Convicted drug dealer Bouterse chosen as Suriname president by Suriname parliament

Former coup leader and military strongman Desi Bouterse was elected president of Suriname by the South American country's parliament on Monday, lawmakers said. The parliament made the selection by 36 votes out of 50 after Bouterse, 64, who led a 1990 coup and has faced accusations of drug-trafficking and human rights violations, initially failed to gain a sufficient majority in May elections.

"The Netherlands must request other countries for the extradition of Desi Bouterse if he sets foot on their territory", says former Dutch Lower House Speaker Frans Weisglas. The former Speaker of the House Weisglas was for years also the MP specializing within the conservative coalition (VVD) in the relations with Suriname. Weisglas believes the election of Bouterse as president will make a "pariah state" of Suriname. 

On the TV program NOVA, he predicted an economic decline and international isolation for the country. Weisglas is also not convinced that international treaties rule out the arrest of Bouterse because they assume immunity for presidents. "Legal experts differ in their views on this. Is Bouterse inviolable? I consider that the Netherlands should not accept this in advance. If he travels to countries like Brazil or the US, the Netherlands (EU) must ask these countries to extradite him. The Netherlands must at least try this,." says Weisglas.

Bouterse was elected by the Surinamese parliament thanks to the support of two former rivals, one of them being Ronnie Brunswijk, whose paramilitary troops fought Bouterse's military regime in a jungle war in the 1908s.

A weak"diplomatic" US government declaration on the election of Bouterse came as a surprise to many diplomats in the Caribbean, Latin America and the EU, since both Bouterse and Brunswijk have been convicted of large-scale drug-dealings, while Bouterse is still a suspect of the murder of 15 political opponents in 1982 and on trial in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname. Some diplomats are even comparing Bouterse to former Panamanian President Noriega, who was overthrown after the US invaded Panama.


EU-Digest