“Amnesty for Bouterse was not discussed during political talks”

Ronnie Brunswijk (ABOP) and Chandrikapersad Santokhi (VHP), leaders of the new coalition, on Thursday explained that the protection of current government officials is currently not being discussed. It also did not come up during the talks with President Desi Bouterse who has been prosecuted for the December killings of 1982. Brunswijk pointed out that the granting of clemency and the possible amendment of the Amnesty Act of 2012 has not been discussed. He also pointed out that the new government will address the issue when it pops up. “We are not the judiciary and we can never sit on the chair of the judiciary,” said Brunswijk who acknowledged that clemency and amnesty are the prerogatives of the government. He made it clear that protection and not being punished were never mentioned by Bouterse during the political talks regarding the smooth transition of power. According to Brunswijk, such issues are currently not relevant. “We talked with the president on many occasions but clemency in the December trial was never mentioned. We never talked about that,” said the chairman of ABOP. One striking detail is that Bouterse claimed that this topic was in fact discussed. The head of state responded to statements made by Santokhi during an interview with a Dutch media house regarding the extradition of Bouterse. “We talked about that for hours,” said Bouterse