Twenty-five years after Suriname experienced one its bloodiest nights, during which 15 persons were killed, the alleged perpetrators, including former president Desi Delano Bouterse, are to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Friday.
According to Radio Netherlands, Bouterse and 24 others, who have been charged with the December 8, 1982 killings, will have a pro forma hearing on Friday.
Bouterse, the main suspect, seized power on February 25, 1980 after he and a group of sergeants carried out a coup in the country. A few months later, the coup was called a revolution and two years later the country became a military dictatorship.
“Paramaribo was restive on the night of December 7 1982. Small groups of soldiers were on the rampage and left a trail of destruction in the city. They torched radio stations and newspaper officers and a number of people were detained. On the night of 8 December, 15 opponents of the military regime were summarily executed at Fort Zeelandia. Popular union leader Cyril Daal, who had enraged Desi Bouterse with his strikes and protests against military rule, was among those killed,” Radio Netherlands said. The release recalled that the union leader never made a secret of his opinion of Bouterse’s military dictatorship adding that a confrontation between the two one month before the killings ended in serious embarrassment for the army commander.
A visit by then Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was cut shot when a strike called by Daal’s Moederbond plunged the country into total darkness.
The killings occurred seven years after the country had won its independence from the Netherlands and immediately after the killings, The Hague suspended all development aid. Bouterse insists that he was not there during the killings and said he will only accept political responsibility.
It was only in 2000 that authorities launched a judicial investigation into the killings before the statute of limitations ran out on December 8 that same year and since then the trial has been repeatedly postponed.
Friday’s hearing is a formality designed to move the process along and the actual trial will commence next year.
Meanwhile, Bouterse’s National Democratic Party has grown to become the largest political force in Suriname, the radio station said.
