Relations between the Netherlands and the Antilles take another turn for the worse

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

HILVERSUM, The Netherlands: Relations between the Netherlands Antilles and the central Dutch government have taken another turn for the worse. Antillean Prime Minister Mirna Godett is upset about a meeting between visiting Dutch Justice Minister Jan Piet Hein Donner with Antillean justice officials. Ms Godett says she'll sack anyone found to be spying for the Netherlands.

According to a recent report by Radio Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, a largely autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, has been at loggerheads with the central government for quite some time. But relations have seldom been as frosty as they are now. 

One irritant has been the Hague´s determination to finally tackle rampant corruption, crime and poverty in the islands, and put an end to the steady stream of drugs and disadvantaged youths pouring into the Netherlands.

Another has been the trial of the populist leader of the leading party in Curacao, Anthony Godett, on charges of forgery, accepting bribes, and money laundering. Mr Godett, who won a landslide election victory last year, is appealing a one-year prison sentence handed out by the Antillean justice authorities last month. 

Pending the legal proceedings, which he claims are politically motivated, Mr Godett has put his inexperienced sister Mirna at the helm of the Netherlands Antilles. In the background, though, Anthony Godett firmly holds the strings of power.

The political turmoil combined with the sorry state of the Antillean economy has recently produced a series of high-level Dutch government visits to Curacao. But these have added to the strains rather than remove them. 

The latest row centres on a working lunch two visiting high-level Dutch ministers had with the island's justice authorities. What infuriated the Antillean government most was that it hadn't been informed. There was no need to, Dutch Justice Minister Jan Piet Hein Donner and Kingdom Relations Minister Thom de Graaf, responded laconically, because it was a routine meeting. This didn't satisfy Ms Godett, who issued a vitriolic statement threatening to sack anyone caught spying for the Netherlands.

"These Dutch civil servants have been sent to the Antilles to lend technical assistance, not to spy on us on behalf of the Netherlands," she said. "If they're found spying, they'll just have to go. That's only logical."

Rosemarijn Hufte, who heads the Caribbean Studies department at Leiden University, doesn't believe there's much substance to the Prime Minister's accusations:

"I think the word spying may be problematic here. I wouldn't be surprised if Dutch government officials were to report to the Netherlands about things that are going on in Curacao and the other Antilles islands.  There is a fairly large number of officials working in the Justice Department, the Tax office or other government institutions and that's called technical assistance."

Nevertheless, she finds Justice Minister Donner should have known that bypassing Antillean Prime Minister Godett was a recipe for trouble.

"I think he might not even have been aware that this could constitute a problem, but that doesn't mean that his move was politically very astute. He might have been advised by people who know the situation in Curacao to at least inform Mirna Godett about this meeting. Because now she might have the feeling that things are happening behind her back, and she is already very suspicious of what the Dutch are doing."

"There's a whole complex of hurt feelings, suspicions and misunderstandings. Of course, Ms Godett is convinced that the proceedings against her brother are politically motivated, which makes her suspicious as well of the Dutch justice department and its officials."

In Dr Hufte's view, the current mood also explains why Ms Godett's government has rejected a new plan from The Hague that Antillean airlines ban known drugs runners from their flights. 

"She's now suspicious of every plan that comes out of The Hague, because she thinks there's an ulterior motive or hidden agenda. So, if the Dutch want that list of drugs smugglers, Mrs Godett thinks there might be something else behind that and the fact that on the Dutch side, suspected drugs smugglers have already been blacklisted, may not be such a problem, but the thing is that the idea comes from The Hague and that makes her wary." 

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