Monica Arends-Kock
You cannot just fire people in the Public Prosecutor’s office
A.M. Digital
11/11/2005

We approached Parliament Member Monica Arends-Kock, leader of the MPA fraction in Parliament for her opinion on removing the top of the Public Prosecutor’s office and members of the team that is investigating the Natalee Holloway case.

Arends said that neither a Governor of the State of Alabama nor the Twitty family can determine who functions in our legal system and who does not. If errors were made then we are the ones to correct these. It is not possible that a country that has no say in our internal affairs can tell us to remove certain trusted people from their position.

If there are Government dignitaries that think that this is possible, they are permitting the Americans involved to interfere with the autonomy of our country. This is the wrong signal to send out, according to the MPA fraction leader.

The first action to take is to handle this case from country to country, i.e. the Government of the Netherlands Kingdom and the Government of the United States. Handle the issue via diplomatic channels, as it cannot be that we give in to demands of some people in the US, although the family is in deep sorrow.

To fire people, as was proposed, we must first listen to them (those that are supposed to be fired) and Parliament needed much more information. Furthermore the meeting of Parliament was not called to fire anybody but to analyze the situation after the Governor of Alabama decided to call a boycott of Aruba without the support of the Department of State. This is the concern that we have in Aruba, according to Arends.

[English language original text]