Freedom in the World 2001 - Suriname

2001 Scores

Status: Free
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Civil Liberties: 2
Political Rights: 1

Ratings Change

Suriname's political rights rating changed from 3 to 1, its civil liberties rating from 3 to 2, and its status from Partly Free to Free, after the holding of free and fair parliamentary elections and the willingness of the government to call human rights violators into account for past crimes

Overview

On August 12, 2000, a former president, Ronald Venetiaan, returned to the presidency. After promising to fight corruption and speed economic development, he led his New Front for Democracy and Development coalition to a resounding victory in parliamentary elections on May 25. Venetiaan's center-right government replaced the troubled regime of Jules Wijdenbosch, who left behind a near-empty treasury, 20 percent unemployment, 100 percent inflation, and a troubled legacy dating back to the days of former military strongman Desi Bourterse. The self-proclaimed "Jungle Man" Bourterse, who also stood for president, appeared to be closer to prosecution than to the presidency, after Suriname's highest court ruled that he must stand trial for his part in the 1982 massacre of some of Suriname's top political and academic leaders. The once all-powerful dictator also risked finally being brought to justice for drug trafficking, having been tried and convicted by a Dutch court in absentia on charges of having introduced more than two tons of cocaine into the Netherlands between 1989 and 1997. In late 2000, Bourterse denied reports that he was planning a coup attempt and training an army of Amerindians deep inside the country's interior.

The Republic of Suriname achieved independence from the Netherlands in 1975, which was 308 years after the Dutch acquired it from the English for the U.S. State of Delaware and the island of Manhattan. Five years after independence, a military coup, which brought Bourterse to power as the head of a regime that brutally suppressed civic and political opposition, initiated a decade of military intervention in politics. In 1987, Bourterse permitted elections under a constitution providing for a directly elected, 51-seat National Assembly, which serves a five-year term and selects the state president. If the National Assembly is unable to select a president with the required two-thirds vote, a People's Assembly, composed of parliament and regional and local officials, chooses the president. The New Front for Democracy and Development, a three-party coalition, handily won the 1987 elections. The military-organized National Democratic Party (NDP) won just three seats.

In 1990, the army ousted President Ramsewak Shankar, and Bourterse again took power. International pressure led to new elections in 1991. The New Front, a coalition of mainly East Indian, Creole, and Javanese parties, won a majority, although the NDP increased its share to 12. The National Assembly selected the Front's candidate, Venetiaan, as president.

Bourterse quit the army in 1992 in order to lead the NDP. The Venetiaan government took some constitutional steps to curb military influence and, in late 1995 and early 1996, purged several high-ranking pro-Bourterse military officials. The government's economic structural adjustment program led to social and labor unrest amidst an inflationary spiral and a collapse of the Surinamese currency.

During the campaign for the May 23, 1996, parliamentary elections, the NDP pledged to reverse many of the economic programs of the Venetiaan government. The four-party New Front lost seats, winning 24, and entered into a coalition with the smaller Central Bloc, consisting of two opposition groups. The alliance proved insufficient to gain the necessary two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to return Venetiaan to office.

Bourterse's NDP, with 16 seats, joined with the Javanese-based Party of National Unity and Solidarity and dissident members of the East Indian-based United Reform Party to press for the convening in September of the constitutionally mandated 869-member People's Assembly. The deadlock was broken when Wijdenbosch, a former deputy party leader under Bourterse, was elected president.

Protected by Wijdenbosch, Bourterse remained one step of Dutch police as the Europeans sought his arrest. In late 1998, the government oversaw the takeover of Suriname's traditionally independent high court. In May 1999, massive antigovernment protests and a continuing economic crisis forced Wijdenbosch to sack his entire 15-person cabinet. Three weeks later he announced that elections would take place a year early.

In the 2000 national elections, Venetiaan's coalition won a majority of 51 National Assembly seats – three times as many as its closest rival. The new government promised to investigate all human rights violations that occurred in the past two decades, including the 1982 executions of 15 of the Bourterse regime's foremost opponents. Bourterse, who was army commander at the time of the killings, responded by saying that if he is brought up on charges he would release secrets – "all dirty" – about leaders of the new government that he apparently collected in the 1980s as the country's intelligence chief.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Citizens of Suriname can change their government democratically. Political parties mostly reflect the cleavages in Suriname's ethnically complex society, a factor contributing to parliamentary gridlock and, in the past, to Bourterse's popularity. A record 23 parties competed in the 2000 elections. Civic institutions remain weak.

The judiciary is weak, is susceptible to political influence, and suffers from ineffectiveness and a huge backlog of cases. The civilian police abuse detainees, particularly during arrests; guards mistreat prisoners; and the prisons are dangerously overcrowded.

In response to government plans to call Bourterse into account for the 1982 massacre – a longstanding demand of relatives of those murdered – Bourterse's allies released a letter from the former wife of the justice minister in which she tended to support claims that the minister was a bigamist, a spousal abuser, and a pedophile. In response, Bourterse, who says he has more derogatory information about other officials in his files, was sued for defamation.

The government generally respects freedom of expression. Radio is both public and private. A number of small commercial radio stations compete with the government-owned radio and television broadcasting system. State broadcast media generally offer pluralistic viewpoints.

Both indigenous and tribal peoples, the latter called Maroons – the descendants of escaped African slaves who formed autonomous communities in the rainforest in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – reside within Suriname's borders. Indigenous people number around 12,000 to 15,000 people (four percent of the population); Maroons number approximately 40,000 to 50,000. Their rights to their lands and resources, to cultural integrity, and to the autonomous administration of their affairs are not recognized in Surinamese law. Despite numerous attempts and agreements, all of which have been disregarded, between the state and the indigenous peoples and Maroons, this situation has not changed. A breakdown in the rule of law over the past five years, disputes between the executive and judiciary, and an absence of adequate domestic guarantees have forced the Maroons to seek protection of their rights in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Indigenous and Maroon land and resource rights are repeatedly violated: in particular, the state has granted large areas of lands as concessions to logging and mining interests. These concessions were made without any form of consultation with affected village authorities and without any attempt to safeguard subsistence and other rights. Approximately 30,000 Brazilian small-scale gold miners, licensed by the state, and numerous local miners are working on indigenous and Maroon lands, causing severe environmental degradation, health epidemics (malaria and sexually transmitted diseases) and social problems. The state has made no attempt to mitigate the impact of local and multinational operators on the environment, and in general Suriname lacks environmental laws and monitoring capacity. Discrimination against indigenous peoples and Maroons is widespread in law and practice and is especially pronounced in the provision of education and health services.

Constitutional guarantees of gender equality are not enforced, and the Asian Marriage Act allows parents to arrange marriages. Human rights organizations function relatively freely. Several organizations specifically address violence against women, reports of the trafficking of Brazilian women for prostitution, and related issues.

Workers can join independent trade unions, and the labor movement is active in politics. Collective bargaining is legal and conducted fairly widely. Civil servants have no legal right to strike.