PHILIPSBURG:--- The Ministers of Justice from the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, and St. Maarten met at the Divi Little Bay Hotel on Wednesday for their bi-annual meeting where they discussed at least 15 topics related to justice. Minister of Justice of St. Maarten Dennis Richardson told reporters that Wednesday's meeting is record breaking for Netherlands because he believed it's the first time the four Ministers who meet frequently to discuss justice related issues managed to deal with all the points on the agenda prior to speaking to the media at 2pm. The Minister of Justice of St. Maarten said some of the issues discussed were the evaluation of the Kingdom Consensus Law (Justice), the Ministers decided to establish a work group to conduct an inventory and the criteria that has to be used for the evaluation while a committee will be installed to do the actual evaluation. The plans for the Coast Guards for the next three years have been approved by the Minister of Justice of all four countries.
Another positive agreement reached on Wednesday was how the police of the various countries will proceed with their education package for police officers of each country. Minister Richardson said instead of sending recruits away for education, the various countries will cooperate by sending certified people to the various countries to teach in their country which will be more effective and less costly.
The yearly plan of the RST was also discussed and division of costs for the RST. The budget for the council on law enforcement was approved on Wednesday.
As for the monitoring of prisons based on international standards, a committee was established during Wednesday's meeting. A committee with members from St. Maarten, Curacao, and Aruba was also established to monitor the compliance in prisons based on international requirements. Two agreements were also signed, one between the Netherlands, Curacao, Aruba, and St. Maarten while the second agreement was between Curacao, the Netherlands, and St. Maarten.
Heavy focus will be placed on combating organized crime, human smuggling, and drug smuggling.
The Ministers said that they intend to focus on human smuggling and trafficking of persons.
When asked by SMN News if the RST will remain a separate entity as is on St. Maarten, Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson said that the RST is a body that is supposed to cooperate with other justice agencies. The Ministers admitted that this was a heavy topic last year and it started as a Dutch organization in the past but today it's a joint organization which falls under the Attorney General. Minister Richardson made clear that sometimes there are crossing of paths.
SMN News reporter asked the Ministers to explain how the head of the RST is appointed and who appoints this person because it came to our attention that the current head of the RST had some questionable if not legal problems in the Netherlands. Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson said the allegations are new to him while the Minister of Justice of the Netherlands Opstelten refused to answer the specific questions about the allegations of monetary issues in the Netherlands but stated that the head of the RST is appointed by the Netherlands. According to information SMN News received, the head of the RST used monies that was allocated to him for things that it was not intended for. SMN News further learnt that when this became known in the Netherlands the person repaid the monies that he used up. However, he was not appointed Chief of Police in the Netherlands even though that country has 14 National Police Departments. SMN News further understands that when the person applied for the position with the countries of the Kingdom, he did not make a full declaration on the issues he had while working in the Netherlands. SMN News will bring you a full report on the RST on St. Maarten, Curacao, and Aruba in a subsequent report.
