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The Major Implication of Suriname's 'Small War'
| Article
# : |
12776 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1987 |
3,853 Words |
| Author
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Scott B. MacDonald
Scott B. MacDonald, a former officer at the Connecticut
National Bank in charge of the international credit unit, is
currently the assistant editor of Times of the Americas and
is the author of a new book on democracy and
development. |
Rebel forces surround a border town and force government troops to withdraw. In the interior, another town of strategic economic importance falls to the rebels. The government counterattacks, recapturing the town in the interior. Reports filter out from the battle zone of government-conducted massacres of civilians and foreign advisers, while the nation's leader, a military man, broadcasts that victory had been achieved and that all is well.
Although all of the above could easily have taken place somewhere in Central America, Africa or Asia, this scenario is drawn from recent events in Suriname, a nation slightly larger than the state of Georgia, located on the northeast shoulder of South America. The rebel troops are those of the Surinamese Liberation Army (SLA) led by Cpl. Ronnie Brunswijk; the government is that of Lt. Col. Desi Bouterse, and the foreign advisers are Libyans. It appears that war has come to Suriname, and the adversaries are locked in moral combat over what the future direction of the nation will be. Moreover, it is not certain that the Libyan-supported government, which has mined a dam to explode and flood the capital, can survive. The SLA, operating from neighboring French Guiana, has substantial support from segments of the population, such as the Bush Negroes, and is funded by exile communities in the Netherlands and North America. The struggle began in late July 1986 and has been largely overlooked by the American press; arguably because Suriname is not located on any of the major travel routes. does not have lavish hotel accommodations, nor does its language - Sranan Tongo (sometimes called Taki-Taki) - easily lend itself to many reporters. Nonetheless, a brutal civil war with geopolitical implications, not to mention sensitized American security concerns raised by the Libyan involvement, has evolved.
Suriname, granted its independence by the Dutch in 1975, centered its political system around the parliament, which was dominated by three major political parties representing the largest ethnic groups: the Creoles (31 percent of the population), the Hindustanis (37 percent), and the Javanese (10.3 percent). In 1980 the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Henk Aaron was toppled during a military coup led by a group known as the "Sergeants." Since the coup, the former Dutch colony has been ruled by Bouterse and his close military associates. The traditional ethnic parties have been banned, and two marginal leftist parties still function under close scrutiny. These parties, the Revolutionary People's Party (RVP) and the Progressive Laborers and Farmers Union (PALU), have little actual power and have been in and out of Bouterse's favor depending on the government's need for a
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