H.E.
Ambassador Mr. Irwin La Rocque
Secretary-General and Chief Executive Officer of the
Caribbean Community
Caricom Secretariaat
Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown
Guyana
Bonaire, February 6th, 2019
Subject: Urgent
appeal from the people of the Dutch Caribbean islands to the CARICOM and Latin
America.
Excellency,
I would like to congratulate your Excellency and the
secretariat on attending the upcoming meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay. In
reference to the escalating Venezuela crisis and our previous letters of June
11, 2018 urging the CARICOM and the Caribbean region to intervene and object to
prevent an armed conflict in the Caribbean and recent letter dated January 29th,
2019, as the crisis and conflict is deepening, we herewith would like to
request your urgent attention and call to action on behalf of the peoples of
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Curacao and Aruba.
By now it is very clear and obvious that the provocation and
escalation is initiated and led by mayor world powers headed by the UK, France
and the Netherlands and backed by the US as we witnessing a continuing military
buildup in Curacao, the ABC islands. We the people of the ABC islands highly
object to be dragged into this conflict.
As the discussion is fundamentally based on the issue of
democracy and human rights, the so-called ultimatum headed by these colonizing
powers is directed towards a new election to re-elect a democratic president
and government for the peoples of Venezuela we would like to illustrate
herewith the hypocritical position taken by the government of the Netherlands
(member of the UN Security Council) a front-runner in this provocation and
escalation of this crisis.
The autonomous democratic Caribbean islands forming the
country Netherlands Antilles in the Dutch Kingdom was dissolved and
disintegrated on October 10, 2010. The Netherlands which maintained ultimate
unilateral legislative and judiciary powers in the Dutch Kingdom abused these
powers to continue with colonialism in the Caribbean region.
The denser populated islands Aruba, Sint Maarten and
Curacao, something that is not so obvious to outside world, they were all
stripped from their autonomy and are back under Dutch control and rule.
The Dutch, which controls and decides on the budget (and
judiciary) of the Curacao government, headed by the Secretary of State Mr.
Knops, an ex-military and ex-lieutenant active in the Iraq war, forced the
prime minister of Curacao, Mr Rhuggenaath which is subordinated to the Hague
powers, to escalation of the crisis. Curacao Prime Minister Rhugenaath publicly
sided with the ultimatum for a new election causing a direct interference in the
sovereign neighboring country Venezuela internal affairs.
Curacao, which as Aruba, the closest Caribbean islands to
Venezuela, are equipped with a full US military forward base and with
international harbors and airports of military standards are at the moment
converted in the most strategic war-campaign-bases. War planes are already
landing and troops are deployed from the Netherlands towards the ABC islands
under guidance of Dutch brigade-general Peter Jan de Vin which was deployed to
Curacao to oversee this military operation along with State Secretary Mr.
Knops.
The less populated in-defensive islands of Saba, Sint
Eustatius and Bonaire were annexed, integrated and incorporated in the Dutch Constitution
without equal rights, with all administrating, democratic, judiciary, powers
unilaterally re-positioned under the Dutch parliament in the Hague and at the
moment are being governed in a colonial status against the free will of the
peoples and not of their choosing.
As the Dutch government is preaching or claiming to support
democracy and human rights in Venezuela, meanwhile Bonaire is in a heavy
humanitarian crisis by neutralizing and erasing their democratic and human
rights. Imposing unilaterally laws for a systematic institutionalized ethnic
cleansing of the local population, explosion of the crude death rate over 60%
and massive immigration over 400% increase
of non-Bonerians. At the moment in a short period the local Bonerians became a
minority on their own island, and there is no stopping to this displacement and
extermination process.
On Sint Eustatius, the democratically elected local
government were un-democratically removed from power, with claims of corruption
without proof or formal investigation by the Dutch government with abusive use
of legislative, military and police powers
The Dutch appointed a non-democratic ruler to govern and
erased the people’s democratic rights by stopping elections on the island till
further notice. Note that the government of Sint Eustatius is the only Dutch
Caribbean island which stood up against the Dutch government because illegal
annexation on October 10, 2010, and presently are in court-proceedings against
the Dutch government.
These mayor developments are contributing to re-establishing
colonial regiments back in the Caribbean and these re-colonized territories are
misused as this Venezuela case and crisis is unfolding to destabilize the
region and vision towards a united and integrated Caribbean.
Our urgent call to attention and action is towards the CARICOM
countries and our Caribbean and Latin American brothers and sisters for
supporting our islands of Bonaire and Sint Eustatius in our quest to get re-inscribed
back on the list of the Non-Self-Governing-Territories of the United Nations
and fall back under the scrutiny of the international community on our way back
to regain and restore our fundamental human and democratic rights.
Yours sincerely,
James Finies
President Foundation We Want Bonaire Back
