A former coup leader, convicted drug trafficker and accused murderer was sworn in as Suriname’s president yesterday, and shop owner Sunil Oemrawsingh was so appalled he couldn’t even watch the ceremony — or understand why so few of his countrymen agree with him.
The 50-year-old has a particular reason for outrage: Surinamean President Desi Bouterse is on trial for his alleged role in the abduction and summary execution of Oemrawsingh’s uncle and 14 other leading citizens, all suspected enemies of the military regime, on a December night in 1982.
“I must admit, I am bitter about this,” Oemrawsingh said.
Bouterse’s return to power has people in ethnically diverse Suriname and abroad wondering whether it will also mean a return to the dark days of the past, when human rights were trampled and isolated Suriname was a launching pad for drugs bound for the US and Europe.
The immediate question for many in this thickly forested Amazon basin nation of about 500,000 people is what will happen with the trial for the “December killings.” So far, there is no indication of any changes.
“The trial goes on,” said Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, the speaker of parliament and a close ally of the new president.
When asked to elaborate, she changed the subject and called criticism of Bouterse propaganda.
Bouterse and nearly 20 others face charges that include murder in a case that has proceeded fitfully before a three-judge panel since November 2007.
In the past, Bouterse has accepted “political responsibility” for the killings, but denied a direct hand in them. As president, he is not required to testify and he could engineer a pardon if convicted in a case that could get him a 20-year sentence. Some fear he could interfere with the trial if testimony gets too uncomfortable, denying the families a resolution.
“We want to know who killed our loved ones and why they died,” Oemrawsingh said.
Bouterse, 64, has loomed over Surinamese politics for three decades. He first came to power in February 1980, when he led a coup that suspended the Constitution and dissolved parliament five years after Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands.
He led another coup in 1990, three years after allowing a return to civilian rule under international pressure, and remained a powerful force even after stepping down as army chief in 1992.
He has long been dogged by allegations of corruption. Convicted of drug trafficking in absentia in 1999 in the Netherlands — prosecutors said he was the leader of the “Suri Cartel” — he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He avoided that punishment because Suriname doesn’t have an extradition treaty with its former colonial ruler.
Bouterse has shrugged off the conviction while strengthening his political machine. He has also traded his fatigues for dress shirts and slacks, often wearing his loafers without socks.
In the May elections, Bouterse’s party captured 40 percent of the popular vote and 23 seats in parliament with a campaign of pledges to build more houses and increase social security spending. His promises to invigorate the economy — largely dependent on resource extraction, including gold, bauxite and offshore oil — resonate in a country where jobs are scarce.
A French-Algerian man went on trial in France on Monday for burning to death his wife in 2021, a case that shocked the public and sparked heavy criticism of police for failing to take adequate measures to protect her. Mounir Boutaa, now 48, stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, and even bought a van he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France, which he used to watch her without being detected. On May 4, 2021, he attacked her in the street, shot her in both legs, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. A neighbor hearing
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
RSS