world”. Does Your Honorable realize that your governments’ actions, decisions, laws, and policies toward our Bonaire people are infringements of these fundamental principles, and resulted in a recolonization that violated articles 1, 55, 73 and 103 of the Charter of the UN and resolutions 742, 747, 945, 1514 and 1541 that affirm the inalienable rights of the people of Bonaire to self-determination? Are you aware that your government has systematically encroached several of our Bonaire people’s international legal instruments: UN’s Charter, UN’s Decolonization Declaration, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Covenant on All Forms of Racial Discrimination, UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples? Aren't you aware of the research and reports by numerous international experts including your own experts contracted by your government, Hoogers, Oostindie and Veenendaal reporting this heinous fact of your government continues colonial rule which is against and in violation of “international laws of justice”?

PM Rutte speech: “who long for peace and justice.... there cannot be no justice without accountability... whose voices are not being heard”. These statements reflect exactly Bonaire's reality and situation since the illegal annexation of 10-10-10, by which Bonaire autonomy was reversed to a colonial with taxation without representation status through which The Hague decides without any accountability. Our voices have been silenced now and forever as we have become a minority on our own island. By displacement and reduction through settler-colonization policies, the indigenous population has fallen to under 40% in a decade and will fall to under 1/3 of the population by 2030.

PM Rutte speech: “delusional narrative full of lies, deceit.... the world cannot and will not standby and do nothing”. These remarks are the storyline of our colonial history and this continues up to today. History keeps repeating, as we were colonized by one of the world’s biggest colonizer-nation and we are here today because of the biggest Dutch lie in history. When in 1955, Mr. Johan Beyen as Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs assisted by Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles, Mr. Jonckheer, mislead the UN that they represented the free people of the Netherlands Antilles, and thus the Netherlands obtained absolution from reporting obligations and had us removed from the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories (NSGT). We were never decolonized and were never equal nor free.

PM Rutte speech: “stands on the wrong side of history...we will continue on that path, because adaptation is in our DNA...now is the time to speak out, now is the time to be at the right side of history”. PM Rutte your government bereaved Bonaire and stole 200 nautical sea-miles Exclusive Economic Zone of pristine Caribbean sea from our people without a single bullet fired or any bloodshed and indeed you and your government stands at the wrong side of history. Curacao, Aruba, and St Maarten Prime Ministers could not speak, as they sat in the 77^th General Assembly and watched you incite and declare world war on behalf of the Dutch Caribbean. So much for equality, so much for the right side of history, so much for the truth, Your Honorable PM Rutte.  

With kind regards,

James Finies, President Nos Ke Boneiru Bek

PM Rutte UN GA 2022 speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSXuhQQ7Yxo&t=199s