Georgetown : The Netherlands has spearheaded having the Assembly involving the European Union and the African Caribbean and Pacific (EU-ACP) not be hosted in Suriname in protest of Amnesty Legislation recently approved that will see that country’s President, Desi Bouterese, evading any prosecution stemming from a murderous 1980s altercation.
Guyana’s President however is firing back at the detractors saying that the People of Suriname and its democratically elected leader Bouterse are friends to Guyana.
Local Head of State Donald Ramotar, yesterday told this newspaper that Guyana will be opposed to such a move adding that if the European Union respects democracy then the will respect the will of the Surinamese people and their decisions.
This publication understands that the European Members of Respective Parliaments opposed to the confab being held in Suriname are also unopposed to Bouterese joining the meeting if hosted in another Country hence Guyana was suggested as a host country.
While sources at the local EU Delegation have confirmed the information emanating from Europe it has also been confirmed that this proposal has not been submitted officially to Guyana as yet.
This was confirmed also too by Ramotar who says that the confab is still slated for Suriname later this year.
According to reports from the EU, there is the belief that Bouterse is seeking to use the international confabs in Suriname as a facelift for himself and to demonstrate to the international community opposed to him that he still gains international respect.
The EU/ACP is the largest multilateral meeting after the General Assembly of the United Nations would bring close to 1,000 parliamentarians from the Europe Union, Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific States to Suriname.
The EU Parliament now suggests moving the venue to either Curacao or Aruba should Guyana not be available.
The decision by the EU’s Parliament stems from amnesty law passed in Suriname’s National Assembly last April, that pardons Suriname’s president Desi Bouterse for crimes committed under his earlier military rule in 1982.
Dutch Europarliamentarian Thijs Berman yesterday made public pronouncements of a unanimous decision by the European Parliament against hosting the top in Suriname.
At their meeting in Denmark next week, ACP parliamentarians will decide whether they too withdraw their support for Suriname as host country.
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