The Suriname government is working hard to polish the international image of its national army. The latest measure is to pump new life into old plans to establish a permanent jungle warfare school to attract foreign armies to train there. Defence minister Mr Ivan Fernald recently boasted that the Suriname national army was one of the “most skilled” in the region.
Under a new agreement reached between The Netherlands defence minister Eimert van Middelkoop and Mr Fernald, The Netherlands will pay the Suriname government in defence materiel for the right to send 60 troops there twice a year for periods of about a month. Jungle warfare training has taken place in Suriname for several years and the 31st Infantry Company of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps attended a course there earlier this year.
But it is a wild exaggeration for Mr Fernald to compare jungle training in Suriname with other countries in the region. Most Surinamese military instructors speak Portuguese fluently only because they had been trained at the Brazilian Army’s Centro de Instrução de Guerra na Selva in Manaus. The French Army also maintains a vast Centre d’Entrainement en Forêt Equatoriale at Régina in Guyane. In fact, the Dutch previously preferred to send its soldiers to the French school in Guyane before switching to the school in Suriname partly because the Surinamese speak Dutch.
A few years ago, a high-level Chinese People’s Liberation Army delegation visited Suriname to examine the possibility of establishing a jungle-warfare training base there for soldiers of the People’s Republic of China shortly after the Netherlands Army had conducted a similar exercise. Mr Ronald Assen, Suriname’s defence minister at the time, had also visited Beijing where he received some material military assistance. In April this year, Mr Fernald visited Beijing to meet Chinese defense minister Liang Guanglie, the two agreeing to improve military cooperation.
Suriname has also been upgrading its military relations with the USA. Last October, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Paramaribo where he met President Ronald Venetiaan and Mr Fernald and agreed to establish field testing facilities in Suriname for newly-developed US military vehicles. This agreement bore fruit three months ago when US armoured combat vehicle was tested under tropical conditions at the Coermotibo bauxite mine, east of Paramaribo.
Gates’s visit had come amid speculation about the establishment of a US military air base in Suriname for counter-narcotics flights – a measure that might become necessary in light of the reluctance of certain so-called ‘leftist’ Andean states to renew leases on facilities when current agreements expire. And in March this year, US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and the Commander of the US Southern Command Admiral James Stavridis visited Suriname, meeting Mr Venetiaan, Mr Fernald and Colonel Ernst Mercuur, commander of the national army. Last year, also, the South Dakota National Guard met with military officials to officially establish a partnership between South Dakota and Suriname as part of the National Guard Bureau-sponsored State Partnership Programme.
France has always been careful to cultivate cordial military relations with Suriname which it regards as the country most likely to pose a threat to the security of the Arianespace project at Kourou, in Guyane. Brigadier General Henri Bulit, commander of the French armed forces in La Guyane, invited Colonel Ernst Mercuur to visit Guyane to receive the National Defence medal (gold grade) awarded by the French Minister of Defence.
It is clear that Suriname has been methodically rebuilding its national army and navy and refurbishing its military image since 1991. It has strengthened its relations with friendly countries, increased its military manpower, acquired a squadron of armoured cars and personnel carriers and purchased the patrol boats − which were employed with frightening effect in the CGX aggression − and to seize commercial vessels enjoying the right of ‘innocent passage’ in the Corentyne river. Mr Fernald now brags about the Suriname army being “one of the most skilled” in the region.
What is behind Suriname’s military braggadocio?
The Suriname government is working hard to polish the international image of its national army. The latest measure is to pump new life into old plans to establish a permanent jungle warfare school to attract foreign armies to train there. Defence minister Mr Ivan Fernald recently boasted that the Suriname national army was one of the “most skilled” in the region.
Under a new agreement reached between The Netherlands defence minister Eimert van Middelkoop and Mr Fernald, The Netherlands will pay the Suriname government in defence materiel for the right to send 60 troops there twice a year for periods of about a month. Jungle warfare training has taken place in Suriname for several years and the 31st Infantry Company of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps attended a course there earlier this year.
But it is a wild exaggeration for Mr Fernald to compare jungle training in Suriname with other countries in the region. Most Surinamese military instructors speak Portuguese fluently only because they had been trained at the Brazilian Army’s Centro de Instrução de Guerra na Selva in Manaus. The French Army also maintains a vast Centre d’Entrainement en Forêt Equatoriale at Régina in Guyane. In fact, the Dutch previously preferred to send its soldiers to the French school in Guyane before switching to the school in Suriname partly because the Surinamese speak Dutch.
A few years ago, a high-level Chinese People’s Liberation Army delegation visited Suriname to examine the possibility of establishing a jungle-warfare training base there for soldiers of the People’s Republic of China shortly after the Netherlands Army had conducted a similar exercise. Mr Ronald Assen, Suriname’s defence minister at the time, had also visited Beijing where he received some material military assistance. In April this year, Mr Fernald visited Beijing to meet Chinese defense minister Liang Guanglie, the two agreeing to improve military cooperation.
Suriname has also been upgrading its military relations with the USA. Last October, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Paramaribo where he met President Ronald Venetiaan and Mr Fernald and agreed to establish field testing facilities in Suriname for newly-developed US military vehicles. This agreement bore fruit three months ago when US armoured combat vehicle was tested under tropical conditions at the Coermotibo bauxite mine, east of Paramaribo.
Gates’s visit had come amid speculation about the establishment of a US military air base in Suriname for counter-narcotics flights – a measure that might become necessary in light of the reluctance of certain so-called ‘leftist’ Andean states to renew leases on facilities when current agreements expire. And in March this year, US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and the Commander of the US Southern Command Admiral James Stavridis visited Suriname, meeting Mr Venetiaan, Mr Fernald and Colonel Ernst Mercuur, commander of the national army. Last year, also, the South Dakota National Guard met with military officials to officially establish a partnership between South Dakota and Suriname as part of the National Guard Bureau-sponsored State Partnership Programme.
France has always been careful to cultivate cordial military relations with Suriname which it regards as the country most likely to pose a threat to the security of the Arianespace project at Kourou, in Guyane. Brigadier General Henri Bulit, commander of the French armed forces in La Guyane, invited Colonel Ernst Mercuur to visit Guyane to receive the National Defence medal (gold grade) awarded by the French Minister of Defence.
It is clear that Suriname has been methodically rebuilding its national army and navy and refurbishing its military image since 1991. It has strengthened its relations with friendly countries, increased its military manpower, acquired a squadron of armoured cars and personnel carriers and purchased the patrol boats − which were employed with frightening effect in the CGX aggression − and to seize commercial vessels enjoying the right of ‘innocent passage’ in the Corentyne river. Mr Fernald now brags about the Suriname army being “one of the most skilled” in the region.
What is behind Suriname’s military braggadocio?
