1980 Surinamese Coup D'état
The 1980 Surinamese coup d'état, usually referred to as the Sergeants' Coup (), was a military coup in Suriname which occurred on 25 February 1980, when a group of 16 sergeants () of the Surinamese Armed Forces (SKM) led by Dési Bouterse overthrew the government of Prime Minister Henck Arron with a violent coup d'état. This marked the beginning of the military dictatorship that dominated the country from 1980 until 1991. The dictatorship featured the presence of an evening curfew, the lack of freedom of press, a ban on political parties (from 1985), a restriction on the freedom of assembly, a high level of government corruption, and the summary executions of political opponents. Background The Netherlands granted Suriname independence on 25 November 1975. It was marked by social unrest, economic depression, and rumors of corruption. The hastily created Suriname National Army had many non-commissioned officers who tried to unionize and complained about corruption and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term ''Cold war (term), cold war'' is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and Nuclear arms race, nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, Economic sanctions, embargoes, and sports diplomacy. After the end of World War II in 1945, during which the US and USSR had been allies, the USSR installed satellite state, satellite governments in its occupied territories in Eastern Europe and N ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Summary Execution
In civil and military jurisprudence, summary execution is the putting to death of a person accused of a crime without the benefit of a free and fair trial. The term results from the legal concept of summary justice to punish a summary offense, as in the case of a drumhead court-martial, but the term usually denotes the ''summary execution'' of a sentence of death. Under international law, it is defined as a combatant's refusal to accept an opponent's lawful surrender and the combatant's provision of no quarter, by killing the surrendering opponents. Summary executions have been practiced by police, military, and paramilitary organizations and are frequently associated with guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism, and any other situation which involves a breakdown of the normal procedures for handling accused prisoners, civilian or military. Military jurisdiction Under military law, summary execution is illegal in almost all circumstances, as a military tribunal would ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ronnie Brunswijk
Ronnie Brunswijk (; born 7 March 1961) is a Surinamese politician, businessman, former rebel leader, footballer and convicted drug trafficker, who is serving as the current Vice President of Suriname. Brunswijk served as the personal bodyguard of military dictator Dési Bouterse in the early 1980s, but was discharged after asking for a raise, and denied back pay. In 1985, he formed the Surinamese Liberation Army, better known as the Jungle Commando. Brunswijk sought to gain recognition and rights for the Maroon minority of the interior, descendants of runaway African slaves who had established independent communities in the 17th and 18th centuries. From 1986, his forces fought against the national military under Bouterse in the Surinamese Interior War, a civil war that resulting in hundreds of deaths and more than 10,000 refugees in French Guiana, until a peace treaty was signed in 1992. Brunswijk remained active in politics, serving as chair of the General Liberation and Deve ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jungle Commando
The Jungle Commando (formally known as the Suriname National Liberation Army) was a guerrilla commando group in Suriname. It was founded by Ronnie Brunswijk in 1986 to ensure equal rights for Suriname's minority Maroon population. The group was formed after the Suriname troops committed mass murder against 35 people in Moiwana Village, near Moengo, after the Suriname national army failed to capture Ronnie Brunswijk. The Commando fought against Dési Bouterse and the Surinamese army in the Suriname Guerrilla War. The Jungle Commando fought a guerrilla war against the Surinamese government of Dési Bouterse in the 1980s, before a truce was negotiated in March 1991. At one time the Jungle Commando controlled a large area in East Suriname. In 2005, Brunswijk warned that the Jungle Commando could resume fighting if the 1992 Kourou peace accord's conditions were not met. First appearances In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Surinamese people began witnessing a dramatic fall in re ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Surinamese Interior War
The Surinamese Interior War () was a civil war fought in eastern Suriname between 1986 and 1992. The conflict primarily involved the Jungle Commando, a rebel group composed largely of Saramaka (Maroon) fighters and led by former soldier Ronnie Brunswijk, and the Surinamese National Army, commanded by then-army chief and ''de facto'' head of state Dési Bouterse. Background Suriname has one of the most ethnically diverse populations in South America. Its people include those of South Asian (Indian), Javanese, Chinese, European, Indigenous (Amerindian), African (Creole and Maroon), and multiracial descent. The ancestors of the Maroons were enslaved Africans who escaped from coastal plantations between the mid-17th and late 18th centuries and established autonomous communities in the interior. These groups successfully resisted Dutch colonial forces and secured their independence through peace treaties signed with the Dutch in the 1760s. The Dutch, unable to subdue them mili ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Moiwana
Moiwana is a Maroon village in the Marowijne district in the east of Suriname. Massacre The village was the scene of the Moiwana massacre on November 29, 1986, during the Suriname Guerrilla War between the Surinamese military regime, headed by Dési Bouterse, and the Jungle Commando led by Ronnie Brunswijk. The army attacked the village, killing at least 35 of the inhabitants, mostly women and children, and burned Brunswijk's house. The survivors fled with thousands of other inland inhabitants over the Marowijne River to neighboring French Guiana. The human rights organisation Moiwana '86 has committed itself to justice with regard to this event. Police chief inspector was murdered in August 1990 while investigating the massacre. Reportedly he was forced out of his car near Fort Zeelandia and shot in the head, with his body left outside Bouterse's office. Other police investigators fled the country, stalling the investigation. The government has stated that it is still ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Inter-American Commission On Human Rights
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese language, Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des Droits de l'Homme'', ''Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos'') is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS). The separate Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. Together the Court and the Commission make up the human rights protection system of the OAS. Composition IACHR is a permanent body based in Washington, D.C., United States. It holds regular and special sessions throughout the year to review human rights complaints in the Americas. The Commission’s mandate is based on three key documents: the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, and the Amer ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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December Murders
The December murders (Dutch: ''Decembermoorden'') were the murders on 7, 8, and 9 December 1982, of fifteen prominent young Surinamese men who had criticized the military dictatorship then ruling Suriname. Thirteen of these men were arrested on December 7 between 2 am and 5 am while sleeping in their homes (according to reports by the families of the victims). The other two were Surendre Rambocus and Jiwansingh Sheombar who were already imprisoned for attempting a countercoup in March 1982. Soldiers of Dési Bouterse (dictator of Suriname at the time) took them to Fort Zeelandia (Paramaribo), Fort Zeelandia (at that time Bouterse's headquarters), where they were heard as "suspects in a trial" by Bouterse and other sergeants in a self-appointed court. After these "hearings" they were tortured and shot dead. The circumstances remain unclear. On 10 December 1982, Bouterse claimed on national television that all of the detainees had been shot dead "in an attempt to flee". The December ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fort Zeelandia (Paramaribo)
Fort Zeelandia is a fortress in Paramaribo, Suriname. In 1640 the French built a wooden fort on the spot which, during British colonial period, was reinforced and became Fort Willoughby. It was taken by the Dutch in 1667 and renamed Fort Zeelandia. History Surinam, a small English colony, was established in 1650 by Major Anthony Rowse on behalf of the governor of Barbados, Francis Willoughby. In 1651 the English reinforced the abandoned French fort near present-day Paramaribo, calling it Fort Willoughby. In 1667 the Dutch Admiral Abraham Crijnssen captured Fort Willoughby from forces under Lieutenant-Governor William Byam. The battle lasted only three hours before British munitions were exhausted. Crijnssen renamed the captured fort Fort Zeelandia, creating the Dutch colony of Surinam. Crijnssen also recaptured the Essequibo-Pomeroon Colony. Over the years, it started to become obsolete as a military asset and, in 1772, there were even plans to tear it down. After Suri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Checks And Balances
The separation of powers principle functionally differentiates several types of state power (usually law-making, adjudication, and execution) and requires these operations of government to be conceptually and institutionally distinguishable and articulated, thereby maintaining the integrity of each. To put this model into practice, government is divided into structurally independent branches to perform various functions (most often a legislature, a judiciary and an administration, sometimes known as the ). When each function is allocated strictly to one branch, a government is described as having a high degree of separation; whereas, when one person or branch plays a significant part in the exercise of more than one function, this represents a fusion of powers. History Antiquity Polybius (''Histories'', Book 6, 11–13) described the Roman Republic as a mixed government ruled by the Roman Senate, Consuls and the Assemblies. Polybius explained the system of checks an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |