Samenvatting

The Dutch society of today is a very mixed one. Different cultures from all over the world come together in one small country. One of the reasons that the Dutch society contains so many different cultures is because of its colonial history. The Surinamese population is one of the many ethnical minorities in the Netherlands. In 2010 it is estimated that there will be 345,418 Surinamese people in the Netherlands (17 December 2008, CBS). This is a very high number considering the fact that the number of people living in Suriname is not higher than 500,000.
Because of the fact that Suriname was a Dutch colony for more than 300 years, the two countries have a very special relation. This relation remained to be exceptional after Suriname regained its independence in November 1975. Suriname was promised a large sum of money which could be considered as a dowry, to help Suriname with its development. The Surinamese government was very satisfied with the fact that Suriname was now an independent republic, but the population was afraid for the future of Suriname because of the many different ethnical groups.
The Surinamese government at the time appeared to be very corrupt and the population suffered a lot. There was a lot of poverty in the country and many people could not find a job. The development aid that was promised mainly disappeared in to the hands of corrupt politicians and large companies or was invested in projects that did not achieve anything..
The fact that the government was corrupt and the country was suffering because of it, lead to great dissatisfaction among the Surinamese Armed Forces (SAF). They wanted to change the regime of the country and therefore on 25 February 1980 a military coup took place in Paramaribo. The whole world was shocked to see what happened in the country. However, the international community hoped that the new found leaders would change the state the country was in.
That is also why the leaders did not talk about a military coup but called the coup a revolution. They said they wanted Suriname to be an honest democracy with honest elections. Although the initial ideas about the coup were good, these ideologies soon changed. In 1982, 15 opponents of the regime were killed which shocked the international community. The Netherlands took serious measures to punish the former colony. The human rights situation at the time was very bad as was shown in the Report on the human right situation in Suriname by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
It can be said that the relation between Suriname and other countries in its region changed after the military coup. Suriname became isolated in its region but did improve its connections with countries like Cuba and Grenada. This lead to great dissatisfaction from the United States (US) government.
However, the December murders, or the violation of human rights in general, had more effect. Suriname became even more isolated from other countries. Even today the relation between Suriname and other countries in South-America is almost non existent. The relation between Suriname and the Netherlands is still the most important one for Suriname. But the current government is trying to improve the relation with other countries because this could really stimulate the economy.