Never in my life would I have thought that the disappearance of one person could bring out so much emotions in people from all over the world. Year after year we have countless cases of disappearances all around the world, still I can not think of a case that has attracted that much attention worldwide.

Any disappearance of a person is a great tragedy, the case of Natalee is no different in that respect, it is and remains a tragedy, and on top of that an unsolved tragedy. Unsolved tragedies have a particular difficult part, as it remains a sore wound untill the day it is resolved.

A lot of people all of the sudden have become Police, Proscecutor and Judges at the same time, and I am amazed to find so many upstanding citizen of so many different countries being so convinced that their thoughts about the case become hard facts.

I was born in Germany, have migrated to Australia and finally ended up here in Aruba, married to an Arubian, I have lived in countries with different legal systems, and to be quite honest, I do not believe that any country has a legal system that is perfect, neither do they have police that is infallible. I certainly believe with all my heart that the Arubian legal system (which incidentally is based on the Dutch legal system) is not infallible, neither is the Arubian police any more infallible than any other police in any other country. This is not an issue.

Anyone who says that there is a nation-wide cover-up about this case, does not really know what they are talking about, however eloquent their comments may be. That the case is still open, not resolved, is a fact. That there is a question as to who is responsible for Natalee’s disappearance, that is also correct. That there are suspects is a fact. That there is room for a whitchhunt, no, definitely not. In any country, even in a country as developed as the USA, a suspect is innocent untill proven guilty. Proven guilty not by methods of witchhunting, but proven guilty by the law. Whether or not that is a legal system with jurors, or judges, is besides the point. LAW is the point, and we do have law in Aruba that we have to respect, as in any other country with a democratically elected government, we respect our law.

We as Arubians fail to understand why we as a country are being punished, we have done nothing but giving good service to tourist from all over the world, many of whom come back year after year to this lovely place. We do not like what happened to Natalee, certainly do not, our hearts go out to her parents but certainly we will not join in a witch hunt.

My heart weeps when I hear about Natalee, but my heart weeps as well for the countless other young men and women, or children that have disappeared all over the world.