OGV and Stichting 8 December 1982 object to national day of mourning

The Organization for Justice and Peace (OGV) and Stichting 8 December 1982 are against holding a national day of mourning on Thursday. Both organizations claim that the memorial ceremony was invented by the people who write scenarios for the prime suspect of the December 8 killings. Both organizations issued a press release, indicating that the current administration which is led by Desi Bouterse, the prime suspect in the December 8 trial and the person who commanded the army during the interior war, decided to proclaim June 29 as a day of national mourning for “all the victims of political violence.” According to the state commission in charge of the memorial ceremony, the victims of the political murders of December 1982 and the victims of war crimes that were committed after 1986 during the Interior War are all victims of “political violence.” The organizations pointed out that the use of the term political violence is an attempt to political murders and the war crimes are first and foremost serious violations of human rights in the recent history of Suriname. The proclamation of a day of national mourning for political murders and war crimes that took place over 30 years ago appears to be a Surinamese invention of scenario writers of the prime suspect of the December killings. The organizations pointed out that immediately after the murders each form of mourning by the relatives of the victims of the December 8 killings was crushed through military intimidation. Even the burial of the victims had to take place in a manner that was determined by the soldiers. Every year the commemoration services by the relatives of the victims are labeled as a political attack on the prime suspect by supporters of the prime suspect. Both organizations condemn the fact that the prime suspect will also address the audience and have distanced themselves from the national day of mourning on June 29.