Timeline - Suriname
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Suriname is located in
Northern South America, bordering the North
Atlantic Ocean, between French Guiana and Guyana. The capital is
Paramaribo.
(http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ns.html)
Suriname in 2005 had under 500,000 inhabitants, who shared over a dozen
languages.
(Econ, 2/12/05, p.37)
CIA Factbook:
www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ns.html
100Mil BC-84Mil
BC During this period of the Cretaceous temperatures
rose to 38 degrees in the tropical waters off Suriname, compare to
26-28 degrees in 2006.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.82)
1667 Jul 21, The Peace of Breda
ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and ceded Dutch New Amsterdam to the
English. The South American country of Surinam, formerly Dutch
Guiana, including the nutmeg island of Run was ceded by England
to the Dutch in exchange for New York in 1667 after the second
Anglo-Dutch War.
(WUD, 1994, p.961)(HN, 7/21/98)(HNQ, 8/21/98)(WSJ,
5/21/99, p.W7)
1705 Sibylla Merian made drawings
of the insects of Suriname.
(WSJ, 5/29/01, p.A20)
1835 The wooden Neve Shalom
synagogue was built in Suriname.
(SSFC, 12/7/08, p.E5)
1863 Jul 1, The Dutch abolished
slavery in Suriname. The Dutch were among the last Europeans to abolish
slavery.
(AP, 7/2/03)
1885 Mar 20, John Matzeliger of
Suriname patented a shoe lacing machine.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1889 Aug 24, Jan E. Matzeliger,
Suriname inventor (shoe lacing machine), died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1908 May 9, Dirk Fock became
governor of Suriname.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1941 Nov 23, U.S. troops moved
into Dutch Guiana to guard the bauxite mines.
(HN, 11/23/98)
1942 Mar 1, Suriname camp for NSB
people opened to save Jews.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1952 May 29, A 2nd Round
Conference between Dutch Antilles and Suriname ended.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1975 Nov 25, Suriname gained
Independence from the Netherlands and adopted a new flag.
(SFC, 9/6/96, p.A14)(
http://flagspot.net/flags/sr.html)
1978 Jul 3, The Amazon Pact was
established. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru,
Suriname, and Venezuela signed the Amazon Pact, a Brazilian initiative
designed to coordinate the joint development of the Amazon Basin.
(http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Amazon+Pact)
1980 Feb 25, A military coup took
place in Suriname. Desi Bouterse seized control of Suriname five years
after the country gained independence from the Netherlands. He stepped
down in 1987 under international pressure but briefly seized power
again in 1990.
(www.surinam.net/historical.html)(AP, 7/5/08)
1980-1989 Bauxite prices dropped in the 1980s. For
Suriname it had provided nearly 60% of export earnings.
(WSJ, 4/15/97, p.A9)
1982 Dec 7, In Suriname 15
politicians, journalists, union leaders, lawyers and soldiers, were
rounded up and slain in a hundreds-year-old fort in Paramaribo. In 2007
Desire Bouterse, the former dictator, faced trial for the murders. In
2008 a military tribunal in Suriname ruled that those accused of a 1982
massacre, including the country's former dictator, must stand trial.
(AP, 3/12/07)(WSJ, 10/8/07, p.A6)(AP, 4/5/08)
1986 Nov 29, In Suriname 39 people
were massacred in the village of Moiwana by the military dictatorship.
Desi Bouterse was fighting an armed opposition force called the Jungle
Commandos. Many of the rebels were Maroons, as was the group's leader,
Ronnie Brunswijk. In 2006 the government officially apologized and
compensated relatives and victims of the massacre.
(AP, 7/16/06)
1987 In Suriname Desi Bouterse was
forced by international pressure to give up power and allow the return
of a democratically elected government.
(AP, 7/16/06)
1989 Jun 7, A Suriname Airways
airplane crashed in a tropical forest near the Paramaribo airport
killing 169 people.
(AP, 6/7/99)
1993 Desi Bouterse quit as head of
Suriname’s armed forces.
(WSJ, 10/8/07, p.A6)
1995 Suriname joined Caricom.
(Econ, 2/12/05, p.37)
1996 Sep 5, In Suriname Jules
Wijdenbosch, backed by former military strongman Desi Bouterse,
defeated Pres. Ronald Venetiaan in a close runoff.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A14)
1997 Mar 22, It was reported that
thousands of people were investing in a high-risk investment fund
paying returns of 120%. Operators Roep Ramtahalsingh and Henk MacDonald
denied that the enterprise was a pyramid scheme.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A11)
1998 Jun 17, Four million acres of
rain forest was dedicated as the Suriname Wilderness Nature Reserve.
(SFC, 6/18/98, p.A20)
2002 Nov 29, A gold mining
operation owned by a Canadian company plans to begin constructing a $97
million mine early next year on a mining concession in Suriname's
interior.
(AP, 11/29/02)
2004 Sep 8, Police in Suriname
arrested six people and seized a large stash of weapons, uncovering
what they said was an arms-for-cocaine smuggling operation.
(AP, 9/9/04)
2005 May 25, In Suriname Pres.
Venetiaan faced an electoral challenge from former dictator, Desi
Bouterse, a convicted cocaine smuggler and military strongman, whose
victory would threaten millions of dollars in promised aid from the
Netherlands.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 26, Suriname's ruling
coalition survived an election challenge from a former dictator. But
former dictator Desi Bouterse's National Democratic Party more than
doubled its seats in the National Assembly.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 Jul 18, Suriname's parliament
was deadlocked over choosing a new president, with no candidate
securing the two-thirds majority needed to become the leader.
(AP, 7/19/05)
2005 Aug 3, Suriname's president
Ronald Venetiaan easily won re-election in a vote by an assembly of
regional councils, ending a heated battle that had left the South
American country's leadership in limbo for more than two months.
(AP, 8/3/05)
2005 Aug 11, A judge in Suriname
convicted the son of a former dictator of leading a ring that
trafficked in cocaine, illegal arms and stolen luxury cars, sentencing
him to 8 years in prison.
(AP, 8/11/05)
2005 Aug 12, Suriname's Pres.
Ronald Venetiaan (69) was inaugurated to a second term, calling for
national unity following elections that weakened his government's hold
on Parliament and swelled the ranks of a party led by a former dictator.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Sep 6, Nine countries:
Antigua, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Dominica, Suriname, St. Kitts, St.
Vincent and the Dominican Republic, signed oil deals with Venezuela in
Jamaica. Cuba and Jamaica had previously signed. Chavez urged Caribbean
governments to consider Cuba-style socialism as an alternative to
capitalism.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Suriname had under 500,000
inhabitants, who shared over 15 languages.
(Econ, 2/12/05, p.37)(SSFC, 12/7/08, p.E5)
2006 Jan, Suriname’s Trade
Minister Siegfried Gilds stepped down after prosecutors named him a
suspect in a money laundering investigation. In 2007 he stood trial on
charges of money laundering and participating in a criminal
organization.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2006 May 11, Officials in Suriname
said floods caused by days of rain have killed three people and left up
to 22,000 others homeless along riverbanks of the remote central
lowlands.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 Jun 20, A US Embassy
spokesman said the United States has asked Suriname to extradite a
Guyanese man wanted on drug charges in New York. Shaheed Khan was
arrested June 15 by authorities in Suriname.
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006 Oct 5, In Suriname a homeless
man was slain by an ax-wielding assailant in Paramaribo. It was the 4th
killing this year of homeless men while they slept on the streets of
Suriname's capital. Police wondered if a serial killer is on the loose.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2006 The population of Suriname
was 439,000 people.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2007 Mar 12, In Suriname Desi
Bouterse, a former military dictator, offered his first public apology
for the 1982 killings of 15 critics of his military regime, saying he
accepted political responsibility for the deaths but denied involvement.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 13, Alice Amafo,
Suriname's youngest-ever Cabinet member, resigned amid reports she used
thousands of dollars in government funds to pay for her 30th birthday
party.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Jun 4, Scientists said a frog
with fluorescent purple markings and 12 kinds of dung beetles were
among two dozen new species discovered in the remote plateaus of
eastern Suriname.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Sep 20, A UN decision awarded
Guyana, rather than Suriname, most of a disputed area of coastal
Atlantic Ocean, which may hold a large amount of undiscovered oil.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.44)
2008 Apr 3, In Suriname a
twin-engine Antonov-AN28, operated by Surinamese carrier Blue Wing
airlines, crashed on approach to an airstrip in the Benzdorp mining
region, near the country's border with French Guiana. All 19 aboard
were killed. Blue Wing, which has operated since 2002, was barred from
landing at European airports in June 2006 after French aviation
officials found safety deficiencies during an inspection of planes. The
airline was removed from the blacklist in 2007 after a commission said
the company had resolved the issues.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Suriname a boy
(12) stabbed and killed a 9-year-old girl in front of her classmates
and teacher at a rural elementary school.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 The population of Suriname
numbered about 480,000.
(SSFC, 12/7/08, p.E5)
2009 Apr 19, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prize was awarded to 7 activists from 6 nations. Rizwana
Hasan (40) of Bangladesh was awarded for exposing environmental damage
and exploitative practices used in the country’s ship dismantling
industry; Marc Ona Essangui (45) of Gabon, the founder of Brainforest,
was awarded for exposing secret agreements for a Chinese mine project
that threatened Gabon’s rain forests; Yuyun Ismawati of Indonesia was
awarded for designing environmentally safe waste management systems for
poor Indonesia n communities; Olga Speranskaya (46) of Eco-Accord in
Russia was awarded for her efforts to control and store chemicals in
Russia and former Soviet republics; Wanze Eduards (52) and Hugo Jabini
(44) of Suriname, leaders of the maroon community, were awarded for
their efforts that led to a landmark ruling ending tribal exploitation
by the government. Maria Gunnoe (40) of West Virginia was awarded for
her fight against the practice of removing of the tops of mountains and
filing valleys below with tailings.
(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.A18)
2009 Dec 24, In Suriname rioting
and attacks began against migrant workers leaving at least seven
foreign migrants dead, hundreds more homeless and a border town in
ashes. The riots in Albina began after a Brazilian allegedly stabbed a
local man to death and have made the area uninhabitable for an
estimated 300 people who fled.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 28, Police in Suriname
arrested 15 more suspects as they searched for anti-migrant rioters
accused of rape, arson and looting in an explosion of violence that
sent hundreds fleeing for their lives from a border town.
(AP, 12/28/09)
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Subject = Suriname
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