PARAMARIBO--“We are considering bringing our case back to the Inter American Court of Human Rights [ICHR – Ed.], because we are tired of waiting on Suriname’s Government,” said André Ajentoena on Friday, spokesman of the relatives of residents of the Maroon village of Moiwana, who were massacred by a military unit in November 1986. The court sentenced Government in 2006 to pay damages to the villagers but, according to Ajentoena, Government is in default.
At least 39 people were killed when soldiers opened fire in the village of Moiwana in November 1986 during the internal war. The soldiers were looking for Ronny Brunswijk, the then leader of the Jungle Commando, a guerrilla group that had taken up arms against the National Army. When the soldiers could not find Brunswijk in the village they started killing people indiscriminately. Among the villagers killed were elderly men, women and children. Surviving villagers fled after the massacre. Human rights organisation Moiwana ’86 filed a petition with the court in 1997 to seek justice for the killings.
In its judgement, the ICHR ordered Suriname not only to compensate the villagers, but also to carry out an investigation into the massacre, to arrange proper burial of the villagers who were killed and to ensure the villagers’ rights to the land they fled from.
Moiwana spokesman Ajentoena, who was in the village on the day of the massacre, lost more than a dozen relatives when the soldiers opened fire. He has insisted that the villagers knew nothing of Brunswijk’s operations and whereabouts. “He is a Maroon as we were. The soldiers just opened fire out of spite,” he said.
The village has since been rebuilt and a memorial has been erected to commemorate the victims. Former President Ronald Venetiaan has extended apologies to the community for the incident.
But beyond that, not much has been done. The ICHR judgement has only partially been executed, said Ajentoena. “And nobody seems able to tell us what is going to happen,” he said. The relatives had agreed to receive the compensation payment in instalments, but that has not happened and neither has the prosecution of the men who killed the villagers. “We are ready for the investigation, but Government is not making any haste with it.” Ajentoena said the matter of land rights also remains up in the air.
The spokesman did not say when he would take his grievances to the ICHR.
