Former president of Suriname Desi Bouterse declared before the Court of Justice on Monday that he had not killed anyone in December 1982. However, he accepted political responsibility for the murders of 15 of his political opponents because he was the head of government at the time.
He was speaking during the appeal against his 20-year sentence for the ‘December murders.’
Bouterse, who ruled as head of a military junta after a successful military coup on February 25, 1980, was sentenced for the murders in November 2019. Four others were given sentences ranging from ten to 15 years for killing the group of journalists, trade union leaders, soldiers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and university teachers who were considered opponents of the military regime at the time.
They had been taken from their beds and transferred to Fort Zeelandia, the headquarters of the army command, where they were summarily executed by a firing squad.
The official statement that Bouterse had given to the public at the time was that the 15 men had attempted to escape custody and had been shot dead by soldiers during the chaos that had ensued – a statement which he said was based on the report of battalion commander Paul Bhagwandas, now deceased, who was in charge of the operation at Fort Zeelandia.
On Monday, Bouterse declared in court that Suriname’s former colonizer, the Netherlands, was responsible for the deaths of the victims. He said the country was preparing a coup to overthrow his government and had locals as support.
According to him, the 15 detainees were involved in those invasion plans. They were to be declared persona non grata and subsequently expelled from the country, and agreements were already made with state-owned airline Suriname Airways to make an aircraft available, Bouterse told the court.
However, he said, after he left the fortress on the evening of December 8, 1982, the men were shot dead.
Desi Bouterse said he had not given orders to kill the detainees. He added that right after he made the formal report about the escape attempt public, he asked the attorney general to conduct an independent investigation. However, that file was in the safe of De Surinaamsche Bank and has now disappeared.
“I didn’t shoot anyone. I didn’t pull any trigger,” Bouterse said in reply to questions from the three judges.
According to several witnesses during the trial, he was present when some of the victims were executed.
The judges confronted Bouterse with various witness statements, but he said he could not remember certain things. He said he didn’t know whether a firing squad had been assembled to shoot the 15 men.
However, witnesses have indicated that the men were first taken to Bouterse’s office. Shots were then heard and the bodies of the victims were then seen in the gallery.
CMC/
