(Jamaica Gleaner) Legislators in the Netherlands have called for the government to state whether it will be making an attempt to have Suriname President Desi Bouterse arrested while he is in South Africa attending the funeral of Nelson Mandela on Sunday.
There have been calls from an anti-Bouterse movement for the amnesty law that could provide a pardon for his role in the murders of 15 citizens in 1982 to be rescinded.
The legislators have asked the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the Foreign Minister to indicate whether the government was willing to request South Africa to arrest Bouterse and extradite him to the Netherlands to serve his jail term on cocaine trafficking charges.
Bouterse was convicted in absentia in 1999 and given an 11-year jail term.
He has consistently denied involvement in cocaine trafficking and managed to evade arrest and prison time by not travelling internationally until he became President in 2010.
