(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – International human rights organizations are being mobilized to take a stand against amendment of the 1989 Amnesty Law, which will allow the perpetrators of the December murders to go unpunished. After Ruth Wijdenbosch, chair of the PGA International Council, informed the board of the Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) about the proposal submitted to Parliament this week, the PGA wrote to a number of human rights organizations, NGOs, Parliamentarians and the Organization of American States (OAS). The Coalition for the ICC, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, No Peace Without Justice and OAS executive Albert Ramdin received a letter yesterday. In it, the PGA writes that the proposal submitted by Parliamentarians Bouva, Panka, Tamsiran, Doekhie, Misiekaba and Paal is intended to provide amnesty for “serious human rights violations, including acts that are outright crimes against humanity, allegedly committed during the military dictatorship in the early 1980s”. Approving amnesty for such crimes is in violation of international law, including international human rights legislation in general and the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights in particular, PGA writes. That is the reason why all international, regional and national human rights activists are urged to oppose the process that could result in the passing of this “unlawful legislation”. “This proposal will also be contrary to efforts to include the principles of non-impunity and crimes against humanity in Suriname’s legislation”, the international legislators’ organization writes.
