US embassy cable - 05PARAMARIBO768

UNCLAS  PARAMARIBO 000768 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/CAR -- LLUFTIG 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, SOCI, ECON, NS 
SUBJECT: THE BATTLE FOR THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF SURINAME'S 
MAROONS 
 
REFS: (A) PARAMARIBO 607 (B) PARAMARIBO 751 
 
      (C) PARAMARIBO 318 
 
1. (SBU) Summary. Suriname's "Maroon" population came to 
political prominence in the 2005 elections, with their five 
seats in parliament the key to the governing coalition's 
thin margin (29 of 51 National Assembly seats). The Maroons 
are descendants of escaped African slaves living primarily 
in the isolated interior but with increasing urban numbers. 
This pivotal role has made the Maroons a prized political 
constituency, earning their concerns attention from both 
their government partners and an ambitious NDP opposition. 
End summary. 
 
New Attention to Old Woes by New Front Plus 
 
2.  The current governing New Front Plus (NF-Plus) 
coalition in Suriname reached its majority by embracing the 
five seats captured by the A-Combination (AC), the result 
of Suriname's Maroon populations coalescing politically for 
the first time since independence.  AC parlayed the king- 
making power of its seats into three cabinet positions, the 
first time the party had occupied either parliamentary or 
ministerial seats. 
 
3.  Where the previous New Front government had frequently 
been accused of ignoring the needs of the Maroon 
constituency, New Front Plus has rolled out several well- 
publicized events involving Maroon ministers in a bid to 
repay that support.  Most active has been the Minister of 
Regional Development Michel Felisie, who recently laid the 
first stone of a small hydroelectric plant in the interior 
that will provide electricity to 13 villages.  The AC 
ministers were also out in force at a recent rainforest 
arts festival held in Paramaribo. 
 
4.  Since the election, the AC's Maroon base has had high, 
some say unrealistic expectations of their political 
leaders.  These expectations confronted harsh reality when 
the government's doubling of gasoline prices in September 
led many in the AC's base to criticize the government and 
the AC for failing to cushion the price shock for their 
largely poverty-stricken constituency.  While AC leaders 
have shown no willingness to support demands for a reversal 
of the fuel hike, they have been quick to stress their 
understanding for hardship it has caused, particulary to 
those in remote areas, and have begun developing proposals 
to ease that pain.  Some ideas discussed thus far are 
establishing subsidized boat routes to act as bus lines 
along interior rivers and setting up regulated pump 
stations where gasoline prices match the government set 
rate found in the capital. 
 
Bouterse's NDP Makes its Bid for the Maroons 
 
5. The fuel price controversy provided a hook for the NDP 
to curry favor with Maroon groups both in the interior and 
the city.  Bouterse's NDP had already, with hard 
campaigning and big promises, won 4 out of the 10 available 
interior seats in May's election, up from 3 in the 2000 
election. In Paramaribo the NDP won almost a third of the 
17 available seats, but it may now be eyeing the AC's one 
Paramaribo seat, won with eight percent of the voters.  To 
build support, NDP party members have strongly criticized 
the government for ignoring the interior's economic 
hardships and are promoting the NDP as the defender of the 
interior while simultaneously tapping into the discontent 
of Maroons living in the capital. 
 
6. (U) Bouterse consistently rails against the higher price 
of fuel in the interior during political rallies and street 
demonstrations, calling for a reversal of the price hike. 
Maroon NDP parliamentarian Andre Misiekaba has been very 
outspoken in DNA debates and submitted a motion, which was 
defeated, to provide financial compensation to interior 
inhabitants to offset price increases.  Two of his NDP 
colleagues recently claimed there would be social unrest in 
the interior if the government does not take measures to 
ease the effects of the new gas price.  Bouterse and his 
party supporters have also been working the streets of 
disadvantaged neighborhoods in Paramaribo that have 
significant Maroon populations to rally support.  (See ref 
B).  Local residents were quoted as saying they had voted 
for the AC but were disappointed in their performance, so 
they now supported the NDP. 
 
Maroons:  Not a Political Monolith 
 
 
7. (U) It is unlikely that either the NDP or the AC will 
ever speak for all Maroons, because their voting patterns 
are roughly divided along tribal and geographic lines.  The 
AC's base lies in the eastern district of Marowijne where 
in the last election it won two of the three available DNA 
seats and garnered double the votes of the NDP, which lost 
its only seat there.  The majority of Maroons living in 
Marowijne are from the Aukaner tribe, one of the major 
Maroon tribes. (See ref C).  All three AC cabinet members 
and five DNA members stem from the Aukaner tribe and are 
members of either the ABOP or BEP parties.  The third AC 
party, Seeka, consists primarily of members of the 
Saramaccan tribe who live mainly in the southern districts 
of Brokopondo and Sipilawini.  It is among this tribe that 
the NDP enjoys its strongest support. Of the seven 
available DNA seats in the two districts during May's 
election, the NDP won four while the AC won only two.  The 
New Front picked up the last seat. 
 
8. (SBU) Late in October, suspected NDP mischief brought 
the tribal differences within the AC to light, when a group 
calling itself the AC Action Group demanded the AC pull out 
of the governing coalition within 48 hours or face 
unspecified consequences. It claimed widespread coalition 
support at a press conference.  AC leaders dismissed the 
group as inconsequential low ranking party members and 
ignored the ultimatum, whose deadline passed with no action 
taken.  Not long after the Action Group emerged, media 
reported that elements within the NDP were behind the 
stunt.  An AC member told the Embassy that an internal 
coalition investigation led to the same conclusion.  There 
were even unconfirmed media reports that after the group's 
first press conference, the group's members were at a bar 
having drinks with Bouterse.  The Action Group's leaders 
belong to the SEEKA party and the Saramaccan tribe, whose 
members are reportedly unhappy with their party and tribe's 
lack of DNA and cabinet positions, despite the success of 
their coalition. 
 
9. (U) The mistrust between the AC and NDP also surfaced 
recently when AC leader Ronnie Brunswijk, former rebel 
leader, convicted narcotics trafficker, and DNA member, 
demanded that President Venetiaan allow AC ministers to use 
their own security personnel as opposed to the regular 
security detail from the Surinamese Central Intelligence 
and Security Services (CIVD).  Brunswijk justified the 
request by saying the Ministers should have only trusted 
personnel surrounding them.  Media reports went further and 
claimed that the AC leaders suspected CIVD security agents 
assigned to the AC ministers of being loyal to the NDP and 
of working as informants. 
 
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COMMENT 
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10. (SBU) The NDP's political strategy is to attack what 
they see as the weakest link in the New Front Plus 
coalition, the AC. The NDP likely wants to drive the AC 
into confrontation with its New Front partner over interior 
and urban poverty issues and create enough unrest among the 
AC base that the AC might step out of the governing 
coalition.  This would strip away President Venetiaan's 
parliamentary majority in the National Assembly and 
paralyze the political process.  For Bouterse, there may be 
additional personal value in constraining the government's 
maneuvering room and confidence, should he hope to coerce 
the government into abandoning his pending prosecution for 
the murders of 15 prominent opposition members during his 
military rule in 1982.  Embassy reckons that for the 
present the AC leaders believe their opportunities to 
affect change for their constituents, and themselves, argue 
for them staying in the coalition.  However tensions are 
real and parties will continue to vie for Maroon support. 
 
BARNES 
 
 
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