Bouterse’s conviction? ‘The most exciting is yet to come’

She received the news through her news service – and a lot of text messages. “Then I walked to my brother to give him a hearty one brasa [knuffel] to give.” Enjela Kamperveen (51), granddaughter of André Kamperveen, who was murdered on December 8, 1982, was at work at radio station Ampie’s Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) when the verdict was pronounced against former President of Suriname Desi Bouterse. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison as an accomplice to the December murders.

A historic day, Kamperveen said at the station on Wednesday afternoon, and she experienced it in a historic place: her grandfather was the founder of ABC, which was set on fire on the night of the murders and was not allowed to be extinguished by the authorities. Her father Henk Kamperveen and her uncle Johnny Kamperveen restarted ABC in 1992 as a radio and television station. There is a print of the burned-out radio station in one of the offices. ABC is one of the better known stations in Suriname.

Kamperveen’s grandfather was murdered when she was ten years old. And the radio station where she spent her days after school was suddenly no longer there. The family fled to the Netherlands. Kamperveen returned in 1997, as a 24-year-old. “I had been on holiday in Suriname a few years earlier, and I thought: I belong here.” All her life she has been involved in the “fight for justice”, which is now coming to an end. “I have been a survivor all my life. But I am grateful to be the survivor of someone who fought for free speech.”

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ABC itself had two employees in court during Wednesday’s hearing, two young journalists: Raoul Roeplal (27) and Samuel Blankendal (33). What was it like for them to cover a process that their workplace has such a historic connection with? Roeplal: “I have been working on this subject since the beginning of my career at ABC [hij werkt er acht jaar]. This is a moment I have been living for.”

It’s not ready for them yet. In addition to the twenty-year prison sentence, the Surinamese Public Prosecution Service also demanded immediate imprisonment. The judge did not agree with that. Bouterse – who briefly showed up at his party center on Wednesday – now has eight days to submit a request for clemency to President Santokhi. It is not expected that this will be granted, but it could delay the process. Because ‘Bouta’ is currently still walking around freely, the realization has not yet dawned on everyone in society that he could indeed be captured, Blankendal thinks – that realization will only come if Bouterse is arrested after all. “The most exciting is yet to come.”

Just ‘talk’

On the street in Kwatta, a northern district of Paramaribo, a supporter of Bouterse indeed says: “Ai, twenty yari, ma a no dede.” Yes, he (Bouterse) has been sentenced to twenty years, but he is not dead. In other words: it’s not all that bad. He tells Stephano Biervliet (31), better known as the anti-corruption activist ‘Pakittow’. Biervliet led several protests against both the current Santokhi government and the previous Bouterse government. He is not exactly popular among some of Bouterse’s supporters.

Biervliet is an entrepreneur – he has his own brand of peanut sauce, a barbershop and several resorts – and, together with other activists, founded the progressive party PRO (Party for Law and Development) in 2018, which did not win any seats in the 2020 elections. The party will participate again in the upcoming 2025 elections.

For his safety, Biervliet does not want to stay in one place the morning of the verdict – so he drives around the city with the reporter. If there is traffic on the road along the way, he turns around. “I’m not going to show my face today.”

Yet he is widely recognised. People speak to him about the verdict – for and against Bouterse. In the north of Paramaribo, in the Weg naar Zee district, someone expresses incomprehension: “Why, after all these years, would you tell such an old man [Bouterse is 78 jaar]?” At one of Biervliet’s resorts under construction, towards the forest on the coast, a cousin thinks that the verdict was “too weak”: “They should have locked him up right away. Then it was done.”

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Morello cigarettesthe whole process was a waste of time.”

Valuable anyway

Kamperveen from radio station ABC believes the verdict is valuable for Suriname in any case. “It proves that Suriname, a young nation, has a functioning constitutional state and that people are tried for crimes.”

The fact that Bouterse has now been found guilty for the third time, “with all the facts on the table”, feels like “conclusion” to her. “That confirmation of his guilt is the most important. It refutes all the fabricated stories that are going around.” She refers to Bouterse’s statements that the victims were plotting a coup and were shot while fleeing.

Kamperveen will never forget the date December 20, 2023. “I now receive all kinds of messages in which we as relatives are praised for our perseverance that has brought the process to this point. I never thought about it – it’s all I know. Now I can move on.”

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