Netherlands has first immigrant police chief

Suriname-born Martin Sitalsing is the new chief of police for the Twente region.

Martin Sitalsing (47) says he feels "100 percent Dutch" but he is nevertheless aware of the symbolic importance of his appointment.

Sitalsing was born in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, a former Dutch colony and moved to the Netherlands when he was nine-years-old. He became a police officer in 1987 and is is currently interim chief of police in the northern province of Friesland.

When he takes up his post in Twente, in the east of the country, on October 1, Sitalsing will be the first regional police chief from an immigrant community. "I have seen from the heartwarming reactions from the Surinam community, and from colleagues with an immigrant background, how important this appointment is," Sisalting said at a press conference on Monday.

The appointment comes at a good time for home affairs minister Guusje ter Horst. She has made appointing more women and people from ethnic minorities to senior positions in the police force one of her priorities, but she has been thwarted on several occasions.

Sitalsing said he "understands many things that take place in other cultures. I was raised multiculturally." He said it is necessary to have more police officers of immigrant background. "It has become unthinkable to send an all-white police observation team into the Bijlmer," an immigrant neighbourhood in Amsterdam.

Peter den Oudsten, who is Sitalsing's direct boss as the mayor of Enschede , said he was "very pleased" with his appointment. "Of course, his Surinam heritage is what catches the eye, but it played no role [in our decision]. We looked at his job qualifications."