February 4, 1999
OPPOSITION WANTS WITHDRAWAL MOP
After a period of 4 months, during which many meetings had to be postponed
due to continuous lack of quorum, the Suriname National Assembly has at
last succeeded in holding its first meeting for 1999 yesterday. This eventually
turned into a maraton meeting lasting for almost 8 hrs where 33 agenda
points were taken up for discussion. Opposition member Fred Derby has asked
that the Several-Years-Development-Plan (MOP) be withdrawn because it was
founded on a rate of 406 which is no longer realistic. According to Derby,
the MOP is the last in this century and consists of development plans for
the next 5 years and that is why it was so very important that a more realistic
report be made. The Coalition has voted that the status of preadvice be
promoted to final report. It is expected that the Assembly's meeting will
continue today and that the needed 26 members be present for quorum. Assembly's
chairman Marijke Djawalapersad when asked about her opinions of her last
dialogue with the Assembly's members, she replied that the talks were constructive
but that the problem was a structive one and there will probably have to
be more meetings before it can be ironed out.
GRAANOOGST SEES ZEEUW'S ARREST AS A DIRTY SET-UP
Iwan Graanoogst, General-Director of the President's Cabinet, returned
yesterday from Holland where he has given his statement in the Dutch case
against Desi Bouterse. According to Graanoogst the arrest of Marcel Zeeuw,
apart from it being a dirty set-up by the Dutch Justice authorities is
also without grounds. He stated further that he had heard of the dossier's
contents and if what he had heard was all that they had as evidence against
Zeeuw then he should not have been arrested in the first place. Graanoogst
said that he was surprised at Zeeuw's arrest because Zeeuw had stated during
his testimony that he had been informed via the press that he was going
to be detained. This was then denied by the Dutch Officer of Justice. It
was the same Officer who would later organize that Zeeuw lodged his complain
for libel and dishonor to his good name at the Police Head Quarters where
he was taken into custody. Graanoogst sees this as a dirty trick on the
side of the Dutch Justice Department and said that the same could have
happened to him. He said he was told that because of the Diplomatic passport
he held they could not arrest him. This according to Graanoogst was not
true he said that had he commited any crime they would also have locked
him up. He stated that he was in no way involved with drugs. According
to reports the Dutch Justice Department did not arrest Graanoogst because
they wanted to prevent a diplomatic war between The Hague and Paramaribo.
SCHOOLS ARE BEING USED AS CENTERS FOR CHILDREN
School principals have reported that they are not against the actions of
the Teachers Unions. They admit to keeping children in school and not joining
their protesting collegues but said that they were doing this because the
parents are still sending their children to school. They said they found
it irresponsible to send the children back home. Not all parents are government
workers or teachers for that matter, many work at private companies and
are not in the position of leaving the children alone at home or are to
find a place to place them because of the high costs involved. This is
why they do their best to keep the children until around 11;30 to 1200
before sending them home. The Private schools are trying to continue to
operate. Teachers who would like to join in the actions are not prevented
from doing so but would appreciate it if those who remained on the job
not be molested into leaving.
-End-