No liquidity support from the Netherlands for Sint Maarten after complaint of violation of human rights
Posted April 12, 2021
Solidarity and anti-racism are of paramount importance at # Leidenvoor14.
Since 2010, Sint Maarten has been an independent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Due to the economically dire situation on the island due to the corona pandemic and the devastation caused by the hurricane season in 2017, it has to rely on financial loan from the Netherlands. To this end, the Netherlands is forcing reforms that are disproportionate and undemocratic. The parliament of Sint Maarten has therefore filed a complaint with the UN for human rights violations and racism. State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops immediately suspended corona support in response to this.
The reforms are said to make the island’s economy and society more sustainable and resilient. Not all proposed reforms are objectionable. “We welcome the reforms, most of which we agree. But there is a thorny thing: three representatives are going to run Sint Maarten, and we have nothing to say, “says one of the initiators of the complaint and Member of Parliament Grisha Heyliger-Marten in the Antilliaans Dagblad:” It feels like slavery again. ” These representatives would be appointed by the Netherlands alone. They monitor the extent to which the reforms are being implemented. If this is not done sufficiently, the financing can be stopped. Not only Sint Maarten, but also Aruba and Curaçao, are thus forced to walk on a colonial leash again. But the islands have their backs to the wall.
However, Sint Maarten refused to comply with this state of affairs, and so filed a complaint. The petitioners accuse the Dutch government of a neo-colonial and racist attitude in providing thirty million euros in emergency corona aid. “Instead of providing Covid emergency aid to the predominantly black Dutch residents of Sint Maarten to the same extent and in the same way as the Netherlands helps its predominantly white population (…), the Netherlands has imposed more measures and debts on [the island]”, the report says. complaint filed with the UN. The Parliament of Sint Maarten asks the UN Rapporteur on Racism, Discrimination and Xenophobia, Tendayi Achiume, to investigate these allegations. The aim is to initiate a new discussion about ties with the Netherlands.
Without money support, the treasury is empty after two months, so that salaries of civil servants, among others, can no longer be paid. And the rest of the inhabitants do not receive the supplement to their wages as in the Netherlands. This of course has disastrous consequences such as mass hunger and evictions. But the medical sector, for example, will also come to a complete standstill in the middle of a pandemic.
Leidenvoor14finds it scandalous that the Dutch government is waltzing over the human rights of its own residents in this way. And responds in an infantile way to serious accusations of racism too! A reaction that will even cost human lives if the Netherlands continues to be so childish and stubborn. The Netherlands must stop forcing the islands to give up protest with its knife to the throat. The population of Sint Maarten has the right to criticize the unilaterally imposed conditions, and to examine the attitude of the Netherlands. # Leidenvoor14 urges neo-liberal Knops to resume aid to Sint Maarten. But also to return to the table as equal partners for fair, sustainable, democratic and humane solutions for Sint Maarten and its inhabitants.
Geen liquiditeitssteun Nederland voor Sint Maarten na klacht schending mensenrechten
