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As peace talks advance, Colombia struggles to find its missing

CHAGUANI, Colombia--Swinging a pickaxe high above his head, the sweating former Marxist guerrilla brings it down sharply, breaking up hard-packed earth on a wooded hillside in central Colombia.
  "I know the grave was here," says the ex-combatant, Andres Martinez, wiping his brow as a forensic expert starts in with a shovel near the rural town of Chaguani.
  Though it's only mid-morning, the motley team of forensic staff, prison guards and ex-rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have already dug one trench in heavy rain, hoping to find the bones of a victim of the 50-year conflict Read more

Sarah disappointed in governing programme

~ Shows govt inadequate, unprepared ~

PHILIPSBURG--Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament (MP) Sarah Wescot-Williams has given the coalition government a thumbs-down for its recently-released governing programme.

Wescot-Williams said on Sunday that her analysis of the document showed that government was “inadequate,” and “unprepared.”

“I cannot but express utter disappointment in the document that should have spelled out government’s vision for the remainder of this governing term,” Wescot-Williams said on Sunday Read more

>In a further reaction to the governing program 2014 -2018, " Ready to work for you", as received by Parliament from Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs , I cannot but express utter disappointment in the document that should have spelled out government's vision for the remainder of this governing term.

Considering that the government has presented the program to Parliament, I consider this the program of the Gumbs-cabinet Read more

Ebenezer Residents Want Clean Trenches

A scene from a trench in Ebenezer on Wednesday. Photo Today / Andrew Dick

St. Maarten – Residents from the Ebenezer District are disappointed that their trenches are filled with bush and debris. Grass and small threes can be seen budding from the bridge close to the Milton Peters College and behind in the trenches at the St. Maarten Academy PSVE. Daniela Richardson expressed her disappointment yesterday about the situation. She calls on public works to do something about it.

It is customary for the public works department to carry out major trench clean ups efforts before the beginning of the hurricane season Read more

Dutch Police Now Include Internet In Phone Taps

Whatsapp-messages are protected by privacy rules

St. Maarten – Dutch police now automatically intercept internet traffic when setting up a telephone tap, online magazine Computerworld reported yesterday. The news was buried in the justice ministry’s annual report which was published in May and has only now been made public, the website states.

In St. Maarten tapping IP-addresses, for instance to intercept email traffic, is technically possible, press prosecutor Karola van Nie told this newspaper yesterday Read more

11 Dutch Islands Where You Can Get Away From It All

HOLLAND - Looking for an island escape, but no time or money to head to the Caribbean? If you aren't too fussed about getting a tan, why not head to a Dutch island.

Fresh air, cycle paths, nature and long beaches – and most of the Dutch islands are only a short ferry ride away.

Pampus: an artificial island constructed in the late 19th century in the IJmeer lake, close to Amsterdam. One of four forts commissioned as part of the Stelling van Amsterdam (Defence Line of Amsterdam), it had the capacity to accommodate 200 men but was only fully utilised during WWI.

The Wadden Islands

Terschelling: with approximately 20,000 tourist beds, Terschelling is the largest and most visited Wadden Island.

Head west from the main town centre of West Terschelling to experience untamed nature and long white beaches.

In June, the island hosts the 10-day Oerol festival, attracting many visitors to the art and theatre performances taking place across the island.

Vlieland: smaller, less densely populated than the neighbouring islands, yet only 90 minutes by ferry from Harlingen in Friesland.

Vlieland entices visitors with its serenity and nature, extensive network of cycle paths, and the promise of 20% more sunny days than the mainland Read more

11 Dutch Islands Where You Can Get Away From It All

HOLLAND - Looking for an island escape, but no time or money to head to the Caribbean? If you aren't too fussed about getting a tan, why not head to a Dutch island.

Fresh air, cycle paths, nature and long beaches – and most of the Dutch islands are only a short ferry ride away.

Pampus: an artificial island constructed in the late 19th century in the IJmeer lake, close to Amsterdam. One of four forts commissioned as part of the Stelling van Amsterdam (Defence Line of Amsterdam), it had the capacity to accommodate 200 men but was only fully utilised during WWI.

The Wadden Islands

Terschelling: with approximately 20,000 tourist beds, Terschelling is the largest and most visited Wadden Island.

Head west from the main town centre of West Terschelling to experience untamed nature and long white beaches.

In June, the island hosts the 10-day Oerol festival, attracting many visitors to the art and theatre performances taking place across the island.

Vlieland: smaller, less densely populated than the neighbouring islands, yet only 90 minutes by ferry from Harlingen in Friesland.

Vlieland entices visitors with its serenity and nature, extensive network of cycle paths, and the promise of 20% more sunny days than the mainland Read more

Central Bank President warns against monetary union split

PHILIPSBURG--"I think it is ill-advised, at this juncture, to have a split in the monetary union," said Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten President Emsley Tromp about the union shared by the two Dutch Caribbean countries since October 10, 2010.

However, the decision to split or stay together is purely "a political decision" Tromp told the press in St. Maarten on Thursday. He was in the country to present the Bank's Annual Report 2014.

Both past and present governments of Curaçao and St Read more

Independent Foundation calls for boycott of Dominican Republic

PHILIPSBURG--Independence for St. Martin Foundation (ISMF) has called for a boycott of travel to and importation of goods from the Dominican Republic, as it condemned the plight of loss of rights to citizenship and the stripping of citizenship going back some five generations from Haitians, and people of Haitian descent living in that country.

   Governments on the Dutch and French sides of the island are urged by the foundation, headed by rights activist José Lake Jr, “to condemn the atrocities that are being perpetrated in the Dominican Republic.”

In its press statement issued on Thursday, the foundation said it has aligned itself with the growing international call for a boycott of the Dominican Republic for travel and the importation of products made in that country.

The foundation urged the Caribbean Community CARICOM, the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations (UN) and other national and international bodies “to impose sanctions against the Dominican Republic until it reverses its ill-conceived policy of mass deportations of undocumented Haitian immigrants and of Dominicans of Haitian origin.”

The decision to approve the condemnation of the denationalization and forced deportation of tens of thousands of Dominicanos of Haitian descent was made in the foundation’s meeting of June 30.  

The foundation has been following “with great regret and outrage” the “unfolding human tragedy” in the Dominican Republic” brought about by “a misguided decision” of that country’s highest judicial entity, its Constitutional Court, in 2013.

“Contrary to what the government of the Dominican Republic is claiming, this whole issue has been one of human rights from the very start, and not of the sovereign rights of the country to regulate immigration,” said the foundation.

Unfortunately, the key legal points of the court decision “have disappeared in the current debate.” One of those points of the decision being retroactive to 1930 that gives “a perverse interpretation of the term ‘in-transit’ to mean anyone, who has been residing in the country without the necessary documents since 1929, and its defiant ignoring of the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on a similar case,” said the foundation Read more

Mp Jacobs To Tackle New Laws When Parliament Resumes From Summer Break

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Deputy Leader of the National Alliance, member of Parliament the Honorable Silveria Jacobs is bent on tackling a number of important issues when the Parliament of St. Maarten return to chambers at the end Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Now that the contract signed by the former Chief Operations Officer (COO) of GEBE Romelio Maduro and St. Maarten Service Provider is in public domain, the big question that are on the minds of several persons is if the Supervisory Board will hold the former COO liable who found it fit to bind the government owned company to pay a consultant $10,500.00 per month whether or not they provide work for GEBE, further to that will the Supervisory Board of Directors exonerate themselves from this contract since they claim not to know anything about the contract with St Read more

Emotional re-enactment Diamond Estate escape

By John van Kerkhof

COLE BAY--“Early Wednesday, around midnight, a group of people identified as runaway slaves, could be seen crossing the road, hurrying up the slopes of Diamond Hill, rapidly vanishing between the trees and bushes. Only the meagre lights of lanterns assisted them on their way. Shortly after, a man on horseback approached, accompanied by two men with hounds. Several gunshots were fired as the men tried to prevent the group from crossing the border between the Dutch and French sides of the island,” thus could have read the first paragraph of a newspaper report on July 1, 1848, on the escape of 26 slaves from Diamond Estate in Cole Bay running to freedom on the French side.

This historic event, known as the Run for Freedom, was re-enacted on this scenario early Wednesday with much passion and enthusiasm by a group of approximately 100 persons, who took on the roles of fleeing Dutch slaves and their freed peers of the French side.

Like the short but perilous journey of the slaves in 1848, when slavery had just been abolished on the French side, but still existed on the Dutch side, the journey of the “runaway slaves” began at midnight at the Caribbean Auto parking lot to usher in Emancipation Day 2015.

The group, costumed in nineteenth-century clothing trekked barefooted or on sandals through the bushes from Diamond Estate to Bellevue.

Coordinator Clara Reyes said this may very well have been the last possibility to organise a re-enactment on this location, as ongoing development in the area may block off access to hillside paths in the future Read more