Suriname ex-dictator was present for political killings: witnesses

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

PARAMARIBO (AFP) — Witnesses told a court martial Friday that Suriname's ex-dictator Desi Bouterse was present at the killings of 15 political opponents more than two decades ago.

The first witnesses to testify before the court martial against Bouterse and 24 other suspects on charges of the killings at a military fort in 1982, said the former dictator was there on the day of the shootings, despite his denials.

"Bouterse was there," said Flohr Unno, a former bodyguard, who recalled seeing the victims enter Fort Zeelandia where they were rounded up, tortured and shot on December 8, 1982.

Eleonore Geer-Brakke, Bouterse's ex-secretary, also testified that Bouterse was at the fort.

Other witnesses testified seeing Bouterse's bodyguards, hearing guns...