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Questions raised on coastal radar for Windward Islands
by The Daily Herald
Posted: Nov 2, 2009 16:09 UTC
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THE HAGUE - Members of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament are seeking clarity on postponed plans to construct a coastal radar system in the Windward Islands.
Members of Parliament (MPs) posed a series of questions to Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop last week about the Annual 2008 Report and the Long Term Plan 2009-2018 of the Coast Guard of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, which was recently submitted to the Second Chamber.
In this report it was stated that the coastal radar in the ABC islands Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao had proven to be a very successful addition to operations. However, expanding the coastal radar to the Windward Islands was put on hold pending further investigation, in light of the current financial economic situation.
MPs asked Van Middelkoop when a decision would be taken about expanding the coastal radar system to the Windward Islands. They also wanted to know in what way the financial economic situation in the Netherlands would affect the decision on expanding the system for St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius.
They asked the Minister whether he agreed with their point of view that expanding the coastal radar system to the Windward Islands and tackling the “serious problem” of drug smuggling in the Netherlands Antilles should not depend primarily on the Dutch financial economic situation.
The MPs wanted to know to what extent the involvement of the Coast Guard would be increased with Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba becoming part of the Netherlands as so-called “public entities” in 2010.
Parliament further asked the Minister to give an overview of the “substantial operational successes” the Coast Guard had booked in 2008 to which the organisation referred in its Annual Report.
MPs sought clarity on the use of Coast Guard capacity to execute its basic tasks of combating drug smuggling, human smuggling and illegal immigration. According to the Annual Report, the Coast Guard uses 80 per cent of its capacity to execute these basic tasks.
“Does the Coast Guard also seize money during anti-drugs and weapons operations and how much did the organisation seize in 2008?” were two other question the MPs posed. Parliament further sought clarity on the relation between the number of illegal persons caught and other figures on illegal persons in the Justice system.
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