Signing of the Sem' ta route agreement

Sem' ta route convention
Word from the President

Dear journalists,

I am happy to welcome you to the community, with at my side the president of the court of Saint-Martin, Mr. Judge Egron-Reverseau who represents Ms. Marie Bart, president of the high court of Basse-Terre , Mr. Basse-Terre prosecutor Samuel Finielz, and our territorial advisor Sofia Carti-Codrington, president of the Sem ta route association.
We have just signed a partnership agreement supported by this association. Missing among us is the director of Guadeloupe's penitentiary integration and probation services, Mr. Jean-Claude Eliac, who was unable to travel, but who signed the agreement in advance.

This convention is an important step in the reconstruction of Saint-Martin - I am talking here about physical reconstruction - since it involves setting the terms and conditions for setting up citizenship courses applicable to adults who have committed crimes of looting.
Why this device?
Well quite simply to remind those who participated in the looting of our businesses the three days following hurricane IRMA, that there are republican values ​​which structure our society and that certain serious acts are prohibited in our country.
The objective of this convention is therefore to enable looters to become aware of their errors and their criminal and civil liability.
Mr. the prosecutor will explain to you the terms of access to these citizenship courses, because not all the perpetrators of looting can participate…
What seems essential to me is that through this measure, there will be an educational and citizen response.
For this, meetings between the perpetrators and the victims of looting will be scheduled and supervised by the victim assistance association Trait d'Union, here represented by Mr. Jean-Marie Thevenet.
By meeting the traders who were looted, the perpetrators will be able to realize the great difficulties into which they have plunged our traders.
Even today, some of them cannot open their establishment because all their merchandise has been looted, and we know that reimbursement by insurance and reconstitution of stock represents a long process.
I therefore invited the president of FIPCOM, Mr. Michel Vogel, and the president of the Marigot merchants' association, Mr. Yann Lecam, so that they relay this information to business leaders and also because they represent these bruised traders.
Their relay with business leaders is crucial and I thank them for their presence.
It is precisely in knowledge of the difficulties encountered by our companies that I insisted on state services and justice so that exceptional measures are taken in this very particular context.
It is not a question of repressing at all costs, but of acting on the merits, in dialogue, to prevent these situations do not recur.
Interns will participate in work of general interest - in particular the cleaning of public spaces adjoining businesses and the rehabilitation of beaches, which really need to be cleared of bulky items transported by the sea .
I therefore fully welcome the signing of this agreement which is intended to be experimental, since it is signed for the organization of two courses in the first quarter of 2018. I hope that this system will be a success and that it will give give rise to other alternative initiatives in favor of citizenship rules.
In these transitional and difficult periods for all, we need order and respect for the law and people more than ever.
I in this respect, thanks the public prosecutor here present, the president of the high court, the director of prison services, as well as the Sem ta route association and its director Mrs. Karen Kelly, for having initiated this constructive transversal action in line with with our needs.
I also salute the Local Security and Delinquency Prevention Council of Saint-Martin (the CLSPD), here represented by Ms. Mélanie Hodge, who worked on this project with the public prosecutor's office, the services of justice and Semsamar.
Thank you.