US to sever ties with Suriname if former dictator becomes president
Desi Bouterse
by Ivan Cairo
Caribbean Net News Suriname Correspondent
Monday, March 14, 2005
PARAMARIBO, Suriname: The United States has
warned that if former Surinamese dictator Desi Bouterse is elected as
president in Suriname, the Bush administration will sever all ties with this
CARICOM member state.
Bouterse’s National Democratic Party (NDP)
announced recently that their leader would become the next president if the
party wins the upcoming parliamentary elections. Suriname goes to the polls on
May 25 to choose a new parliament, districts- and provincial councils. The
president is subsequently elected in parliament or in a joint meeting of
parliament and districts and provincial councils.
In a statement released last week to the media, the US embassy in Paramaribo,
said that is the sovereign right of the Surinamese people to choose its
political leaders, but Washington won’t deal with a person in the presidential
seat who is convicted on drug charges. In 1999 Bouterse was sentenced to an
11-year prison term by a court in the Netherlands for cocaine trafficking.
The US statement caused quite a stir in
political circles in Suriname and the Netherlands. Some see the statement as
meddling in Suriname’s internal affairs and a deliberate action to influence
the elections. Party officials of Bouterse’s NDP in first instance are said to
have taken notice of the US position and will deal with that.
Others are downright annoyed and are calling
for a formal response from the government.
Meanwhile President Ronald Venetiaan told
journalists that he took notice of the statement but won’t lodge a formal
response or complaint. Earlier, Vice-president Jules Ajodhia noted that the
government won’t respond to everything that is being said. On this specific
issue, Ajodhia claimed that Bouterse and his party have to respond, not the
government. According to former president
Jules Wijdenbosch it would have been better if the US had adhered to accepted
international standards and principles not to comment in the internal issues
of a sovereign country in regard to issues such as elections. The Bush
administration should have kept their views to themselves or voice their point
of view on their own territory.
Meanwhile Dutch parliamentarians questioned
their government whether the Dutch administration has taken notice of the US
statement and if Washington consulted with the Netherlands on this matter.
Also they want to know what Holland’s position would be, if Bouterse became
president. Bouterse, now an elected member of
parliament, is also being accused of sever human rights violations and other
atrocities when he was in power from 1980 to 1987. In December 2004, the
former military leader was notified by the state prosecutor that he and 26
others will be indicted for the December 1982 killing of 15 government
critics.
Among the victims were journalists, trade
unionists, lawyers, military officers and businessmen. The 15 men were
reportedly executed in Fort Zeelandia in Paramaribo after they were arrested
for allegedly conspiring against the government. This conspiracy theory was,
however, never substantiated. Bouterse, who
led a successful military coup in February 1980 and ruled the country as a
dictator, stepped down in 1987 after his party lost the democratic elections
in November of that year. He briefly seized power again in a bloodless, so
called telephone coup in 1990. In all the opinion polls held during the past
six months, the NDP turns out to be the strongest individual party.
Back...
Most popular
articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed
Printable
version
| 
