Yearbook 2008
Suriname. According to
Countryaah reports, a new diplomatic crisis with neighboring Guyana
broke out in mid-October when a Guyanese cargo boat was
boarded by the Surinamese military on the Courantyne River,
around which a border dispute has long prevailed between the
two countries. Two days later, the boat was returned to a
symbolic fine.
In April 1997, the Netherlands issued an international
arrest warrant against the dictator Desi Bouterse, who was
suspected of drug trafficking. In response, Wijdenbosch
appointed Bouterse as advisor to the government, giving him
diplomatic immunity.
At the end of 97, a failed coup attempt resulted in the
arrest of 17 lower officers. The army asked for higher wages
and greater investment in equipment and weapons. The size of
the army had been reduced since the late 1980's when
Bouterse's government fought the guerrilla groups. The coup
attempt was based on the soldiers' poor working conditions,
low wages and their age-old equipment.
Price increases, the devaluation of the country's
currency by 80% and the demands for wage increases created a
difficult situation for the parliament, which in February
1998 had granted itself a wage increase and which repeated
this operation in November. It created widespread
dissatisfaction in the various social sectors: teachers and
a number of other groups of public servants conducted a
series of strikes, demanding wage increases to offset the
decline in real wages.
The social discontent and unprecedented economic crisis
developed in the first months of 1999 and almost stopped the
country. By February, various political groups had blocked
parliament. It was thus no longer quorum and could not pass
laws. The national currency, florins, had been devalued by
200%; inflation exceeded 20% and health care was almost
bankrupt. In addition, the protests came from the various
social sectors of society - especially the public servants,
who made up 1 in 10 residents in the country.
Among the bills Parliament could not deal with were the
Finance Act for the five-year period 1999-2003, a national
development plan, and a plan to promote foreign investment.
The reason why the development plan was postponed 7 times
over the previous 6 months was because opposition
politicians only signed up to the minutes to raise their
wages, but without taking any interest in today's political
issues. Due. the huge government debt to health care, the
doctors in the private hospitals began to refuse to treat
patients who had only one state health insurance. This led
the government to hire 52 doctors and 9 specialists in Cuba
to work in the areas where the country's own doctors refuse
to provide treatment.
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