Former Suriname President Desi Bauter disappears before being admitted to detention center
In 1982, during the dictatorship, 16 political opponents were kidnapped → 15 people were murdered, and the charges were finally acknowledged.
Suriname’s former dictator, who was sentenced to prison for genocide, disappeared, plunging Suriname into chaos.
The Guardian and the Associated Press reported on the 12th (local time) that former Suriname President Desi Bauterseo (78) disappeared after being sentenced to 20 years in prison for massacring 15 political opponents in 1982.
Bauterser is accused of using his soldiers to kidnap 16 opposition figures, including lawyers, journalists, and professors, and massacre 15 of them in the capital, Paramaribo. He was also convicted in 2019 and 2021, but appealed, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the final ruling on December 20 last year.
The Supreme Court handed down the highest sentence currently possible, taking into account Bauterser’s age, and ruled that no further appeals would be possible. It has been 16 years since the trial began and 41 years since his massacre.
The trial for this case, called the ‘December Murder’, began in 2007. Bauterser has vehemently denied all charges except for some ‘political responsibility’ for the massacre.
The prosecution ordered him to appear at the detention center on the 10th. However, he did not appear until late on the 12th. After his whereabouts were not confirmed, the prosecution began an investigation.
His wife, Ingrid Wouterser-Waltring, consistently denied knowledge of his whereabouts to reporters gathered in front of her home and assured them, “He will not go to jail.” She went on to lash out at the judicial authorities who found Bauterser guilty.
Bauterser came to power as a military dictator through a military coup between 1980 and 1987. He was elected president by ballot in 2010, and won his re-election, remaining in office until 2020. He stepped down from the presidency in 2020 due to a regime change, but still serves as chairman of the opposition People’s Democratic Party.
According to reports, his whereabouts have not yet been confirmed, and his disappearance has reportedly thrown the entire country of Suriname into chaos.
Suriname, a small South American country with a population of about 620,000, is widely known in Korea as the setting for the Netflix movie ‘Suriname’. Bauterser is also the person who provided the motif for the president involved in drug trafficking who appears in ‘Suriname’. He was also sentenced to prison in the Netherlands in 1999 for drug trafficking, but avoided extradition to the Netherlands under Suriname law.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.