The Suriname government is working hard to polish the international image of its national army. The latest measure is to pump new life into old plans to establish a permanent jungle warfare school to attract foreign armies to train there. Defence minister Mr Ivan Fernald recently boasted that the Suriname national army was one of the “most skilled” in the region.
Under a new agreement reached between The Netherlands defence minister Eimert van Middelkoop and Mr Fernald, The Netherlands will pay the Suriname government in defence materiel for the right to send 60 troops there twice a year for periods of about a month. Jungle warfare training has taken place in Suriname for several years and the 31st Infantry Company of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps attended a course there earlier this year.
But it is a wild exaggeration for Mr Fernald to compare jungle training in Suriname with other countries in the region. Most Surinamese military instructors speak Portuguese fluently only because they had been trained at the Brazilian Army’s Centro de Instrução de Guerra na Selva in Manaus. The French Army also maintains a vast Centre d’Entrainement en Forêt Equatoriale at Régina in Guyane. In fact, the Dutch previously preferred to send its soldiers to the French school in Guyane before switching to the school in Suriname partly because the Surinamese speak Dutch.
A few years ago, a high-level Chinese People’s Liberation Army delegation visited Suriname to examine the possibility of establishing a jungle-warfare training base there for soldiers of the People’s Republic of China shortly after the Netherlands Army had conducted a similar exercise. Mr Ronald Assen, Suriname’s defence minister at the time, had also visited Beijing where he received some material military assistance. In April this year, Mr Fernald visited Beijing to meet Chinese defense minister Liang Guanglie, the two agreeing to improve military cooperation.
Suriname has also been upgrading its military relations with the USA. Last October, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Paramaribo where he met President Ronald Venetiaan and Mr Fernald and agreed to establish field testing facilities in Suriname for newly-developed US military vehicles. This agreement bore fruit three months ago when US armoured combat vehicle was tested under tropical conditions at the Coermotibo bauxite mine, east of Paramaribo.
Gates’s visit had come amid speculation about the establishment of a US military air base in Suriname for counter-narcotics flights – a measure that might become necessary in light of the reluctance of certain so-called ‘leftist’ Andean states to renew leases on facilities when current agreements expire. And in March this year, US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and the Commander of the US Southern Command Admiral James Stavridis visited Suriname, meeting Mr Venetiaan, Mr Fernald and Colonel Ernst Mercuur, commander of the national army. Last year, also, the South Dakota National Guard met with military officials to officially establish a partnership between South Dakota and Suriname as part of the National Guard Bureau-sponsored State Partnership Programme.
France has always been careful to cultivate cordial military relations with Suriname which it regards as the country most likely to pose a threat to the security of the Arianespace project at Kourou, in Guyane. Brigadier General Henri Bulit, commander of the French armed forces in La Guyane, invited Colonel Ernst Mercuur to visit Guyane to receive the National Defence medal (gold grade) awarded by the French Minister of Defence.
It is clear that Suriname has been methodically rebuilding its national army and navy and refurbishing its military image since 1991. It has strengthened its relations with friendly countries, increased its military manpower, acquired a squadron of armoured cars and personnel carriers and purchased the patrol boats − which were employed with frightening effect in the CGX aggression − and to seize commercial vessels enjoying the right of ‘innocent passage’ in the Corentyne river. Mr Fernald now brags about the Suriname army being “one of the most skilled” in the region.
What is behind Suriname’s military braggadocio?
The Suriname government is working hard to polish the international image of its national army. The latest measure is to pump new life into old plans to establish a permanent jungle warfare school to attract foreign armies to train there. Defence minister Mr Ivan Fernald recently boasted that the Suriname national army was one of the “most skilled” in the region.
Under a new agreement reached between The Netherlands defence minister Eimert van Middelkoop and Mr Fernald, The Netherlands will pay the Suriname government in defence materiel for the right to send 60 troops there twice a year for periods of about a month. Jungle warfare training has taken place in Suriname for several years and the 31st Infantry Company of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps attended a course there earlier this year.
But it is a wild exaggeration for Mr Fernald to compare jungle training in Suriname with other countries in the region. Most Surinamese military instructors speak Portuguese fluently only because they had been trained at the Brazilian Army’s Centro de Instrução de Guerra na Selva in Manaus. The French Army also maintains a vast Centre d’Entrainement en Forêt Equatoriale at Régina in Guyane. In fact, the Dutch previously preferred to send its soldiers to the French school in Guyane before switching to the school in Suriname partly because the Surinamese speak Dutch.
A few years ago, a high-level Chinese People’s Liberation Army delegation visited Suriname to examine the possibility of establishing a jungle-warfare training base there for soldiers of the People’s Republic of China shortly after the Netherlands Army had conducted a similar exercise. Mr Ronald Assen, Suriname’s defence minister at the time, had also visited Beijing where he received some material military assistance. In April this year, Mr Fernald visited Beijing to meet Chinese defense minister Liang Guanglie, the two agreeing to improve military cooperation.
Suriname has also been upgrading its military relations with the USA. Last October, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Paramaribo where he met President Ronald Venetiaan and Mr Fernald and agreed to establish field testing facilities in Suriname for newly-developed US military vehicles. This agreement bore fruit three months ago when US armoured combat vehicle was tested under tropical conditions at the Coermotibo bauxite mine, east of Paramaribo.
Gates’s visit had come amid speculation about the establishment of a US military air base in Suriname for counter-narcotics flights – a measure that might become necessary in light of the reluctance of certain so-called ‘leftist’ Andean states to renew leases on facilities when current agreements expire. And in March this year, US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and the Commander of the US Southern Command Admiral James Stavridis visited Suriname, meeting Mr Venetiaan, Mr Fernald and Colonel Ernst Mercuur, commander of the national army. Last year, also, the South Dakota National Guard met with military officials to officially establish a partnership between South Dakota and Suriname as part of the National Guard Bureau-sponsored State Partnership Programme.
France has always been careful to cultivate cordial military relations with Suriname which it regards as the country most likely to pose a threat to the security of the Arianespace project at Kourou, in Guyane. Brigadier General Henri Bulit, commander of the French armed forces in La Guyane, invited Colonel Ernst Mercuur to visit Guyane to receive the National Defence medal (gold grade) awarded by the French Minister of Defence.
It is clear that Suriname has been methodically rebuilding its national army and navy and refurbishing its military image since 1991. It has strengthened its relations with friendly countries, increased its military manpower, acquired a squadron of armoured cars and personnel carriers and purchased the patrol boats − which were employed with frightening effect in the CGX aggression − and to seize commercial vessels enjoying the right of ‘innocent passage’ in the Corentyne river. Mr Fernald now brags about the Suriname army being “one of the most skilled” in the region.
What is behind Suriname’s military braggadocio?
This is there next step to retaking the New River Triangle, Land that we have held and they have claimed . I hope we now understand what a strong military can do for a country. You cannot go to a meeting as a weak nation ,you go and accept terms. If you want to ship sugar from Skeldon you will have to pay for boats to use the river, that’s what I see in the future for Guyana . Remember when the british army sent troops to train in Guyana’s jungles.
since guyana is small country,it is inevitable that all school age children 17 and 21 have to serve in some sort of paramilitary organisation.this will build nationalism that guyana really needs.they will know their country georgraphy.
I agree with parts of your comment. Hey, military or paramilitary is great for enforcing the value of discipline which we lack. One comment I would like to make is that I was in GNS (UG grad) and after 3 months at Kimbia I actually missed the discipline and on the ball life, I challenge those who did not. I must add that it changed my lackadasical attitude and made me a better person. One aspect that you have not mentioned about the paramilitary or military is the quality of their leadership.
Face it, if respect and intelligence does not radiate from them then forget about
changing the attitudes and thought processes of any protegé. I remember my first week at Kimbia where my first impression of the major was “Major Disaster”
and the training Sergeant was ’school dropout’. He actually shouted ‘that idiot standing with both legs off the ground, I said lift your left leg!’ This is not the leadership quality you look for.
There is an old saying: ‘ When Jaguar (or tiger, I prefer Jaguar) get old dawg does eyepass am.’
Apply this to Guyana, we are referred to as the beggar of CARICOM, our army
is a a picture of demoralisation, our Police Force is a cauldron of corruption
and demoralisation AND OUR LEADERS!! What more can anyone say? I say this again, without any reservations, they are the worse set that I have seen in the history of this nation. They cannot or WILL not get their act together, they refuse to put nationalism ahead of retarded party politics, they cannot agree on the simplest of matters, infighting is the order of the day, they refuse to acknowledge
informed and intelligent proposals. How does Guyana appear to the outside world?? ONE SENTENCE:
A headless chicken!
True leadership is non existent. But what alternative is there? How is the opposition perceived? A headless and legless chicken!! It is time for a change, as the WPA once said, CHANGE not EXCHANGE! We need a LEADER!! Put some vigor and ferocity back into our Jaguars!! Let us once again command respect. This is the result of poor and ill informed leadership, we were sold lock stock and barrel by a leader who thought he was a master politician and had no use for intelligent and informed advice.
Hey! Here’s some advice… Why don’t we sit on our backsteps with our jaws in our hands and let our neighbours to the east and the west kill themselves fighting over our country and then after the dust has settled we will emerge from our slumber and continue the same old again!!!