Suriname Says It Foiled Coup

The left-wing military Government said today that it had foiled a coup attempt and had arrested 10 people.

Sgt. Maj. Marcel Zeeuw, the deputy commander of the military police, said at a news conference that the suspects, arrested last week, had distributed pamphlets to stir unrest and had set a Government radio station, office building and warehouse on fire.

He said they were planning violence and wanted to lay the groundwork for an invasion by mercenaries recruited by Surinamese exiles living in the Netherlands.

The arrests came as Suriname, a country with 330,000 people on the northern coast of South America, observed the eighth anniversary of its independence from the Netherlands.

Lieut. Col. Desi Bouterse, who emerged as the country’s military leader in 1980 after a group of disgruntled officers overthrew the elected postcolonial Government, has announced at least twice previously that he had foiled attempts to depose him. Opponents have charged that the colonel has used these announcements as a pretext for arresting or killing people opposed to his rule.

The colonel said the first attempt to depose him came on Dec. 8, 1982. At least 15 people – prominent political opponents, journalists and trade union leaders – were killed, and the Netherlands and the United States suspended aid to Suriname.

Colonel Bouterse said later that the 15 had been plotting with the United States Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow him. Last May, United States officials said there had been a plan to overthrow the Bouterse Government but that it had been dropped after Congressional committees had objected. The aim of the C.I.A.-sponsored plan had reportedly been to eliminate the possibility that Suriname could be used as a base by the Soviet Union and Cuba to expand their influence in South America.

The second coup attempt, according to the Suriname Government, came last Jan. 30. The Government said Colonel Bouterse’s former deputy, Roy Horb, committed suicide in prison after the coup attempt failed.

Last month, after United States troops discovered Cuban arms on Grenada, Colonel Bouterse expelled 80 Cuban advisers and 25 embassy personnel, saying he feared they might support a left-wing coup against him. Dutch press reports suggested he was trying to modify his Government’s left- wing image.

The deputy military police commander told reporters today that the latest coup attempt had been planned by the Council for the Liberation of Suriname, a group of exiles in the Netherlands led by former President Henk Chin A Sen.

Mr. Chin A Sen, a physician, had served first served as Prime Minister after the 1980 military coup and later became President. But the military ousted him in 1982 as the Government drifted further to the left under Colonel Bouterse’s leadership. Mr. Chin A Sen moved first to the United States and then to the Netherlands.

A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 30, 1983, Section A, Page 7 of the National edition with the headline: SURINAME SAYS IT FOILED COUP AND SEIZED 10 PARAMARIBO, Suriname, Nov. 29 (AP)

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https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/30/world/suriname-says-it-foiled-coup-seized-10-paramaribo-suriname-nov-29-ap-left-wing.html

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Date:
November 30, 1983
Categories:
Asymetric Warfare, Desi Bouterse, Foiled Coups & Plots, Soft War, State Sponsored Terrorism
Tags:
Boxes:
Press
Years:
1983
Persons:
Roy Horb
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