Curacao Bar Association concerned about intolerance

July 04, 2008 10:00 AM

The Curacao Bar Association is concerned about the increasing degree in which “disputes in our multicultural society are not being solved in a rational and peaceful manner but rather in an aggressive, intolerant and irrational way”.

So states dean Eric de Vries in a press-release following the riots of last week Thursday as a result of the Island Council meeting concerning the order in council for the Kingdom for financial supervision. “Our society distinguishes itself as a democracy and a constitutional state where disputes are solved by and through democratic and legitimate institutions such as a legislator or a judge. Not under any circumstance is there room for taking the laws into your own hands or violence”, emphasizes the Association.

A small group of demonstrators took out their frustrations on establishments which primarily have European Dutch as their clientele. At café ‘De Nachtwacht’ cars were vandalized and stones were thrown. A local customer was seriously wounded. In the meantime various groups and political parties have denounced this violence. The Association condemns Thursday’s events ‘where people randomly targets as victims of aggression and abuse based exclusively on their appearance’. The Association fervently condemns any form of racism and thus also these forms of attacks. For there is absolutely no excuse for it. The organization furthermore expresses the hope that such events will not be repeated and that the police and the justice department will act both in a preventive and repressive manner to such incidents.
(Curacao Bar Association)

July 3, 2008