PARAMARIBO--When the Police Corps took resolute action against anti-Government protestors last week, a member of its riot team was spotted toting heavy firearms and wearing a death mask. The Corps is now being called upon to explain whether this was meant to intimidate the protestors into thinking that they were being watched by a death squadron.
“What was that about? Either way this behaviour of the police officers was unacceptable and needs to be investigated in depth,” outspoken attorney Hugo Essed – an opponent of President Desi Bouterse – remarked on Monday.
The masked officers prompted a lot of discussion after they made their appearance during the protest march last week Tuesday morning; the march was to be the fourth in a series of demonstrations to force Government to reverse a gas price hike and other economic measures of late. Some of the protestors literally want Government to step down.
But on Tuesday, as the protestors made their way to the streets, a barricade of policemen, some in riot gear, armed with teargas guns and batons awaited them, ready to quell the demonstration before it got fired up. The protestors attempted to take another route, but a scuffle ensued with the unforgiving police officers, which led to the arrests of protest leaders Wilgo Valies and Curtis Hofwijks, as well as two other protestors.
The violence of the arrests was widely condemned, but even after police and protestors admitted in a joint press release a few days later that they had both made mistakes, the presence of the officer who hid his face behind the death mask remained a much-debated topic. Some ridiculed the officer for being too much into his fantasy video games, but others saw reason for concern in his attempt to hide his identity behind a grim mask. “Was he there just to intimidate or to harm the peaceful protestors?”
Police Commissioner Inder Jangbahadoer told journalists that it certainly is not customary for police officers to wear this type of mask, but that the officer in question did not have ill intentions when he donned the mask. Jangbahadoer said the officer had been reprimanded and made to promise never to wear a mask again while at work.
