PARAMARIBO--A coalition parliamentarian has taken offence with statements a VHP politician made earlier this week in a Dutch newspaper that “Suriname has become a ‘narco’ state again.” André Misiekaba, fraction leader for Desi Bouterse’s National Democratic Party (NDP), said on Wednesday a Dutch story that points to drug crimes in Suriname is hypocritical, because it’s the Netherlands that is in Europe’s top three of drug-producing, drug-consumption and drug-trans-shipment countries.
Misiekaba was referring to opposition Parliamentarian Krishna Mathoera (VHP) who held no punches in an interview with De Telegraaf journalists John van den Heuvel and Mick van Wely. Their extensive report that was published on Tuesday, February 21, suggested that “the notorious Suri Cartel is alive and kicking again,” as “never before has so much cocaine been caught in Suriname. Six drug transports that have been seized since early 2016 have a combined weight of 3,500 kilograms. All of it ‘Surinamese’ cocaine.”
They quote Mathoera, a former police commissioner, who said that Suriname “has become a robbers’ den, with the organised crime syndicated in cahoots with Government officials.” She openly pointed her finger at President Desi Bouterse. “The economy is deplorable and the country is in dire need of foreign currency. In addition Bouterse needs money to buy support, to stay out of prison and to maintain his current political position,” the parliamentarian is quoted as saying.
Misiekaba would have nothing of it. “The Netherlands is not the place for Mathoera to go complain about drug crimes. I can’t believe that’s who she turned to for help in the battle against drug trafficking. That’s like asking the cat to look after your milk,” he said, using a popular Sranan Tongo saying.
He agreed that Suriname should step up its game, but insisted that Suriname is not a drug-producing and -consuming country, whereas the Netherlands is. “The Netherlands’s got nothing on us. They can’t even give us a slap on the wrist; we all know their reality when it comes to drug abuse.”
He accused the VHP MP of being attention-hungry and misusing her political ties with the former coloniser. “Beyond that I don’t know what she thinks she’s doing,” he said.
Mathoera has since Misiekaba spoke on Wednesday, taken to the press again to defend her statements. “I know I am giving them problems, but I will not shut up as long as this is going on,” she said.
