Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com
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.
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