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Monday, January 1, 2001
Volume:
17
Issue:
1
28
Abstract:
During the third week of November 2000, a Dutch high court ordered prosecutors to investigate Desi Bouterse, the former military dictator of Suriname, for his role in the “December murders” of 1982 when his government allegedly ordered fifteen of the most prominent opponents of his government tortured and killed.
The Dutch court ruled it had jurisdiction to prosecute Bouterse because the case involved crimes against humanity, which international law allows to be tried at any place and any time.
Colonel Bouterse seized power in a military coup in 1980 and again in 1990. In 1992, he resigned. Still, Bouterse remains an influential political figure in Suriname, which was a Dutch colony until 1975…[more]