International

SP Member of Parliament and spokesman on foreign affairs Harry van Bommel has asked Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen for an explanation regarding an alleged plan for the Netherlands to invade Suriname with the aim of overthrowing the 1980s government of Desi Bouterse. The plan is discussed in a new biography of former US President Ronald Reagan.

Van Bommel sees it as being of great political and historical significance to know precisely what the plans were and what the legal basis for any such invasion might have been. The matter is, moreover, not merely of historical interest. The important questions concern current political relations, the SP foreign affairs spokesman believes. “Bouterse does after all still play an important role in Suriname,” he points out. Van Bommel wants to know exactly what the plans included, what support was sought from the United States and what were the grounds for the withdrawal of this request some months after it was made. In addition, he would like to know whether parliament was at the time in any way informed of these matters.