Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Suriname.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Suriname. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Suriname U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/suriname/
[accessed 9 August
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT While the law
prohibits such practices, human rights groups, defense attorneys, and media
continued to report instances of mistreatment by police, including
unnecessary use of force during arrests and beatings while in detention. In late March and
early April, multiple reports and videos appeared on social media showing the
unnecessary use of force and degrading treatment of individuals who had
violated the government’s curfew orders that were put in place beginning in
March in response to the COVID-19 virus. One video appeared to show police
officers beating an unarmed man walking in the street, while another appeared
to show police officers ordering a group of teenagers to crawl across a
sidewalk. In August a lawyer
informed the press that two of her clients were severely beaten by police
when detained. The two suffered injuries that required medical treatment. One
was treated by a doctor, while the other was allegedly denied medical
treatment. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/suriname/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 13 May
2020] IS THERE AN
INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY?
- Executive influence over the judiciary remains a matter of concern. While
President Bouterse has accepted “political
responsibility” for his involvement in the abduction and extrajudicial
killing of 15 political opponents in 1982, he has yet to face legal
consequences for his actions. After a military court declared an amnesty law
unconstitutional in June 2016, Bouterse sought to
prevent a trial from moving forward. When his efforts failed, Bouterse fired the Minister of Justice and in March 2017
replaced her with a close ally. In June, the public prosecutor demanded a
20-year prison sentence against Bouterse. The
government subsequently adopted a resolution warning the prosecutor to be
“careful,” and asking him to voluntarily resign. Bouterse
later withdrew this resolution in the face of public outrage, and the trial
proceeded. DOES DUE PROCESS
PREVAIL IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL MATTERS? - Due process is undermined by corruption,
a shortage of judges, and a lack of resources and staff to support the
judiciary. Payments are sometimes made to obtain favorable outcomes in
criminal and civil proceedings. There is a backlog of cases involving
non-Dutch speakers, as interpreters who have gone unpaid have refused to work
additional cases. IS THERE PROTECTION
FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND
INSURGENCIES?
- The use of force by law enforcement officials is prohibited, but cases of
police abuse have been reported. While prison conditions are generally
adequate, temporary detention facilities are characterized by unhygienic
conditions, understaffing, and overcrowding. Suriname lies on a major
drug-trafficking route, giving way to some drug-trafficking-related violence.
Violent crimes such as burglary and armed robbery are common, and police
resources are insufficient to address the problem. Resolution Nº 1/85,
Case Nº 9265, Suriname Inter-American
commission on Human Rights, Oorganization of American States, July 1st. 1985 www.cidh.org/annualrep/84.85eng/Suriname9265.htm [accessed 10 Feb
2014] BACKGROUND - 6. On January 9, 1985 a special commission of
the IACHR interviewed certain eyewitnesses to the detention of the subjects
of this case and heard testimony to the effect that they were tortured at the
outset of their incarceration, in some cases lasting several months, and
effectively denied legal counsel until the day before their trials in July of
1984, more than seven months after their arrest. The tortures included severe
beatings over their entire bodies including their sex organs. These usually
took place at night either in Fort Zeelandia or Membre Boekoe Kazerne.
Specific mistreatment also included the placing of a chair leg on the
victims's outstretched hand while the torturer jumped on the chair. Another
technique consisted of forcing the prisoner to drink a liquid that burned the
drinker's throat. The torture also included punches, kicks and beatings with
clubs and rifle butts. The Commission saw evidence on a number of the victims
of broken teeth, noses, legs, collarbones and assorted scars. One had been
tied to a car and dragged. Several had been forced to sign confessions. Psychological
torture included the firing of machine guns at the victims' feet. Threats were
also made against the wives, mothers and other relatives of the victims. On
one occasion several of the victims were forced to lie in freshly dug graves
in a local cemetery and threatened with summary execution. One of the victims
was subject to an attempted homosexual rape by a military policeman. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=suriname+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 14 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61742.htm [accessed 12
February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61742.htm [accessed 7 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – While the law
prohibits such practices, human rights groups continued to express concern
about official mistreatment and documented cases of police mistreatment of
detainees, particularly during arrests, and abuse of prisoners by prison
officials. Through November
citizens filed 279 complaints with the OPZ, the majority of which were for
physical mistreatment and neglect of duty (see section 1.d.). In January the
minister of justice and police established a new Reporting Unit for Police
Conduct, but the unit does not publicly disclose the number of inquiries
received. The authorities arrested 53 officers and disciplined 151 for
various offenses, including brutality; 7 officers were incarcerated, 21 were
suspended, and 21 were fired. According to human rights groups, inadequate
training of police officers serving as the jailers at local detention
facilities contributed to the abuses. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Suriname", http://gvnet.com/torture/Suriname.htm, [accessed
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