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Suriname Na De Binnenlandse Oorlog. ELLEN DE VRIES. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, 2005

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Suriname Na De Binnenlandse Oorlog. ELLEN DE VRIES. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, 2005 NWIG 82-1&2 (2008) Suriname na de binnenlandse oorlog. ELLEN DE VRIES. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, 2005. 200 pp. (Paper €17.50) ASPHA E. BIJNAAR Nationaal Instituut Nederlands Slavernijverleden en Erfenis 1093 EE Amsterdam, the Netherlands [email protected] In 1986, inhabitants of the Ndyuka Maroon village of Moiwana were brutally slaughtered by the Surinamese army. This action was part of the civil war that was taking place between the military forces of commander Desi Bouterse and the “Jungle Commando” led by his former bodyguard Ronnie Brunswijk. Hundreds of citizens and fighters were killed. The conflict, which lasted until 1992, destroyed large parts of the interior, including roads, supplies for water and electricity, state buildings, medical clinics, and schools. Thousands of Maroons fled to save their lives. Some retreated deeper in the interior. Others migrated to the Netherlands or the United States. Many took refuge in neighboring French Guiana or moved to Suriname’s capital Paramaribo. Refugee camps in French Guiana provided hospitality, but the conditions – in terms of housing, education, medical care, and employment – were very poor. Five years after the former Dutch colony of Suriname became independent in 1975, the young republic was taken over by the military in a coup led by commander Desi Bouterse, who then ruled the country with his followers for several years. Then, one night in December 1982 they summoned sixteen prominent citizens and performed a group execution. The killing of these dissidents, among them union leaders, lawyers, journalists, and intellectuals, was a dramatic turning point in Suriname’s history. Even today, the perpetrators have not been sentenced, despite many efforts undertaken by surviving relatives. The massacre of Moiwana in 1986 was the second major crime of the military regime. It was occasioned by an internal conflict involving Bouterse’s men, notably his former bodyguard Ronnie Brunswijk, a Ndyuka Maroon. After the abolition of slavery in 1863, as well as after Suriname’s independence, successive governments neglected the rights of the Maroons and gave them little access to education, housing, medical care, and the like. Even in 2006 the majority still suffered social exclusion and discrimination. Their weak social position was not, however, the direct cause of the military conflict. Nevertheless, during the war, Brunswijk used it as a justification for demanding the long-denied democratic rights of “his people.” The conflict became more complicated when Amerindians joined Bouterse in his war against Brunswijk’s Maroons. Many insiders believe that it was Bouterse who persuaded the Tucayana Amazones to take part in the warfare. However this might be, they, too, started claiming their long denied democratic rights. In Suriname na de binnenlandse oorlog (Suriname after the civil war), journalist Ellen de Vries outlines the history of these events. Her main source of information was interviews. She spoke with many people, such as refugees, fighters, officials, and social workers during visits to Suriname in 2003, 2004 and 2005. To complete her research she also collected relevant written documents. The interviews give a clear insight into the gravity of the war. The book presents a vivid picture of how life has treated the perpetrators, the victims, and others involved. None of them are happy with the results: despite the fight for democratic rights, the social position of the Maroons has remained poor. The postwar care for victims and fighters has been totally inadequate. A considerable number still suffer from severe psychiatric problems due to the violence in which they were involved. The role of the 1 government of Suriname, which has failed miserably in conducting proper investigations, is deplorable. In August 2005, before de Vries’s book was published, the Inter-American Court for Human Rights sentenced the Republic of Suriname to a fine to compensate the surviving relatives and ordered that all measures necessary to meet their rights be taken. Nevertheless, the government has not done much to satisfy the economic, social, and cultural needs of the victims. The rate of crime, prostitution, drug and alcohol abuse, as well as HIV and AIDS- related diseases among the Maroons is increasing. As one woman put it, “All Maroons living in this area, myself included, are forever traumatized by these events. The high rate of crime, especially among young maroons, is just one example of how this collective trauma is expressed by us”’(p. 80). Although de Vries paints a clear picture of the seriousness of the problems, quantitative information is generally lacking. This lack reflects the ignorance of many government officials of the problems of the persons involved. Although the interviews to some extent fill the gap, they are too subjective to represent the situation fully. Everyone involved tells a different story, as De Vries herself acknowledges. Thus, she could not help leaving many important questions unanswered. How did the war start? What really happened in the firing line? How many people lost their lives in the war? How many citizens or fighters are suffering from trauma since? Nonetheless, the interviews reveal such interesting and detailed information that one can see how bad the situation is. De Vries shows that the war also had some positive effects. It made Maroons and the indigenous people more politically conscious about their social position. In 2005, for the first time in Suriname’s history, three political parties with a Maroon background took part in the elections. Since 2003, an increasing number of Maroons with academic backgrounds have united into the political organization SaMaDe (Cooperating Maroon Experts) to empower themselves and to reconstruct the socioeconomic life of Maroons in the interior. De Vries’s study is the first serious attempt to outline the legacy of this dramatic episode in the history of Suriname. Suriname na de binnenlandse oorlog reads smoothly, as a journalistic report should. As such, it is a successful enterprise. For the sake of history, however, it calls for an additional study that would put the civil war in a broader context, and give a well-balanced analysis of its political, social, and economic consequences. The complete (hi)story of this episode still needs to be written. 2 .
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