As questions continue to be asked about which foreign mission here had requested Guyana’s help in arresting Suriname President Desi Bouterse, the United States government has come out saying that it wasn’t Washington.
“The U.S. did not request Guyana to arrest President Bouterse last year. President Bouterse is the democratically-elected president of Suriname, and we respect the results of free and fair elections. We look to maintain our good ties with Suriname,” The U.S. embassy here said in a terse statement on Thursday.
According to President Bharrat Jagdeo at a Guyana Defence Force conference on Tuesday, Guyana had refused a request from an un-named foreign mission here to arrest Bouterse who was convicted by a Netherlands court on charges of drug trafficking.
“Some time ago, a particular foreign mission asked us if we will arrest the president of Suriname when he comes here, because he is wanted somewhere else, and I said to them, ‘No’,” Jagdeo disclosed whilst addressing GDF officers at their annual conference.
According to Jagdeo, he told the mission to find another country to do so. “If the people of Suriname overwhelmingly chose him as their leader, who are we, as Guyanese, to say who we are going to work with?” the Guyanese leader questioned.
Jagdeo had made the comments whilst answering a question posed by an officer regarding whether recent information disclosed by WikiLeaks about Bouterse being in contact with jailed drug trafficker Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan would affect Guyana’s future relationship with that country. However, before President Jagdeo completely addressed this question, the media was asked to leave the conference hall.
Khan was nabbed in neighbouring Suriname, where he had fled while lawmen here were hunting him. It was in Paramaribo that U.S. drug enforcement officials swooped on a house and arrested him and two of his body guards. Over the weekend, a Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad, and the Dutch television channel RTL, reported that Bouterse remained involved in international drug trafficking from 1990 to 2006, and was in constant contact with Khan.
The information was contained in U.S. diplomatic secret official reports in possession of WikiLeaks, which were recently released. Bouterse was convicted in absentia in 1991 by the Netherlands, and was sentenced to eleven years in prison for drug trafficking. According to U.S. diplomats, Khan had “social and operational links” with Bouterse.
Reference was also made in the diplomatic posts to Bouterse calling and meeting Khan. Bouterse also regularly travelled to Guyana, despite an international search warrant being issued for his arrest. According to American diplomats, Khan, among others, was involved in arms-for-drugs deals for the Colombian rebel group FARC. Khan and Bouterse were also allegedly involved in “murders and planned murders” in-country of “assassins”. Two of the persons who were on the hit list were former Surinamese Minister of Justice and Attorney General Chandrikapersad Santokhi, and Suriname’s Prosecutor-General Subhas Punwasi. Bouterse has been in Guyana three times since assuming office in July last year. On his first visit, in September, during a media conference, he dismissed the drug charges as “almost a joke”, since they were based on the testimony of one disputable witness. Speaking through an interpreter, he had said then that the witness was in jail at the time on drug-related charges, and remains convicted. According to him, the prosecution in the case was unable to present credible witnesses, and an initial ten were all dismissed.
