Aruba

Racism in Aruba

On September 29, 2005, Eduardo Mathew won a lawsuit against the government of Aruba in the European Court of Human Rights. Mathew claimed that there was institutional racism against him by the Dutch authorities. The September 29, 2005, opinion found in favor of Mathew's claim of institutional racism in Aruba.

Related Topics:
Eduardo Mathew - European Court of Human Rights

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CNN raised the issue of racism on June 15, 2005 in connection with the Natalee Holloway case, where authorities arrested and held two black security guards, depite clear evidence of an alibi. The last people to see Natalee Holloway on the night she disappeared in Aruba were the white teenage son of a local judge and two middle-class young men of Surinamese descent, according to local police. Within days of when Holloway was last seen in the early hours of May 30, Aruban police arrested two black security guards who worked at a hotel near where she was staying. One question swirling around the investigation was whether police initially targeted the security guards -- who were released without charges eight days later -- as suspects at least in part because of their race or class.One of the freed security guards, Mickey John raised the issue of racism, in an interview with Fox News -JOHN: Well, like I said before, the justice system, the detectives, they're all fools. They have to go to back to school. And they were used, like, a scapegoat, use, like, a black person in society to cover their mess. In July, commentator Olumide K. Obayemi wrote an article entitledRacism in Aruba: The arrests of Abraham Jones and Mickey John were not only unfair, but classically racist San Francisco View (July 6, 2005).

Related Topics:
CNN - Natalee Holloway

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Some Arubans claim that since the population is mixed race, there is no racism in Aruba. However, on October 5, 2005, Jossy Mansur, the editor of the Diario newspaper, opined that the racial problems in investigation of missing Alabama teen, Natalee Holloway, were between the Dutch and the Arubans. See 1 -- The principal suspect is Dutch, the lead investigator was Dutch, the prosecutor is Dutch and the five judges involved are Dutch. If you think about it, an attempted boycott against Aruba is unjust, because it is misdirected and won?t achieve the desired results.

Related Topics:
Jossy Mansur - Diario - Natalee Holloway

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