NRC Handelsblad: “Hindustani Businessmen Behind Plan for Coup in Suriname”
East Indian Businessmen
Rotterdam NRC HANDELSBLAD in Dutch 7 Oct 82 p 2
[Article: “Hindustani Businessmen Behind Plan for Coup in Suriname”]
[Text] The Hague, 7 October — Hindustani businessmen and intellectuals have
played a prominent role in the plot to overthrow the government of Desi
Bouterse in Suriname on 1 July 1982. Those who were supposed to prepare and
carry out the coup were only figureheads, who were motivated primarily by
the money.
This is what the Dutchman Cor Dol says, a 3° year old from the ZealandFlemish community of Xjzendijke, who as “contact man” had to look into the
possibilities of hiring mercenaries. “I only did it for the money. Politics
dossnlt interest me. If the coup were to fail, it would have meant nothing
to me,” said Dol.
Cor Dol was approached, in the name of a number of Surinamese living in the
Netherlands (Hindustanis with business interests in the Netherlands and in
Suriname), by the 33 year old former teacher Mirza “Edo” Joeman, former secretary of the Action Committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Suriname.
On 30 July, Joeman traveled to Paramaribo at the expense of the military authorities, where he informed Bouterse of the failed coup plans. Joeman led
a group code named Faja Lobbi D 7. According to both Joeman and Dol, this
group operated as an executive body. In the background figured Hindustani
businessmen and intellectuals. According to Dol, Joeman was only “an errand
boy for the big boys.”
Technician
According to Dol, who worked for a while as a technician in Suriname and who
knows the country well, Joeman came to him with the question of whether he
could find people who would be willing to participate in a coup in Suriname.
“At first, I was not in favor of it,” says Dol, “but I went looking. Quite
by coincidence I met some people in Zealand-Flanders who knew how to get
mercenaries.”
The first times, Joeman and Dol met in.Ijzendijke. Representatives of mercenaries were also present there, some of Whom spoke Flemish. Both Joeman
and Dol say this. After Ijzendijke came talks in the Hague and Amsterdam.
There Dol came face to face with the men who stayed in the background.
The Hindustanis with whom Dol spoke were, in his opinion, members of the Faja
Lobbi D 7. The D stands for the Hague, and 7 for the seven people involved.
In April, Dol spoke with two Hindustanis at a private address in the Hague
where Joeman took him. “In the Hague were the people who had a decisive
voice in the question of whether I could meet the financiers. I had the
feeling that something could come of it. They were rather prominent people,
learned and all,” noted Dol.
Financial Backer
Barely a week later, in May, there followed a second meeting in Amsterdam
with four, as Döl puts it, “big boys.” They were people who could act as
financial backers. As for their identity, Dol does not want to part with
much more than that he was “not surprised about it.”
To the question of whether Bams Oemrawsingh would act as an important financier, Dol only responds that “that is possible.” Bams Oemrawsingh, who lives
in the Netherlands, is the brother of Baal Oemrawsingh, who is considered to
have been the big brain behind the coup of 11 March. A few days later, the
professor was found dead in the Nickerie district.
In addition to Oemrawsingh, Surinamese sources have mentioned the name of a
businessman named Sohansingh, whose son has been in prison in Paramaribo
since 11 March, on suspicion of complicity in the attempted coup. The name
of Jankie, former minister in the Arron administration, is also mentioned.
Jankie himself denies having had anything to do with the plans.
After the Hague and Amsterdam came, according to Dol, two more meetings in
the Hague. Dol blames the ultimate failure of the plan on the organization
in the Netherlands. “They began to quarrel about who should put the money
on the table.” At a meeting in the Hague, on 25 June, with representatives
of the mercenaries present, a man who was supposed to bring money for the
mercenaries did not show up, said Dol. This led, according to him, to a
quarrelsome atmosphere.
Dol says that the mercenaries were promised an amount of around 200,000 guilders each. He himself would receive “more than 10,000 guilders.” In total,
there would have been approximately 5° mercenaries. Dol does not want to
say much about their identity. Those involved were ‘experienced individuals
above 35 years of age, many former military people.”
According to Dol, the mercenaries have now distanced themselves completely
from the plans and the opportunity for a coup has been lost. He is convinced
that the coup would have succeeded if the money had been put on the table.
According to him, weapons were available in the Netherlands as well as,in
Suriname.
Dol says that the president of the Action Committee for the Restoration of
Democracy in Suriname, E.G. Wormer, had nothing to do with the plot. He
thus confirms the claims made by Wormer himself.
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