Following President Bharrat Jagdeo’s announcement yesterday that another country had sought the arrest of Surinamese President Desi Bouterse, a Surinamese newspaper says it has learnt that Holland did not make such a request.
De Ware Tijd said in today’s edition it has learned from the Dutch Embassy in Paramaribo that The Hague did not make the request. Jagdeo did not say which country asked.
Bouterse is wanted in Holland to serve an 11-year sentence for drug trafficking. When Bouterse was elected last year, then Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said in a statement that he would only be welcome in The Netherlands to serve his sentence.
Jagdeo had told army officers yesterday: “…A particular foreign nation asked us if we will arrest the president of Suriname when he comes here because he is wanted…and I said to them no. I said maybe you can get some other country to do this”. Members of the media were asked to leave at this point.
Jagdeo pointed out the citizens of Suriname chose their leader and he questioned who are Guyanese to say who the country should work with when the people of Suriname, through a democratic system, made their choice. He said Guyana has to work with the country’s legitimate representative.
Bouterse had visited Guyana twice late last year. When he was in the opposition and had made a visit here several years ago there were suggestions that he might be arrested here to serve his Dutch sentence. It was unclear if an official request had been received at that time and whether the government here would have acted on it.
