St. Maarten contributing, yet not helicopter or Radar for St. Maarten
PHILIPSBURG:--- Since St. Maarten became a country on October 10th, 2010 the country's responsibilities increased substantially with little or no monies, and while St. Maarten has to make financial contributions for the entire operations of the Coast Guard, the Coast Guards Office on St. Maarten lacks major equipments.
Both Ministers of Justice that held office on St. Maarten since 2010 have submitted requests to have a helicopter in order for the Coast Guard to make their regular air controls but the Dutch said giving St. Maarten a helicopter will cost them too much money even though St. Maarten is responsible for Saba and St. Eustatius (BES) islands. St. Maarten also submitted a request to have a radar to better monitor the movements of boats and that too was denied as the Dutch said a radar is also too expensive.
While the two other countries within the Kingdom (Curacao and Aruba) have all the necessary equipments, St. Maarten has to make do with what it has yet contribute equally for functioning of the Coast Guards in the three countries.
Minister of Justice of St. Maarten Dennis Richardson confirmed to SMN News that St. Maarten made the requests but each of them were denied and the excuse given is that the equipments St. Maarten wants are too expensive.
Minister Richardson said that since he took office a helicopter comes to St. Maarten either from Curacao or Aruba for a few days every three months and they conduct the necessary patrols. Minister Richardson said that too might stop because they are now saying it's too expensive to send a helicopter from either Curacao or Aruba to St. Maarten.
Just Wednesday evening a Skyway aircraft crashed in St. Maarten's waters and while the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guards are the ones that assisted with the search and rescue mission they had no helicopter on St. Maarten that could have started air patrol immediately, instead a helicopter had to be brought in from Guadeloupe to assist the search and rescue team. It is true that St. Maarten has an agreement in place where the French is responsible for air patrol in natural disasters. However, contributing for the total functioning of the Coast Guards in the Caribbean countries of the Kingdom and not getting the equipment to function optimally is not to the benefit of St. Maarten and its people.
