Suriname’s VP in hot water

Less than two weeks after former Surinamese president Desi Bouterse was cremated, incumbent Vice-President Ronnie Brunswijk has run into trouble with judicial authorities after revealing that he had long known where the ex-military dictator was hiding after fleeing from justice for nearly a year.

Brunswijk, leader of the largely Maroon-supported ABOP liberation party, dropped the political bombshell this week, laconically telling journalists that he was surprised that police and judicial authorities had not known where Bouterse was hiding because he always knew and had been in contact with the former military strongman who had staged coups in 1980 and 1990. He said he had even received photographs by mobile phone from Bouterse just days before his death.

Bouterse, 79, died hours before Christmas at his riverside home in the city, just over 11 months after he had vanished into hiding to avoid starting a 20-year jail sentence for the 1982 murders of 15 political opponents.

He was in charge of the military back then and was widely considered the de facto head of state following the coup two years earlier. Police say they are still trying to determine how his lifeless body had turned up at his heavily monitored home without the knowledge of authorities. In revealing that he had been in contact with Bouterse and was aware of his hideout, the VP has now landed himself in trouble with investigators as he had not disclosed such details to the very government, which he serves as the number two official.

“We were on good terms until death,” Brunswijk told reporters before the cabinet’s weekly meeting on Wednesday. “It was known for a long time where he was. That is no longer relevant. I don’t know if the judicial authorities didn’t know that, but Suriname is so small.”

He also revealed that he had visited Bouterse’s home to console his wife and family after his death from liver disease linked to alcohol abuse and had also been in contact with leading members of his National Democratic Party (NDP), expected to do well in elections set for late May.

The state prosecutor’s office has, meanwhile, written to the VP asking for a formal explanation, but he has not responded so far. Star News, an online publication, reported Thursday that the letter was sent on Jan. 6, two days after Bouterse’s cremation. Brunswijk has also stated that he wanted to attend the NDP-organized funeral services but had not received a formal invitation.

Brunswijk had served as Bouterse’s bodyguard while both were in the military in the 1980s but broke away to form a Western-funded rebel guerilla movement that unsuccessfully tried to reverse the coup.