Photos 2017 – Day of the Endangered Lawyer

The Netherlands – The Hague

IN MEMORIAM

Four lawyers killed in the December Murders 1982, in Paramaribo, Surinam

The ‘December Murders’ is the commonly used designation for the torturing and killing of fifteen opponents of the military regime of Desi Bouterse, in the night of December 8, 1982. This event has left deep traces, not only in the country itself, but also on the Surinamese people living in the Netherlands.

Prominent Surinamese men who criticized the military regime were arrested in their beds and taken to Fort Zeelandia, the then headquarters of Bouterse. There they were tortured and executed by a firing squad. According to witness statements, the victims were first brought before Bouterse to face a mock arraignment, before they were shot dead on Bastion Veere, one of the open spaces in Fort Zeelandia. According to several witnesses, Bouterse himself was present in Fort Zeelandia when the victims were killed.

The soldiers detailed for the firing squad were told that they were to shoot people who plotted a coup against the regime. Among the victims were four lawyers: John Baboeram, Kenneth Gonçalves, Eddy Hoost and Harold Riedewald. They died defending democracy and the rule of law.

The circumstances in which the fifteen men died, have never been fully clarified. The report on the December Murders, by the Netherlands Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (NJCM), published on February 14, 1983, is a summary of the observations made by several witnesses, present in the morgue of the Academic Hospital, on the victims’ corpses. They make mention of traces of grievous bodily harm in the face of all victims, bone fractures and other injuries that cannot be the result of gunshots. The report also states that experts on weapons and injuries caused by weapons have declared that the bullet wounds in breast and abdomen clearly indicated that the victims had been shot from the front. The conclusion therefore was that they had not been shot while fleeing, but that they were heavily tortured and put to death.

In 1984, a Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council paid a visit to Surinam and the Netherlands, in connection with these murders. He concluded that in the night of December 8 “summary or arbitrary executions had taken place that had had a traumatic impact on the Surinamese people”.

Since then, several legal proceedings relating to this matter have been initiated. However, to this day none of these have resulted in a conviction.

Let us never forget those courageous lawyers who have paid the ultimate price in the defence of democracy.