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News from Suriname as of
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Suriname lodges formal complaint with the Netherlands after body search of cabinet minister
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| Published on Friday, October 30, 2009 | Email To Friend Print Version
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By Ivan Cairo
Caribbean Net News Suriname Correspondent
Email: ivan@caribbeannetnews.com
PARAMARIBO, Suriname -- While Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch-Ballin has apologized to a Surinamese cabinet minister who was body searched at Schiphol airport, the Surinamese government is lodging a formal complaint and seeking an explanation for the incident, officials here said.
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Suriname’s Natural Resource Minister,
Gregory Rusland. |
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lygia Kraag-Keteldijk, told reporters Thursday that she sent a diplomatic note to the Dutch government seeking clarification whether an agreement regarding body searches on Surinamese government officials is still in effect. Meanwhile, the Dutch ambassador to Suriname has also offered formal apologies.
On his return from a meeting in Africa last week, an immigration officer at the Schiphol Airport insisted on performing a body search on Natural Resource minister, Gregory Rusland, after the scanner he went through started beeping. Sources indicate that after a metal detector kept going off, allegedly set off by the minister’s shoes, the officer insisted on the body search, even after the minister, an official from the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs and officials from the Surinamese embassy in the Netherlands protested.
The incident threatened to escalate when the angry minister told the immigration officer to “keep his filthy hands to himself”. In an interview Rusland said, that he ultimately cooperated with the body inspection since he was tired from the trip to Kenya, the plane waiting on him was alreadydelayed and he just wanted to get out of there.
“I cooperated with the procedure by taking off my belt and shoes and still after the scanner stopped beeping the officer insisted to do the body inspection,” the minister said in an interview.
According to the minister it was evident that the immigration officer just wanted to show his power.
“We have sent a note to the Dutch government, because this incident was very humiliating and a grave violation of the agreements,” the Foreign Affairs ministers told reporters before the weekly cabinet meeting.
“If we sign agreements with friendly nations we would like to rest assured that they will adhere to those agreements,” she added.
For several years the Dutch authorities have been implementing a so-called 100 percent drugs inspection on arriving passengers and flights from Suriname to Schiphol, to curb cocaine imports via this airport.
A number of government officials including cabinet ministers were victimized during these controls, provoking stiff diplomatic notes from Suriname. However, the incident last week was in no way part of the drugs inspections but the regular security check on departing passengers.
The incident came at the height of an official visit of the Speaker of the Dutch parliament, Gerdi Verbeet, to Suriname. During a press conference she maintained that while the majority of the Dutch legislature is in favour of the drugs inspections to prevent drugs smuggling, it is the inhumane execution of these inspections which should stop. | | | | Reads : 719 | | | |
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