Thursday, June 09, 2005
Entire Island of Aruba arrested in missing teen case
Calling the arrests a "tactical" move, police denied suggestions that class, wealth or race played a role in the investigation.
"The suspicion of a suspect has nothing to do with the color of his skin, but the grounds of suspicion, and everyone is under suspicion" said chief prosecutor Karin Janssen. "The public has been screaming for their own arrest for quite some time now."
The island can remain jailed for up to four months, but such detainment requires more appearances before a judge, and the amount of evidence prosecutors must cite to hold it grows larger, the lawyer said.
Having poor soil and aridity, Aruba was saved from plantation economics and the slave trade. In 1515, the Spanish transported the entire population to Hispaniola to work in the copper mines; most were allowed to return when the mines were tapped out. The Dutch, who took control a century later, left the Arawaks to graze livestock, using the island as a source of meat for other Dutch possessions in the Caribbean. The Arawak heritage is stronger on Aruba than on most Caribbean islands. No full-blooded Indians remain, but their curse still lingers and poisons those who are stained with their blood.
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