On February 25th 1980, sixteen non-commissioned officers staged a military coup in Suriname, toppling the then elected government of Prime Minister Henck Arron owing to a series of grievances that had included demands for an army labor union to vexation about the extent of Dutch control of the country five years after it had gained independence.
As a result, the country was run by a combination of military strongmen and supportive civilians for most of the 80s until free and fair elections returned, bringing back civilian rule but this was interrupted again on Christmas Eve in 1990 when soldiers simply dismissed the elected government via a telephone call.
This week, the 45th anniversary of the largely bloodless coup was observed mostly by the main opposition National Democratic Party (NDP) founded in the mid-80s by late military strongman and two-time elected president Desi Bouterse and others even while they were active soldiers. Bouterse died in late December while on the run from a 20-year sentence for mass murder committed by soldiers on 15 government opponents in 1982.
Government officials on Tuesday largely stayed away from the NDP-organized events that were attended by party top brass officials, some dressed in military combat fatigues, as tributes were paid and as the late Bouterse’s wife, Ingrid, and others associated with the revolution and the 1890s laid commemorative wreaths.
Ramon Abrahams, Bouterse’s close confidant and former works minister argued that the soldiers “had no choice” at the time but to stage the revolution in an attempt to change the national order and reduce Dutch dominance.
“We stand here to pay tribute to a great revolutionary. Let us make the choice for Suriname. Choose your country. Everything must be done not to divide the people. A divided people, is a lost people,” he said as the NDP and other parties prepare for general elections on May 25. “Recolonization must be fought at all times.”
But as the NDP marked the day and the party’s late leader, a committee of relatives linked to the 1982 murders said it felt repulsed by the commemorative activities as there was nothing to celebrate.
“Feb.y 25 should not be a day of nostalgia or false romanticism. It is a day of mourning. A day to reflect on the destruction that a dictatorship brings with it. A day to honor the victims, not the perpetrators. And above all, a day to vow never to allow history to repeat itself,” said committee chair Sunil Oemrawsingh who lost a relative in 1982.
“Fear became an instrument of state policy, critics disappeared, journalists were not allowed to report their truthful reports because of censorship, citizens were repressed and a feeling of powerlessness overcame the population,” the committee said in a statement.
Anxious to reverse the coup, The Dutch, French and the US came together to organize a rebel movement to fight the army. Records show that up to 500 people were killed in the 80s including more than 50 Maroons in a single day at a southeastern town near French Guiana at the hands of the military.
