Caribbean Net News: Suriname - The Bouterse Trial Starts Today - Suriname police arrest alleged assassins - by Ivan Cairo
Desi Delano Bouterse on trial for massacres
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The Bouterse Trial-Suriname police arrest alleged assassins - by Ivan Cairo
In his address to thousands supporters Monday night, Bouterse insisted that the government and parliament are not functioning properly while he cast doubt on the bi-partisanship and objectivity of the court and the judiciary. Suriname Justice Minister Santokhi disclosed that the authorities received intelligence that several individuals in the remote interior were armed by Bouterse and his supporters, while a top official from his party, NDP, traveled to a “neighbouring country” to recruit individuals to commit violent attacks in Suriname, including arson and murders. The Justice Minister claims that the destabilization and assassination plots have more to do then just derailing the upcoming trial. Interests of organized crime are also at stake here, according to the government official.Recently top crime leaders held a meeting to discuss actions aimed at bringing a halt to the assaults on their criminal enterprises by the authorities. During the past three years police have dismantled 9 of the 10 major criminal organizations in Suriname, including major drug trafficking rings with links to the Columbian rebel organization FARC.
Note EU-Digest Suriname, independent since 1975 from the Netherlands has had a turbulent political history so far. Desi Delano Bouterse, the present leader of the NDP political party in that country is assumed to be closely bound, not only with ongoing political unrest and crime in Suriname, but also with a military regime that controlled Suriname from 1980 until the beginning of the 1990s.
On February 25, 1980, the government of newly-independent Suriname underwent a military coup and Bouterse became Chairman of the National Military Council. Though the Suriname Presidency was retained, Bouterse became the nation’s de-facto ruler until his resignation in 1988. He even served briefly as President himself for a period in 1982. Bouterse is also considered the leading figure in Suriname’s post-independence civil war, and the main culprit behind the so-called “December murders” of 1982, and massacres in the Maroon (Bosneger) village of Moiwana in 1986. Since then he has also been accused on various occasions of involvement in illegal drug trafficking. In July 1999 he was convicted in absentia by the Netherlands for cocaine-trafficking. The Netherlands still has an international warrant for his arrest, which makes it almost impossible for him to leave Suriname. Unfortunately Suriname has not been able to extradite him to the Netherlands, because he is a former head of state. Today Suriname is finally slowly waking up from their fear and ready to prosecute the former dictator and some of his accomplices, whom have held the country in their grip for 25 years. This morning, November 30, 25 suspects, including Bouterse will be asked to appear before a Suriname court martial and tried for the executions, which went down in history as the "December killings". At that time 15 opponents of the military regime were summarily executed at the historical Dutch historical fort Zeelandia. One can only hope that justice will prevail and that Suriname can finally get rid of a "cancer" which has caused enormous harm to the credibility of that country as a viable Democratic state.
Labels: Council of Europe, Desi Bouterse, Military, Suriname, The Netherlands, Trial
