Personnel from the detectives’ department is busy investigating a stabbing that took place on the evening of April 2, 2021, around 05.30 pm in the vicinity of the casino on Welfare Road. According to the preliminary investigation, it appears that the victim made an arrangement with a man to take him to the casino on the island. An argument arose between the victim and the suspect in connection with the payment that ended in a scuffle. During the scuffle, the victim sustained a cut in the face with a knife that the suspect had in his possession. After being injured, the victim got into his car and attempted to drive home. He was later stopped on the L.B. Scott road by the police patrol who intercepted him on his way home. The victim was bleeding profusely He was given first aid by the patrol while waiting on the arrival of the ambulance personnel. The victim was later rushed to the Sint Maarten Medical Center by ambulance personnel for further treatment. He was later visited by the detectives at the Medical Center and was able to shed a little light as to what transpired prior to him being injured with the knife. This investigation is currently still ongoing.
The personnel of the Traffic Department is investigating a serious accident that took place on Sunday, April 4th, 2021 about 2.45 pm on the crossing L.B.Scott Road and the Flamboyant Road. Upon investigating what transpired, it was discovered that the driver of a grey Pickup and the driver of a motorcycle both traveling in the same direction from St Peters towards the Church-Hill roundabout. At a given moment, the driver of the pickup opted to turn left to enter Flamboyant road. At the very same time, the gray pick-up was being overtaken by the rider of the motorcycle who collided with the front side of the pick-up. Due to the collision, the motorcycle rider received injuries to his face and back. He was treated at the scene by the personnel of the ambulance and later transported to the Sint Maarten Medical Center. Traffic department personnel could not do any investigation on the motorcycle involved in the accident, as unknown persons had removed the motorcycle from the scene of the collision prior to the arrival of patrols or the traffic department.
The epidemiology department reports that out of 769 people who were tested today for the COVID-19 virus, 119 of them resulted positive: a positivity rate of 15%. This brings the number of active infections to 4550. 54 active cases have recovered.
The situation at the Curaçao Medical Center (CMC): 131 people are now in the hospital. 41 of them are in the intensive care unit.
Unfortunately, 4 more have died making the total now 56 deaths. 3 died in the hospital and 1 at home.
The travel restrictions from Aruba and Curaçao to St. Maarten, which went into effect on Monday, April 5, for a two-week period, have forced the Joint Court of Justice to cancel the trip of judges from Curaçao to St. Maarten for the hearing of appeal cases here.
Prior to this decision, penal lawyers expressed their concerns about the continuation of appeal cases to be adjudicated in April by judges flying in from Curaçao. With an eye on public health and public order, the lawyers requested that the April hearings be cancelled.
“At the moment that the decision was taken to continue with the hearings – after considering all the interests at stake and deliberation with the local health authorities in both St. Maarten and Curaçao – the governmental decision to close the borders was not yet in place. As that is the case now and the flights have been cancelled, there is no other choice but to cancel the trip,” Joint Court acting spokesperson Desi Dijkhuizen said in a statement on Saturday.
“In individual cases, based on the stage in which each case is, the appeal judges will decide whether either videoconferencing might be a viable method to proceed, or that the hearing in said cases should be cancelled at all,” Dijkhuizen added.
Several major cases were planned for hearings this month, including those against former Members of Parliament (MPs) Silvio Matser, Frans Richardson, Theodore Heyliger and Claudius Buncamper. Also planned are appeal hearings in a number of murder and manslaughter cases, such as in the so-called “Mars” and “Lamantijn” investigations.
According to the spokesperson for the lawyers involved, attorney-at-law Cor Merx of the Association for Penal Law Scholars, the magnitude of several major cases in no way justifies treatment via video links.
“The connections between the countries [St. Maarten and Curaçao – Ed.] are bad. This does not benefit the defence’s interest. All the more since during a recent court hearing the video connection broke down and the counsel no longer had any connection with Curaçao, so that a colleague from the Netherlands had to take over and finish the hearing. The proposal is, therefore – short and sweet – to set new dates, but in good consultation with us, to discuss the progress of cases.” https://www.curacaochronicle.com/post/main/appeal-judges-cancel-flight-to-st-maarten/
Mr Dittrich (D66): I would like to inform you that the island is saying: why has there never been some kind of townhall meeting? This is about a meeting where a lot of residents could come together, explaining the plans and asking: what do you think of that? State Secretary Knops: They’re organized. Mr Dittrich (D66): Well, it is said on the island that this has happened to a very limited extent and in a small circle, but not for those who are normally already difficult to reach. So it would be an opportunity in the future to see how you can turn directly to the population to prevent all kinds of falsehoods or falsehoods from circulating. State Secretary Knops: I think that is a valid point. I suggest that I return to that in that report in May. In the meantime, we’re trying to go deeper and see what it’s in. But as far as I’ve been informed, there have been townhall meetings. That’s the advantage of a small bowl. I’ve done them myself a number of times. Not everyone could be there, but it will be broadcast, so you can reach quite a lot of people very directly. We are completely transparent about what we do. We have nothing to hide. In fact, it would be very strange if we were not transparent about that. Everything we do and what we have in input and output can be shared. It is also very visible. I will take that element — how is it experienced there, how is it perceived? — want to include in detail in the following report. I’d like to promise. The Chairman: Thank you for this commitment. Mrs Gerkens (SP): I would like to go into a little more detail, if you will allow me. I would ask the Secretary of State not to blame it. I believe that the Secretary of State has acted very decisively. Only, if we look back on the whole process, we’ll see that maybe we dropped some stitches. I’m not just referring to this. Also look at the results of the election in Curaçao. Of course, we do not yet know what is going on in Aruba or what is to come. My question is: if you are going to make that report later, would you also like to try to see in some way what did not happen and what, if we look back, maybe we should have done? Then I think it’s in the contact with the resident. Townhall meetings are one way. From my political experience, I know that when I went to a night of politics, for example about paid parking, it was always a one-way street. You could have yelled that you were against it. People just didn’t go anymore at some point. So has there been a real conversation? Would the Secretary of State like to look into that? State Secretary Knops: Sure. I had hoped that the efforts we have made among the people there would have led to a more positive picture. I cannot say that it is not now, but I do notice that those elected to the Island Council are very critical of what is going on. I sometimes hear the same texts about this as I did three years ago, when things have really changed. So I also see this as an assignment to ourselves to see where we can do even better. The townhall meeting is a very accessible meeting, but when people experience that they can hardly ask a question there … I have been to the town hall a number of times myself and answered questions there. That took hours. That wasn’t a problem, but it doesn’t mean you agree on everything in the end. For example, there is quite a lot of discussion about how to deal with the goats. There are a lot of goats on St Eustatius, but they also eat everything bare, causing the rock face to collapse. You have to name problems like that. But at the same time you also have something cultural about the island, where people say: that has always been the case; Those goats run everywhere, they’re certain people’s, and they should be able to walk anywhere. That can’t go together. That’s the kind of discussion you get sometimes. But I, the government commissioner and his deputy are completely open and want to see how we can do this better. So I see this primarily as a broad call from your side, which I like to pick up, to see what is missing and how we can make people feel that they are being heard. That island council is formal. That’s right, that’s right. That is also part of the return law, so to speak. It does not yet have all the powers that an island council would normally have. It is therefore true that it has been democratically elected at the moment, but that it does not yet have all the powers of an island council. That has to do with the fact that we have said in that law: we are going to build in a number of stages, not so much time-related, but more outcome-related. Once you’ve reached that level, move to the next stage. That is to eventually get some kind of gradual return, because the risk of immediate return, namely that you fall back to the old situation, would have been much greater. Mrs Gerkens (SP): The story of the goats reminds me of the time china was discovered. I believe it was the English who thought: this is a fantastic market, we are going to bring knife, fork and spoon here. You can understand that it never worked. That’s because they had figured out what needed to be done and asked what was needed. My question is therefore: see if we have been asked what is needed instead of us thinking about what should be done. State Secretary Knops: You hadn’t been to St Eustatius, had you? There’s a lot of goats out there. In itself, that’s not a problem, you’d say. But if it really leads to the cliff on which Fort Oranje stands is almost on the verge of collapse and that we have now had to invest between 5 and 10 million,
Then we said: we must return to a normal situation after we have intervened. This cannot continue indefinitely. We want to show that perspective on democracy again. This led to the Restoration of Provisions Act, which was adopted on 8 July 2020. Based on this, elections were organized in October 2020, during corona time. In hindsight, you might say, that was a test of how to organize elections in corona time. Those elections have led to the installation of a new island council. And indeed, Mr Rosenmöller is right, the same members who were on the council at the time are now back in it, but that is democracy. That was really the will of the people on St Eustatius, but I tasted a slightly different undertone with Mr Rosenmöller. On the basis of the Özütok motion, a table is currently being created to look at what intermediate results we can move towards next phases, the following milestones. In the progress report that will be sent to your Chamber in May, we will discuss this in more detail and reflect the latest state of affairs. Then there is mr van Rij’s departure. Mr Van Rij has asked me to dismiss him because of the appeal that has been made against him from a different direction. At the time, we chose the figure of a government commissioner and a deputy government commissioner. This means that someone can be replaced in case of illness or “being off island”. That’s what’s going on now, of course. Ms. Alida Fancis, the deputy government commissioner, will take over the duties of Van Rij. We’re going to see how we can fill the vacancy. We’re trying to do that in the short term, but this is all fresh from the press, so I don’t have a new candidate for that yet.
Mr Dittrich (D66): At this point I also had a question about the program BES(t) 4 kids, but maybe that fits in with the answer you still want to give, so let me ask another question. When we talk about Bonaire, I missed the position of the library. The library says that not only do you have to borrow books, but you also have to make it a centre where people can follow training courses so that they do not have to come to the Netherlands but that they can follow those courses, and also a centre for innovative developments. Can you reflect on that? State Secretary Knops: Yes. I propose that I return to this in the second term; Then you will get a more precise answer than what I would give now. BES(t) 4 kids, I can give you an answer to that, because that is indeed a program that the ministries of SZW, OCW and VWS, and BZK, have picked up, together with UNICEF. That’s just a really nice program, I guess. Very concretely on the ground ensure demonstrable results. But one part of that is childcare. Very important, of course, to facilitate this well, in order to give children a flying start and equal opportunities, at a very young age. For this purpose, 8 million were also made available under the Caribbean Netherlands Envelope region. And a temporary subsidy scheme is in place from 1 July last year, with the aim of reducing the cost of childcare for parents and enabling childcare organisations to bear the costs of quality improvements. I think those are very important things, because you see big differences on Bonaire. It is a beautiful island, but you also see poverty, you see children with educational disadvantages at a young age, and of course we want to prevent that. We just want to give them all the same opportunities, and that starts with a well-designed childcare. So that program’s running. Mr Schalk and Mr Raven have also raised questions about the Small Scale report, which requires support. The question was: when will the report be followed up? That is what Mr Schalk asked. The results of that Ter Haar report, because that is the person who chaired that committee, formed part of that broad programme of cabinet response, ibo, Raad van State. So that is Mr Recourt’s report, for the sake of bredness, and the opinion of the Council of State, and this is specifically about utilities. In the coming months, the various analyses and findings will be brought together so that the outstanding points of discussion can be dealt with in full with the public bodies, because we are really going to do this together with the public bodies. These recommendations are, of course, input for these discussions, and as a final piece of this decision-making, implementing agendas will be drawn up for each island, which may also vary from island to island, answering the various fundamental questions raised in that report. And it is up to the next cabinet to draw definitive conclusions in all these areas, together with the public bodies. Mr Raven also asked if I would see anything in one government utility, which is also mentioned in that report. In the recommendations, Ter Haar does not conclude that this would be the solution; It could be a solution. Above all, he recommends that the various utilities and seaports operate without political interference. We had a whole discussion about government nv’s on Bonaire. And in itself, I would almost like to say, you cannot be in principle for or against that, but that also depends a little on how close the administration and politics are to those nv’s and whether or not it meets the task and the social goals it aims to achieve. I think it is good to include all these points and modalities in the discussion that is now going to run together with the public bodies and also choose what is the best way to organise this. But you are right that the issue of seaports and airports for small public bodies, such as Saba or St Eustatius but also Bonaire with its international airport, is often quite large and that it is good that the departments here in the Netherlands are also involved. We have recently done the same with all kinds of steering groups around the fuel supply on Bonaire, for example, and which is also an issue that really cannot be solved by the island itself. But that’s where we’re at the table with IenW and EZK.
State Secretary Knops: In itself, from an organizational perspective, I can follow that. I do not know if you have been to the islands, but when you get there, you will see that all three are completely different, are also very far apart, and that the perception on the islands themselves is often different. They’re all BES. They are all public bodies, but it is still a difference whether you are downwind on Bonaire or 1,000 kilometers away on Saba or Sint-Eustatius, not from an organizational point of view but from ownership. We all have to take that with us. Mr Raven (OSF): That shareholding could be expressed by more bonding. What I also noticed in the report — I did not really ask a question about this — is that there is overdue maintenance. I thought that was strange, because we’re only 10 years away. I assume you delivered it to zero at the time, so how can you have major overdue maintenance again? State Secretary Knops: This is partly to do with the way in which funding takes place. In part, this goes through the ministries and is occasionally added. That has happened in recent years. Moreover, on the basis of this coalition agreement in the field of infrastructure, 5 million has been structurally added to the provision for the BES. But for Bonaire, for example, there was money, but those resources were not used. So the public body had set aside money for infrastructure projects, but they never came to a conclusion, or the maintenance was never done. Then you have a problem, too. So it’s not always just a matter of money. It is often a bit more complicated, but I have just said in the first part of the answer that I see that it is very difficult financially when it comes to the question: can the BES Islands do what they have to do on the basis of the task? Often the Envelop region or other incidental facilities need to be added. This is not entirely in line with rational management and maintenance. The Chairman: Mr. Raven, third. Mr Raven (OSF): With regard to that baseline measurement: was a baseline measurement done at the time? That was not in the report, but I assume that it has been transferred one-on-one, with finances arranged for overdue maintenance. The Chairman: Finally, the Secretary of State. State Secretary Knops: Normally that would be the case, but I have to come back in the second term to the question of whether and how that was calculated in 2010, in the case of state reforms. Perhaps a calculation has been made — and I honestly do not know this — and this has subsequently proved too little. That’s possible. I’ll come back to that in the second term. Then a few questions were asked about St Eustatius, by Mr Van der Burg, Mr Schalk and Mr Raven. Mr Schalk said that I mentioned the three strikes at the time. I need to get him: stabilize, normalize and democratize. He asked me if I could look back on that: how did that work? We intervened at the time, of course, because there really was a reason to do so, such as years of ignoring legislation that applied to public bodies and arbitrariness. Think also of the public finances. Not that there were shortages, but the state of the infrastructure of the roads was lousy. There were problems with waste disposal. There were problems everywhere, including in the official organization. Of course, this is partly to do with small scale, but on the other hand Saba shows how it can be done. So it’s not just small-scale. But there was reason to intervene. Then we said: we must return to a normal situation after we have intervened. This cannot continue indefinitely. We want to show that perspective on democracy again. This led to the Restoration of Provisions Act, which was adopted on 8 July 2020. Based on this, elections were organized in October 2020, during corona time. In hindsight, you might say, that was a test of how to organize elections in corona time. Those elections have led to the installation of a new island council. And indeed, Mr Rosenmöller is right, the same members who were on the council at the time are now back in it, but that is democracy. That was really the will of the people on St Eustatius, but I tasted a slightly different undertone with Mr Rosenmöller. On the basis of the Özütok motion, a table is currently being created to look at what intermediate results we can move towards next phases, the following milestones. In the progress report that will be sent to your Chamber in May, we will discuss this in more detail and reflect the latest state of affairs. Then there is mr van Rij’s departure. Mr Van Rij has asked me to dismiss him because of the appeal that has been made against him from a different direction. At the time, we chose the figure of a government commissioner and a deputy government commissioner. This means that someone can be replaced in case of illness or “being off island”. That’s what’s going on now, of course. Ms. Alida Fancis, the deputy government commissioner, will take over the duties of Van Rij. We’re going to see how we can fill the vacancy. We’re trying to do that in the short term, but this is all fresh from the press, so I don’t have a new candidate for that yet.
About Bonaire, together with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Affairs, a job centre has been set up. That was before corona. There, people looking for a job can get advice on their job and career opportunities. Then affordable housing; 500 social rented homes, that is really a breakthrough with the local housing corporation FCB. There are now 76 ready. I’ve been visiting, too. Beautiful houses. Work is currently underway on the realization of the next phases. A bill has now been passed, also by this Chamber, on the rental committee on Bonaire. A pilot mortgage guarantee has been launched. All kinds of things that we think have added value for Bonaire, in this case, we roll out. Everything you prefer to keep in the European Netherlands, I always say, we keep that here, because we do not have to export all laws to the Caribbean Netherlands. There is no need for that. Only if it helps, if it adds something. Many improvements have been made around agriculture and the slaughterhouse. I went there on my last visit. There they really try to create local entrepreneurship with new forms of leasehold, often on small pieces of land. If you grow up, are successful, you can feed agriculture in other places. I think it is very good to reduce dependence. The infrastructure is a big problem on Bonaire. You don’t have to set thresholds there because the roads themselves already inhibit the speed. But that also has disadvantages and sometimes causes traffic hazards. That is why there has been considerable investment in infrastructure, particularly around schools, and much more is going to happen. That is really starting to work out, also with knowledge from the Netherlands. Around the board, the operation of the island council, a registrar has flown in from Maassluis. He supports the clerk there. Through coaching on the ground, we really try to take people with us and train step by step, to get the board to a higher level. Finally, and not unimportantly with regard to the governance agreement, and I am very pleased that we have continued to do so, we are also looking at how you can keep talent on the islands, or even sometimes allow it to return. So these are young Bonairians who have studied in the Netherlands or another country, for example, and who want to come back after a few years to work for, for example, the electricity company or for the local government. And those people do a program with each other, a talent development program. BZK supports this. We have been doing this for five years now and that just results in very good results, so that people also have support for each other to give a boost to the board with a modern education and background. Every time I am there — I would also like to invite you to do so — I talk to those young people, to those people, to those people, because it is always very inspiring to see what moves people to commit themselves to their own island
Mr Rosenmöller (GroenLinks), Asked a provocative question: “…..I did ask that question. There’s a certain board. That board doesn’t deliver and even performs so poorly that you have to intervene. That has been unanimously supported here and across the street. Then there is an interim situation for two years, in which the Netherlands does everything and everything. Then there are elections and then the same administration comes back. Can you suffice to say that that is democracy? Is that all? That is certainly democracy, of course, but should you not also think about what we have actually achieved? Because it’s also about doing it with the people, isn’t it? Those are your words, too, and they’ve been taken from my heart. State Secretary Knops: That’s definitely democracy. You can try to explain that, to give a political indication of that. You can, but that’s only half the story. You could indeed say: we have made a leap in time, but everything is still exactly the same. The opposite is true, because we have done an enormous amount over the last two and a half years to put public finances in order. We invested an awful lot there. It’s really about very large numbers, in terms of the airport, the cliff, erosion approach. We have done this not only with money, but also with capacities that were not available or not enough available on the island itself. We also solved some of the problems experienced by the people there. But our goal has never been to take over permanently. We want to get back to the situation where people can make their own choice. There was quite a bit of tension, because from the House of Representatives and also from this Chamber the question was: let us not exist too long now, should we not now give people the choice to elect their own representatives of the people? Coincidentally or not — there really were more people on the list — these people will be there again. The question that is important to me now is: are the Government Commissioner and his deputy, together with the Island Council, able to move on to the next stage? Are they able to do not only all the things that are needed in a public body, around finance, ICT management, roads, housebuilding, etc., but also to get into a culture in which you get that interplay of dualism, of an island council with deputies, in the next phase, and a commander? Because that’s the end goal. That remains to be seen. I have to say that I … In recent weeks, I have occasionally heard members of the Island Council criticise us for doing so. They say it’s not as good now as it once was. That’s not really the case. We can just prove that. We have before and after photos. The island is better and more resilient. But it is also about the question: are you willing, also there, to reflect on your own position or are you going to send the same message again as before 2018? I don’t think that’s wise. For the time being, I am assuming that we can take steps forward every time. As long as we can, we can move on to the next phase. If we can’t, we can’t. So it is also up to the island itself to show that it is their mean…”
