Suriname Elects a New President, Ending Desi Bouterse’s Long Rule - by Anatoly Kurmanaev and Harmen Boerboom

SURINAME

Suriname elected a new president on Monday, ending the long rule of Desi Bouterse, who dominated the small South American nation’s politics since its independence through intimidation and charisma.

The president, Chan Santokhi, a 61-year-old former police chief and leader of the opposition, was elected to the office by Suriname’s Congress following a landslide opposition victory in the May general elections.

In handing Mr. Santokhi a victory, the Surinamese punished Mr. Bouterse, a former military dictator turned populist champion, for a disastrous economic crisis and the widespread corruption in his government.

Note EU Digest: Finally Desi Bouterse, who dominated the small South American nation’s politics since its independence in 1975 from the Netherlands, at first by a coupe d'etat, where he ruled as a dictator, and later, as a populist president, is President no more .

On June 2017, during a military court case, the prosecutor Roy Elgrin read his conclusions, and demanded a 20-year prison sentence for the main suspect Desi Bouterse. for the murder of 15 prominent  young Surinamese men on 7, 8, and 9 December 1982, who had criticized the military dictatorship of Bouterse then ruling Suriname. The cruel killing became known as the "December murders" "Dutch: December moorden) Bouterse his lawyer has deposited an appeal. Final ruling is pending.

In memoriam  - Suriname's heroes December Massacre

Bram Behr journalist   

Cyrill Daal, union leade

Kenneth Gonçalves, lawyer

Eddy Hoost, lawyer

André Kamperveen, journalist and businessman

Gerard Leckie, university teacher

Sugrim Oemrawsingh, scientist

Lesley Rahman, journalist

Surendre Rambocus, military

Harold Riedewald, lawyer

Jiwansingh Sheombar, military

Jozef Slagveer, journalist

Robby Sohansingh, businessman

Frank Wijngaarde, journalist (with Dutch citizenship)

 

Read more at:

Suriname Elects a New President, Ending Bouterse’s Long Rule - The New York Times

Suriname: Washington, the Hague Should Not Sidestep Events in Suriname - by Even Ellis

On May 25, voters in Suriname decisively rejected the National Democratic Party (NDP) of incumbent President Desi Bouterse. Bouterse’s NDP declined from 26 seats in the 51 seat National Assembly to 16, behind the 20 won by Chandrikapersad Santokhi’s United Reform Party (VHP). Despite Bouterse’s occupation of the office since August 2010, Santokhi is now poised to replace him.

The VHP has formed an alliance with three other parties, the National Party of Suriname (NPS), the Brotherhood and Unity in Politics (ABOP) party, and Pertjajah Luhur, leaving it one seat short of the 34 to choose the president.

In a system characterized by shady deals, shifting alliances, and political intrigue, Bouterse has ample resources, and strong motivation to avoid ceding power.

A generation of business and military elites have their fates tied to him through past patronage. Leaving the presidency implies losing the immunity which has protected Bouterse 1999 narcotrafficking charges in the Netherlands, and his conviction in Suriname for the 1982 murder of 15 opponents.

Read more at:
Washington, the Hague Should Not Sidestep Events in Suriname | Newsmax.com

Suriname: President Bouterse wants Cocaine conviction retrial in Netherlands and goes on "redemption" campaign at home

Desi and Dino: 'shame and scandal in the family'

President of Suriname, Desi Bouterse, wants his sentence to 11 years in prison due to cocaine trade be scrapped, and has asked the Supreme Court for a retrial, the NRC reports.

Bouterse’s lawyer Inez Weski presented the Court with a request for a review on Tuesday against the 2000 conviction by the court in The Hague.

According to the lawyer, the key witness in the court case, Belgian Patrick van L. said that he gave a falsely incriminating statement to the court because he was under pressure from the Public Prosecution Service (OM). The witness said that Bouterse was involved in the transport of 474 kilos of cocaine, which was intercepted in the Stellendam port in 1997.

Weski states that the witness made this statement because the OM promised him several favors that were never made public. Van L. has retracted his earlier statements with the notary public.

In the request for a retrial, Bouterse’s lawyer also asks for “a thorough investigation into the established violations of the probe and the judicial process, not only so that the client (Bouterse) be done right by, but at the same time it be prevented that an investigative team no longer be able to operate beyond every rule of law in this blinding manner.”

Bouterse stood trial for a number of drug transporting claims, but was only convicted for the Stellendam case, and got 11 years. Then-lawyer in that case, Bram Moszkowicz asked for a retrial in 2002. According to him, the statement given by key witness Van L. was untrustworthy.

But problems with drugs are not only isolated to the President, his son Dino Bouterse, who had been appointed by his father as director of Suriname's anti-terrorism unit, was arrested last year in Panama by local authorities and turned over to U.S. agents and is on trial in New York on terrorism and drug charges

His arrest came just when his father, President Desi Bouterse, a former coup leader and himself convicted of drug offenses, hosted the annual UNASUR summit for political leaders of South American countries.

In the meantime President Desi Bouterse in a "look how clean and good I am campaign" has promised the Suriname legislature that his government will go to war against all proven cases of corruption. He instructed vice president Robert Ameerali to order the Government Accounting Agency (CLAD) to start immediate investigation in all government departments and semi-government enterprises to unearth malpractices and corruption.

"This is hypocrisy in overdrive", said a member of the Suriname opposition in the  legislature.

EU-Digest

Netherlands: Dutch legislators want Suriname President Bouterse, a convicted cocaine trafficker, arrested while at Mandela funeral

Suriname President Desi Bouterse

Legislators in the Netherlands have called for the government to state whether it will be making an attempt to have Suriname President Desi Bouterse arrested while he is in South Africa attending the funeral of Nelson Mandela on Sunday.

There have also been calls from an anti-Bouterse movement for the amnesty law that could provide a pardon for his role in the murders of 15 citizens in 1982 to be rescinded.

The legislators have asked the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the Foreign Minister to indicate whether the government was willing to request South Africa to arrest Bouterse and extradite him to the Netherlands to serve his jail term on cocaine trafficking charges.

Bouterse was convicted in absentia in 1999 and given an 11-year jail term.

He has consistently denied involvement in cocaine trafficking and managed to evade arrest and prison time by not travelling internationally until he became President in 2010.

Bouterse is the only head of state in the world who has been democratically elected  by a majority of the population, even though this majority was aware that he had a criminal record before they elected him. 

Obviously this does not bode too well for the image of Suriname as a whole and the quality of International laws which concern diplomatic immunity for heads of state who have criminal records.

EU-Digest