December Killings and Civil War in Suriname

Video Transcript

They call them the December murders. And there were thirteen men captured, tortured, killed. One of them was my father. And when that happened he was the minister of youth culture and sports at the time. No one could go back. The military burned down the radio station and all kinds of things happened. Eventually, over time, the gentleman who lead the coup retreated and the family came back and rebuilt the station and did all those things. So now that same man, of course, who led the military coup is now the president. So it's a very sensitive topic amongst Surinamers who are older, maybe thirty-five and older, because they remember what happened in that time. I think what happened is that all that information when he was in power, and it's a democracy, sort of, and they basically squashed all that information so that it's kind of washed away. Younger generations who voted for him, I think, my impression is that they kind of looked at him heroically, while the older generation remembers what actually happened. Which there was nothing really heroic about it.

In this video, a native Surinamese elaborates on the December Killings and military coup.