Dutch Antilles dissolves as two new countries created

[Sun Ce]

Dutch Antilles dissolves as two new countries created

MIAMI | Sun Oct 10, 2010 11:21am EDT

MIAMI (Reuters) - The former Dutch Caribbean colonies of Curacao and St. Maarten became autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands on Sunday in a change of constitutional status dissolving the Netherlands Antilles. The two joined Aruba, which in 1986 had already gained this status that maintains direct ties with Holland, while three other islands, Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, became autonomous special municipalities of the Netherlands in the dissolution of the 56-year-old Netherlands Antilles territory.

Under the new arrangement, the Dutch government will remain responsible for defense and foreign policy in the new countries, and have initial oversight over Curacao's finances under a debt relief deal. While all of the six former Dutch colonies in the Caribbean already had wide autonomy as members of the now-dissolved Netherlands Antilles, Curacao and St. Maarten will have more power of government and use of their own tax revenues. Both are popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean.

Tourism officials in Curacao, which has a population of more than 190,000 and lies 40 miles off Venezuela's coast, said this would make more resources available to develop new port facilities and hotels, and position the island better to take advantage of the North American tourist market. Smaller St. Maarten, with a 37,000 population, shares an island with the French oversees territory of St. Martin. The previous Netherlands Antilles, which had existed since 1954 as a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, had experienced tensions between its different-sized island members over debt and revenue sharing.

While Dutch has been the official language throughout the six islands, in St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius, English is widely spoken, while in Curacao and Bonaire the lingua franca has been Papiamentu, a mix of Portuguese and Spanish with traces of English, Dutch and French. In a statement posted on the Curacao government's website on Sunday, Curacao Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte congratulated the citizens of the new country known as Korsou in Papiamentu.

(Reporting by Pascal Fletcher, Editing by Anthony Boadle)

 

[Sun Ce]

As one country ceases to exist, it gives birth to two new ones

As one country ceases to exist, it gives birth to two new ones

By R. C. Camphausen.

Willemstad - From today onwards, the country known as the Netherlands Antilles will not exist anymore. In its place, two new countries come into existence -- Curacao and St Maarten -- and the rest of the islands become municipalities of the Netherlands, 8000 km away. Even though voters in the Netherlands Antilles have brought about this change, church bells were tolling on the affected islands 10/10/10, as emotional inhabitants said good-bye to the country of their birth, or the nation they'd lived in for long -- reported by the Dutch paper NRC Handelsblad.

Up to now, the former Dutch colonies -- the five-island Netherlands Antilles and the island of Aruba -- were two independent member countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. From today, there will be three countries (Aruba, Curacao and St Maarten) and all world maps and country listings will have to be updated. On the website Expatica , Dutch interior ministry spokesman Thijs Manten explains the changes with the following words:

Curacao and St Maarten will each have their own parliament, government, prime minister and currency: the guilder. Bonaire, Saba and St Eustatius will switch to the US dollar and have "island councils" akin to municipal councils. Their inhabitants will vote for the national Dutch government. The three new municipalities will have to adopt many Dutch laws. The most contentious among them, allowing for abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia, will be systematically adopted over a period of two years.​

The change was negotiated with the Dutch government because all parties agreed that the Netherlands Anitlles were not functioning properly, especially with regard to the economy, education and health-care. Under the deal that now comes into force, the Dutch government takes over 70 percent of the debt of the former Antilles, estimated at some 1.7 billion euros (2.4 billion dollars).


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