SURINAME’S NEWLY-elected Head of State, Desi Bouterse, has received a diplomatic snub from President Barack Obama on his current visit to New York for the new session of the United Nations General Assembly. The Sunday Chronicle was reliably informed that President Bouterse was the only Head of Government of the 14 independent member countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to have been excluded from the US President’s traditional reception for foreign leaders attending the start of a new session of the UN General Assembly.
Venue for the glittering occasion last Thursday evening, from which Bouterse was excluded by non-invitation, was the US Museum of National History, and came as a surprise to his fellow CARICOM leaders.
In reflecting the sentiment of other colleagues, one CARICOM leader said that it was “a regrettable occurrence and quite unexpected, although we recognise that it’s the prerogative of the host of such an event to determine his list of guests…”
However, on the following day, September 24, President Bouterse was participating with other CARICOM Heads of Government in a meeting at UN headquarters that discussed a range of outstanding matters, including the elusive issue of ‘governance’.
The meeting was presided over by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, as CARICOM’s current chairman. Bouterse subsequently met with some Latin American Heads of State.
Following the success of Bouterse’s ‘Mega Combination’ alliance in securing the majority of seats for the 50-member parliament at last May’s general election, the 69-year-old ex-military strongman was endorsed by 36 votes — two more than a required two thirds — as the new Head of State of the former Dutch colony last month.
Eleven years ago Bouterse, who headed a successful military coup in 1982 against an elected government, was sentenced in his absence by a Dutch court on claims of cocaine trafficking. He never served the sentence and, under Suriname’s law, its nationals cannot be extradited to any foreign state.
Still pending is an on-and-off military court trial for his alleged involvement in the killings of 15 political opponents, including five journalists in 1982.
Bouterse has consistently denied direct involvement, but accepted responsibility for the killings as the then military ruler of Suriname. The court trial has again been suspended, this time since Bouterse’s inauguration as President on August 12.
The Surinamese leader paid an official visit to Guyana on September 6 when he held talks with President Bharrat Jagdeo and paid a courtesy call on CARICOM’s retiring Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington at the Community’s Secretariat.