Surinam, 1982 — forced resignation conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 8 December 1982, the central date of the December murders (Decembermoorden) in Suriname, when fifteen prominent opponents of the military dictatorship of Desi Bouterse were killed. Bouterse had seized power in a February 1980 coup and ruled through the National Military Council. On 7 and into 8 December 1982, soldiers under his command detained fifteen critics, including lawyers, journalists, academics, businessmen, and a trade union leader, along with two men already imprisoned for the March 1982 Rambocus countercoup, and took them to Fort Zeelandia, Bouterse's headquarters in Paramaribo.
After being heard as suspects in a self-appointed court, they were tortured and shot dead. On 10 December 1982 Bouterse claimed on television that the detainees, said to be plotting a coup later that month, had been shot while trying to flee, but investigations established premeditated torture and murder. This entry's coding as a forced resignation reflects the regime's framing and the elimination of the leading civilian opposition.
Bouterse was convicted of the murders decades later and sentenced to twenty years.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
11512081982
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Bouterse remained in power until 1987 and was decades later convicted of the December murders.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Wikipedia
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →