Bouterse Shared Sports Teams With Future Coup Victims Before 1980

Close personal bonds fractured when political violence erupted after the military takeover.

Date: Circa late 1970s

In the years between his return to Suriname and the 1980 coup, Dési Bouterse was an active member of a popular veteran football team in Paramaribo called 'Dynamo Moscow,' where his teammates included several men who would later become his political opponents, most notably André Kamperveen.

Details:

  • The team was a well-known group of veteran players in Paramaribo.
  • A 1999 retrospective on Bouterse's sporting life lists deceased former teammates from this team.
  • The list explicitly includes André Kamperveen, who was executed during the December 1982 murders, and Stanley Derby, brother of union leader and December Murders survivor Fred Derby.

Significance: This detail highlights the close-knit, personal nature of Surinamese society before the extreme political polarization of the 1980s. It shows that future perpetrator (Bouterse) and future victim (Kamperveen) were not just political adversaries, but also "sports buddies" who shared a common social activity. This underscores the tragic, fratricidal nature of the political violence that erupted after the 1980 coup, which shattered personal relationships along with the country's democratic structure.

Source:

Hoen, Guno. "Record nog steeds op zijn naam: Desiré Delano Bouterse." In Onze sporthelden. Deel 3. 1999.

Link:

http://dbnl.org/tekst/hoen042spor03_01/hoen042spor03_01_0005.php

Internal Link:

Date:
July 1, 1975
Categories:
Desi Bouterse, Log, Matthew Smith, The Suriname Archive
Tags:
André Kamperveen, Book Chapter, Pre Coup Era, Social History
Boxes:
MW Zotero
Years:
1975
Persons:
Andre Kamperveen, Desi Bouterse, Stanley Derby
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