Arawak and Carib tribes lived in the region before
Columbus sighted the coast in 1498. Spain officially
claimed the area in 1593, but Spanish and Portuguese
explorers of the time gave the area little attention.
Dutch settlement began in 1616 at the mouths of several
rivers between present-day Georgetown, Guyana, and
Cayenne, French Guiana.
Suriname became a Dutch colony in 1667. The new colony,
Dutch Guiana, did not thrive. Historians cite several
reasons for this, including Holland's preoccupation with
its more extensive (and profitable) East Indian
territories, violent conflict between whites and native
tribes, and frequent uprisings by the imported slave
population, which was often treated with extraordinary
cruelty. Barely, if at all, assimilated into plantation
society, many of the slaves fled to the interior, where
they maintained a West African culture and established
the six major Bush Negro tribes in existence today: the
Djuka, Saramaccaner, Matuwari, Paramaccaner, Quinti, and
Aluku.
Plantations steadily declined in importance as labor
costs rose. Rice, bananas, and citrus fruits replaced
the traditional crops of sugar, coffee, and cocoa.
Exports of gold rose beginning in 1900. The Dutch
Government gave little financial support to the colony.
Suriname's economy was transformed in the years
following World War I, when an American firm (ALCOA)
began exploiting bauxite deposits in East Suriname.
Bauxite processing and then alumina production began in
1916. During World War II, more than 75% of U.S. bauxite
imports came from Suriname.
In 1951, Suriname began to acquire a growing measure of
autonomy from the Netherlands. Suriname became an
autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on
December 15, 1954, and gained independence, with Dutch
consent, on November 25, 1975.
Most of Suriname's political parties took shape during
the autonomy period and were overwhelmingly based on
ethnicity. For example, the National Party of Suriname
found its support among the Creoles, the Progressive
Reform Party members came from the Hindustani
population, and the Indonesian Peasant's Party was
Javanese. Other smaller parties found support by
appealing to voters on an ideological or
pro-independence platform; the Partij Nationalistische
Republiek (PNR) was among the most important. Its
members pressed most strongly for independence and for
the introduction of leftist political and economic
measures. Many former PNR members would go on to play a
key role following the coup of February 1980.
Suriname was a parliamentary democracy in the years
immediately following independence. Henk Arron became
the first Prime Minister and was re-elected in 1977. On
February 25, 1980, 16 noncommissioned officers overthrew
the elected government, which many accused of
inefficiency and mismanagement. The military-dominated
government then suspended the constitution, dissolved
the legislature, and formed a regime that ruled by
decree. Although a civilian filled the post of
president, a military man, Desi Bouterse, actually ruled
the country.
Throughout 1982, pressure grew for a return to civilian
rule. In early December 1982, military authorities
cracked down, arresting and killing 15 prominent
opposition leaders, including journalists, lawyers, and
trade union leaders.
Following the murders, the United States and the
Netherlands suspended economic and military cooperation
with the Bouterse regime, which increasingly began to
follow an erratic but often leftist-oriented political
course. The regime restricted the press and limited the
rights of its citizens. The economy declined rapidly
after the suspension of economic aid from the
Netherlands.
Continuing economic decline brought pressure for change.
During the 1984-87 period, the Bouterse regime tried to
end the crisis by appointing a succession of nominally
civilian-led cabinets. Many figures in the government
came from the traditional political parties that had
been shoved aside during the coup. The military
eventually agreed to free elections in 1987, a new
constitution, and a civilian government.
Another pressure for change had erupted in July 1986,
when a Maroon insurgency, led by former soldier Ronnie
Brunswijk, began attacking economic targets in the
country's interior. In response, the army ravaged
villages and killed suspected Brunswijk supporters.
Thousands of Maroons fled to nearby French Guiana. In an
effort to end the bloodshed, the Surinamese Government
negotiated a peace treaty in 1989 with Brunswijk, called
the Kourou Accord. However, Bouterse and other military
leaders blocked the accord's implementation.
On December 24, 1990, military officers forced the
resignations of the civilian president and vice
president who had been elected in 1987.
Military-selected replacements were hastily approved by
the National Assembly on December 29. Faced with
mounting pressure from the U.S., other nations, the
Organization of American States (OAS), and other
international organizations, the government held new
elections on May 25, 1991. The New Front (NF) Coalition,
comprised of the Creole-based National Party of Suriname
(NPS), the Hindustani-based Progressive Reform Party
(VHP), the Javanese-based Indonesian Peasant's Party
(KTPI), and the labor-oriented Surinamese Workers Party
(SPA) were able to win a majority in the National
Assembly. On September 6, 1991, NPS candidate Ronald
Venetiaan was elected President, and the VHP's Jules
Ajodhia became Vice President.
The Venetiaan government was able to effect a settlement
to Suriname's domestic insurgency through the August
1992 Peace Accord with Bush Negro and Amerindian rebels.
In April 1993, Desi Bouterse left his position as
commander of the armed forces and was replaced by Arthy
Gorre, a military officer committed to bringing the
armed forces under civilian government control. Economic
reforms instituted by the Venetiaan government
eventually helped curb inflation, unify the official and
unofficial exchange rates, and improve the government's
economic situation by re-establishing relations with the
Dutch, thereby opening the way for a major influx of
Dutch financial assistance. Despite these successes, the
governing coalition lost support and failed to retain
control of the government in the subsequent round of
national elections. The rival National Democratic Party
(NDP), founded in the early 1990s by Desi Bouterse,
benefited from the New Front government's loss of
popularity. The NDP won more National Assembly seats (16
of 51) than any other party in the May 1996 national
elections, and in September 1996, joined with the KTPI,
dissenters from the VHP, and several smaller parties to
elect NDP vice chairman Jules Wijdenbosch president of
an NDP-led coalition government. Divisions and
subsequent reshufflings of coalition members in the fall
of 1997 and early 1998 weakened the coalition's mandate
and slowed legislative action.
In May 1999, after mass demonstrations protesting poor
economic conditions, the government was forced to call
early elections. The elections in May 2000 returned
Ronald Venetiaan and his New Front coalition to the
presidency. The NF based its campaign on a platform to
fix the faltering Surinamese economy.
In the national election held on May 25, 2005, the
ruling NF coalition suffered a significant setback due
to widespread dissatisfaction with the state of the
economy and the public perception that the NF had
produced few tangible gains. The NF won just 23 seats,
falling short of a majority in the National Assembly,
and immediately entered into negotiations with the
Maroon-based "A" Combination and the A-1 Coalition to
form a working majority. Desi Bouterse's NDP more than
doubled its representation in the National Assembly,
winning 15 seats. Bouterse, the NDP's declared
presidential candidate, withdrew from the race days
before the National Assembly convened to vote for the
next president and tapped his running mate, Rabin
Parmessar, to run as the NDP's candidate. In the
National Assembly, the NF challenged Parmessar's
Surinamese citizenship, displaying copies of a Dutch
passport issued to Parmessar in 2004. Parmessar was
eventually allowed to stand for election, and parliament
later confirmed his Surinamese citizenship. After two
votes, no candidate received the required two-thirds
majority, pushing the final decision in August 2005 to a
special session of the United People's Assembly, where
President Venetiaan was reelected with a significant
majority of votes from the local, district, and national
assembly members gathered. His running mate, Ramdien
Sardjoe, was elected as vice president. While the
Venetiaan administration has made progress in
stabilizing the economy, tensions within the coalition
have impeded progress and stymied legislative action.
Long-anticipated legal proceedings began in November
2007 with the issuance of summonses to 25 defendants
accused of participating in the December 8, 1982 murders
of 15 political opponents of the former
military-dominated government. The court martial
tribunal convened on November 30, 2007, with a series of
preliminary motions. The actual trial, with judges
hearing witness testimonies, started on July 4, 2008. |
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