PHILIPSBURG:— In order to receive the third tranche of liquidity support, the Dutch government recently asked the Government of St. Maarten to distance itself from comments made by various Members of Parliament regarding State Secretary Knops. Honorable Member of Parliament Christophe Emmanuel compared the thinking process of Mr. Knops to that of Adolf Hitler. While members of the Dutch Government labeled his remarks as disrespectful, The United Nations Security Council made a similar declaration regarding the Netherlands and Adolf Hitler at its 390th meeting in Paris, France in 1948.
In January of 1948, the Netherlands and Indonesia had signed the Renville Agreement, also known as the Renville Truce Agreement, which was a treaty aimed at ending armed conflicts between the two countries. On December 18th of 1948, the Netherlands launched a military attack against Indonesia in contravention of the very treaty (Renville Agreement) that the United Nations Security Council had helped to mediate. Bear in mind that, according to the UN Security Council, Indonesia had been recognized as a de facto sovereign State by the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Lebanon, and several others.
The very next day, on December 19th, 1948, the United States declared to the United Nations Security Council that “In their repudiation of the Renville Truce Agreement, the Netherlands Government did not comply with the provisions of article 10 of that Agreement.”
On December 23rd, 1948, the UN Security Council declared “We have the FIRST CLEAR-CUT DELIBERATE VIOLATION of the (UN) Charter by a Member.” They went on to state “….two other decisions were violated, and the consequences must be – if the (UN Security) Council faces up to the matter – EXPULSION from the United Nations.” Lastly, it was declared that the Netherlands’ actions in 1948 regarding Indonesia “was even worse than what Hilter did to the Netherlands in 1940.”
(This statement by the UN Security Council reposes, up to today, in its archives and is freely available to all for perusal. To be consistent, therefore, the Dutch State might also want to call on the UN Security Council to renounce that damning comparison, before asking the Government of St. Maarten to renounce any statement made by Members of Parliament.)
Pro Soualiga Foundation
