Five months after he and his personal bodyguard vanished into oblivion, authorities in Suriname this week vowed to find and arrest former President Desi Bouterse and force him to begin a 20-year jail sentence linked to mass murders back in 1982.
The two-time former elected president and ex-military strongman who had staged two coups in 10 years, disappeared just hours before he was due to surrender to state prison to begin serving in mid-January. Local reports seem to indicate that he was surreptitiously flown to Venezuela, while others say he and trusted bodyguard Iwan Dijksteel are at a well-maintained but secret hideout in the vast interior.
Security officials say they have checked a slew of various tips, which have trickled into them but there is no trace of the two. Still, Prosecutor General Garcia Paragsingh has said that all efforts are being made to arrest the leader of the main opposition National Democratic Party (NDP) as all parties and the country prepare for general elections on May 25 next year.
“It is a matter of time,” said Paragsingh to Star News online. “I depend on the information from the intelligence services. They and other police forces are facing a shortage of resources. At no time did we get the impression that Bouterse did not cooperate in the execution of the sentence. Or that he would make himself untraceable. The arrest is a matter of time,” she said as she blamed a shortage of manpower to stage a proper manhunt for the two.
Bouterse’s NDP party (16 seats) is expected to do well at the polls next year as the NDP, along with the Hindustani VHP and ABOP, supported largely by Maroons, fight for a majority of the 51 assembly seats. The VHP with its 20 seats is the main party in the governing coalition but it is expected to lose some support because of rising inflation and other ills affecting the sometimes dysfunctional administration. The National Party of Suriname, supported traditionally by the Afro and mixed race creole and middle classes, abandoned the coalition last year citing its dysfunctionality as a key reason.
Bouterse, 78, has lost all appeals against a late 2019, 20-year jail sentence for the December 1982 murders of 15 government opponents who the then military government had accused of plotting with western nations to reverse the 1980 military coup.
He has persistently denied direct involvement or giving any direct orders to execute the 15 at a Dutch colonial era fort but has accepted collective responsibility as the then de facto head of state. Three others found guilty with Bouterse and Dijksteel had turned themselves in and are serving their sentences.
