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Sept. 30, 2005 I have been reading a lot of information about the case surrounding the disappearance of 18 year old Natalee Holloway from the Island-state of Aruba. Now this is my first posting here so I am not going to go into the question of wether or not Joran van der Sloot, Paul van der Sloot and Deepak/Satish Kalpoe are guilty or not. Personally I have great doubts about the truthfulness of these people but due to lack of evidence I have to go with the old saying "innocent until proven otherwise" for now that is. Last weekend during a news report regarding Joran van der Sloot's tape on Current affair I heard A Current Affair correspondent Harris Faulkner that Beth was seething with frustration at aruban and dutch governments during the viewing of the tape of Joran. Now this isn't the first time I read/heard about the linking of the Aruban and Dutch government in the Holloway case. This has always frustrated me somewhat but mostly the fact that these 2 countries are thrown together with regard to this case has always dumbfounded me because there is no involvement of the dutch government into the Holloway case, something most US media and the angry mother seem completely oblivious too. Now I can see a lot of people's amazement at my words, we have all been hearing on US television and media that aruban law is based on dutch law, and that is for the most part correct. Aruban law is based mostly on dutch law and most articles of law are the same. However the dutch government has no say in how Aruba is governed and it certainly has no say in the way the aruban police and judicial department works or does not seem to work in the Holloway case, because all internal affairs of and on Aruba, is the responsibility of the Aruban government only. Let's make this a bit easier to understand. First I must say that there is a Kingdom of the Netherlands and the country the Netherlands. The Kingdom of the Netherlands is made up from three independent autonomous countries. These countries are: Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles and the Netherlands. The three counties together form the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1954. The second world war had ended almost 10 years before and a new world order had formed. Previous colonial empires/countries needed to rethink the relation between them and their colonies. In 1954 the government of that time in the Netherlands decided it was high time to give the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname more power to rule themselves. From 1954, all parts of the Kingdom would be governed by their own constitutions and would from that moment on be autonomous countries that were combined in somewhat of a commonwealth of countries. In 1954 Aruba was still part of the Netherlands Antilles and thus was ruled by the constitution of the Netherlands Antilles. In 1986 Aruba wanted to get more independence from the government of the Netherlands Antilles and became it's own separate state (something the dutch refer to as "status aparte"). And thus 1986 the Aruban people adopted their own constitution. The aruban constitution meant that a governor was appointed by the queen for a six-year term, to oversee the Aruban's local government (the governor has taken the place of the queen as a substitute head of state of Aruba). Every four years there would be elections, as a result of these elections the elected parties would form a government and appoint a prime minister to heads the local government. The elected parliament has responsibility for legislative, executive and judicial powers. Judicial powers are carried out by the common court, the Justice of Aruba, and at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. Aruba's constitution means that the Arubans no have full control over aviation, customs, immigration, communications and other internal matters. Just like before the "Status Aparte" for Aruba, the Kingdom of the Netherlands is only responsible for defense (army/navy/air force), foreign affairs, citizenship and extradition, all other affairs were from then on the sole responsibility of the Arubans themselves. As a separate and autonomous member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Aruba has it's own flag, it's own constitution, it's own executive power, legislative power and judicial power, it has it's own national anthem (not the one the country of the Netherlands uses) and it's own representative in the governing body of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Aruban government consists of a ministry of general affairs, ministry of employment/culture and sports, ministry of financial and economic affairs, ministry of education and administrative services, ministry of social affairs and infrastructure, ministry of tourism and transport, ministry of health and environment and last but in no means least with regard to the Holloway case, a ministry of Justice, lead by mr. Croes. The ministry of justice is (among others) responsible for all affairs concerning the police force of Aruba, the department of detectives on Aruba and the office of the prosecution. Then there is the dutch government, which is in reality the government of the country of the Netherlands is also an autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is responsible only for it's internal affairs. It too has all the ministerial department (and more) that Aruba has and they are solely responsible for the affairs inside the dutch mainland in Europe. It has no authority over the internal affairs of Aruba. That is why it was ludicrous that Dr. Phil asked the American public to write letters to the ministry of Justice in the Hague because as minister of justice for the Netherlands (the country) he only has jurisdiction for matters inside the country of the Netherlands. That is why I think it is grossly unfair for Natalee's mother to ask people no longer to visit any dutch territory, the governments of the Netherlands Antilles, the government of the Netherlands and the ruling body of the Kingdom of the Netherlands have no say in internal matters of Aruba. And why US journalists should be a bit more carefully in what they proclaim on US television because it doesn't always coincide with the actual facts. Now off course as the biggest partner in the Kingdom the government of the Netherlands provides aid to the governments of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, usually money but also other support. But it cannot force them to accept the help of the government of the Netherlands, as equal partners in the Kingdom the governments of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles are free to refuse any help and are not bound by anything the government of the Netherlands (country) has to say. Even the laws that the government of the Netherlands takes with regard to the criminal law are not automatically law in Aruba, they can refuse to accept the new laws if the Aruban parliament refuses to endorse them. That is why gay weddings in the Netherlands are allowed by law and in Aruba it is still illegal. ------------ About the author: Peter van der Vliet is a 36 year old man who lives in the Netherlands, he is a keen visitor of several internet messageboards and loves to write in the English language. Peter is a keen follower of international politics and worldhistory. 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