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Weekly Report - 17 February 2011 (WR-11-07)
SURINAME: When coups become public holidays
A new public holiday will be celebrated in Suriname on 25 February. On this day in 1980, President Dési Bouterse led a military coup to overthrow the democratic government of Prime Minister Henk Arron. Bouterse justified introducing the public holiday on the grounds that the coup was “legitimate": 25 February 1980 marked the “Day of the Revolution" when Suriname definitively cast off its colonial shackles and became a Socialist republic. This interpretation, unsurprisingly, is not shared by all: 25 February 1980 also led to the dissolution of parliament, the suspension of the constitution and the best part of a decade of military rule, including the infamous 1982 massacre of 15 political opponents at Fort Zeelandia for which Bouterse is facing trial - not really events for a man who is now, after all, a democratically elected president to be celebrating.
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