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FIGHT
FOR
JUSTICE
Surinamese group memoralises
Vol. 33, Issue 12 Queens/long Island/Bronx/Manhattan March 24-30, 2022
military rule era victims
By Bert Wilkinson
On Sunday, March 20 the relatives
of three policemen who were
executed while on duty during
Suriname’s bloody interior war in
the 80s, staged a lightly reported
memorial service for the officers at
a monument to their memory, but
despite the small turnout rights
activists say, the real aim of such
events are held to remind citizens
of the atrocities of the period of
military rule and to prevent any
government with former military
links from returning to power anytime
soon.
The December 8th Foundation
organized the service, which has led
the fight over the last four decades
to push for criminal charges against
former military strongman and
two-time president Desi Bouterse,
rank and file soldiers and civilians
who had participated in the Feb. 25,
1980 bloody military coup that had
deposed the elected administration
of President Henck Arron. Just two
years later on Dec. 8, 1982, some
of the same over zealous soldiers
executed 15 government opponents
including four journalists, clergymen,
labor leaders and academics
for allegedly collaborating with the
west to reverse the coup in one of
the worst documented acts of mass
murders in the 15-nation Caribbean
Community.
Deciding that the security and
democratic situations were spiraling
out of control, the Dutch, Suriname’s
former colonizer, the French
which controls neighboring French
Guiana and the US collaborated on a
Supporters surround Monique Chandler-Waterman (from l to r): Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse,
Monique Chandler-Waterman, Assemblymember Nick Perry. Jack Desa
Monique Chandler-Waterman starts campaign
to replace Assembly Member Nick Perry
By Nelson A. King
Brooklyn community activist
Monique Chandler-Waterman
on Saturday kicked off her campaign
to replace Assembly Member
N. Nick Perry, representative
for the 58th Assembly District in
Brooklyn, who was confirmed last
Thursday by the United States
Senate as the first Jamaican-born
US ambassador to Jamaica.
Perry, a veteran state legislator,
supports Chandler-Waterman, the
daughter of Barbadian and Jamaican
immigrants, at the campaign
launching ceremony at Church
and Utica avenues in Brooklyn.
“I’m proud to support Monique
to be the next Assemblymember,
and I know the district will be in
good hands,” he said. “She is a
natural leader in every sense of
the word, and her roots go deep
in this community.
“Monique is the best of us, and
she will fight to make sure everyone
has access to quality public
schools, affordable housing and
community-based health care,”
he added.
Chandler-Waterman, a lifelong
resident of the East Flatbush,
Canarsie and Brownsville communities,
said she was “so honored”
to receive Perry’s support.
Continued on Page 12 Continued on Page 12
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