Antillean House angry about brown Joran
Amigoe
4/12/2006

CURACAO/RIJSWIJK – Minister Plenipotentiary Paul Comenencia of the Antilles accuses before the ANP the police and the Public Prosecutor (OM) as producers of the Dutch program Opsporings Verzocht of twisting the facts consciously and abundantly clear. He also says that police and justice do no longer need to count on the cooperation of the Antilles.

The criticism is about yesterday’s program that dedicated time to the disappearance of the American Natalee Holloway. According to Comenencia, Joran van der Sloot, a white Dutch boy, was presented as a brown person, which was unjust.

“By consciously twisting abundantly clear facts and misleading the public that are being asked for their cooperation in tracing perpetrators, the program departs from its purpose”, says Comenencia. Why didn’t they choose a white actor for Joran’s character? By using a brown actor it gives the impression that the producers have opted for highlighting what is already presented as stereotype criminal in the Netherlands. And this is unjust.

Opsporings Verzocht is an investigation tool for police and justice. These two services decided on the content of the program. “What should we think of the rest of the program? They do no longer need to count on our cooperation. Looking for fictitious perpetrators makes no sense.” A spokesperson of the Utrecht police that has worked on the program says in a reaction on Comenencia’s accusations that the reconstruction was done by the investigation team in Aruba. “We helped, but we were not responsible for the direction.”

OM in Aruba: ‘Stand-in is white’
Amigoe
4/12/2006

The young man that acted Joran van der Sloot in the reconstruction yesterday has very light skin and considered white in Aruba, said the OM in a press report in Aruba.

Besides, no skin colour was considered during the selection. “It is not important for the investigation team what the colour of a person’s skin is, or how dark the person is.”

The length and the figure were the criteria used for selecting the young man that played Joran. The stand-ins for Joran and the brothers Kalpoe were selected amongst police officers of the Police Academy in Aruba.

Sixty tips after Opsporings Verzocht
Amigoe
4/12/2006

ARUBA – Sixty tips have already been received this morning as a result of the Opsporings Verzocht that dedicated the program to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Viewers were asked for tips.

In the program, Dolfi Richardson was the chief of police in charge of the case. He asked for tips in a structured manner. The local viewer were wondering why the population was not asked for cooperation with certain tips months earlier.

The program was organized with the cooperation of the police corps of Utrecht, of which three detectives have been involved with the investigation in Aruba. After a reconstruction of the last hours Holloway was seen, the viewers were asked for tips on a few matters. They would like to get in contact with people that were near the lighthouse, Arashi, the Fishermen’s Huts, or at Joran van der Sloot’s house the night that Holloway disappeared and have either seen people there or nobody. They want tips because the declarations of the three suspects about where they were that night with Natalee are contradictive. Chief of police Richardson said that even though all three suspects declared that Natalee and Joran were at Fishermen’s Huts, three fishermen that were also there had said that they haven’t seen anybody.

Because up till now it is not clear how Joran got home, either walking or picked up by one of the brothers, the police want tips on this. Deepak’s grey Honda Civic was extensively shown in the program, because this low car with spoilers is supposedly the only one of this kind in Aruba. People that have seen this car on the night of the disappearance are asked to get in contact with the police.

A Colombian man had called Carlos’ n Charlie’s on December 31st, saying that he knows where Natalee is buried. His call was the reason for searching the area again recently. The police want this man to get in contact with them. There was also a reporting that around 02:30 on the night Natalee disappeared, a Honda Civic was seen at the Saliña near the Racket Club. If there are more people that have seen this, please contact the police. A woman had also reported that she had seen four sweaty boys with a shovel on that night in question. The police want to find this woman. They also want all pictures and film images of the days between May 26th and June 9th that might have something of interest for the police. It was mentioned in the program that it is unlikely that Holloway has disappeared in the sea, because her body would have washed ashore in Aruba. If she (her body) was thrown in sea a few hundred meters off the coast, her body would have washed ashore in Venezuela or Colombia. According to the police, there is no reporting on this. The information of the transmission is on the website of the program www.opsporingverzocht.nl, also in English and Papiamento. A local telephone number [see OV web site] connects callers with the police in Utrecht that register the tips. Anonymous informers can call [see OV web site].