Consensus reached on police law
~ Seen as big step towards RTC ~
WILLEMSTAD--Unlike the July 9 meeting at which no agreement was reached on the Consensus Kingdom Law on Police, yesterday it was all smiles and applause. Antillean Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage started off the closing press briefing congratulating everybody on the results of the meeting.
The Round Table Conference (RTC) scheduled for December 15 also has come a step closer, was the general reaction after the meeting. Agreement was reached on a majority of outstanding matters such as the Consensus Kingdom Law on Police and the Consensus Kingdom Law on Financial Supervision.
Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten said after yesterday’s Kingdom Political Steering Group meeting at the World Trade Centre in Curaçao that big steps had been made towards the RTC in December.
St. Maarten Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams said St. Maarten was very satisfied with the results of the meeting. It seemed the Dutch had agreed to all points of concern Curaçao and St. Marten had tabled.
“It has to do with being persistent on principal issues. Parties saw that we needed to reach an agreement, but St. Maarten wanting separate status more than anybody else was not willing to make more compromises,” Wescot-Williams said.
Parties decided to deal first with the “easy” points on the agenda and get them “out of the way” before discussing the more problematic topics such as the Consensus Kingdom Law on Police, the Consensus Kingdom Law on Financial Supervision and the regulations for the Prosecutor’s Office.
The Consensus Kingdom Resolution on Financial Supervision, the prison capacity, appointment of members in the review committee for the RTC in December and the Supervisory Council for the Administration of Justice were approved within half an hour.
The draft ruling on prison capacity as agreed on in the Project Group Justice, Administration of Law and Constitutional Affairs PRRC was ratified. This regulation governs, among other things, the prison capacity Curaçao and St. Marten will make available for the BES islands Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba.
Based on a letter from Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende dated September 18, it was agreed that a review committee would be established and that each entity would appoint two independent experts to the committee to review the Consensus Kingdom Laws. The committee will present advice to the RTC.
The draft Kingdom Law for the Council on Justice Administration was also agreed on. The Council will supervise the entire Justice system, including the judicial tasks of the Coast Guard.
Regarding the Consensus Kingdom Resolution on the temporary financial supervision, it was agreed that the resolution would be sent to the Kingdom Council of Ministers, Parliament of the Netherlands Antilles and the Island Councils of Curaçao and St. Maarten as soon as possible.
Bijleveld-Schouten said the resolution, now that it had been adapted based on the advices of the Advisory Council and the Council of State, would be sent to the Kingdom Council of Ministers today. Curaçao Commissioner Zita Jesus-Leito also indicated that the Island Council of Curaçao would be discussing the resolution in a meeting today to ratify it.
One of the points of discussions was that the Consensus Kingdom Law on Financial Supervision could not have the same text as the Kingdom Resolution. The Law must have, among other things, an end date, which is not stated in the resolution because this will automatically end when Curaçao and St. Maarten attain country status.
It was agreed that an evaluation would take place after four years to decide whether the financial supervision would be extended, made less stringent or terminated. The debt cancellation has been made part of the law and hopefully will start by the end of this year. The text for the law hopefully will be ready in November, Bijleveld-Schouten said.
The Consensus Kingdom Law on the Prosecutor’s Office was agreed to as well and the Council of State will be asked to give advice explicitly on the civil liability of the Netherlands in case damage has been caused because of a directive of the Dutch Minister of Justice.
A draft proposal for the Consensus Kingdom Law on Police was also tabled at the beginning of yesterday’s meeting. The proposal was forwarded to representatives of the unions for review. Basically the proposal of July 9, which was rejected, now has been agreed to.
Curaçao and St. Maarten will have their own Police Forces. The police forces of Curaçao, St. Maarten and the BES islands will work together as much as possible.
Agreements have been made as well on uniformity of rules, for the police to be able to work on all islands. Also the joint police services will be regulated from the premise that the countries will have their independent police forces. The joint services will be a support and under the responsibility of the police forces of the countries.
“We will not have an entity that will function outside the police forces of the countries,” Wescot-Williams said. There will be a workgroup for each entity to work on the plans for its police force, chaired by someone appointed in consultation with the Minister of Justice and the Executive Council of that island.
At the beginning of the meeting all parties expressed the desire to reach consensus on all points in light of the RTC scheduled for December 15. However, Wescot-Williams stressed that December 15 was merely a step towards the ultimate goal of attaining country status by January 2008.
The St. Marten delegation comprised Wescot-Williams, Commissioner Roy Marlin, Parliamentarian and Island Council member William Marlin and advisors Eugene Holiday, Dennis Richardson and Richard Gibson.
