Abstract
Since Suriname’s independence in 1975, the relationship between the State and its Maroon populations (some 52,000 people, perhaps 15% of the national population) has deteriorated. From a Maroon perspective, the kinds of atrocities associated with the eighttenth-century colonial wars have resurfaced. The Civil War that began in 1986, pitting the national army against the Jungle Commandos (made up largely of Maroons), has only worsened the Maroons’ situation. A major trial before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 1992, with the State of Suriname as defendant, ended with a large cash award for damages to the Saramaka Maroon plaintiffs. Recently the situation has worsened, as the Maroons – with no legal protection in the Suriname constitution – have seen the lands their ancestors fought and died for confiscated unilaterally by the State and given, in giant concessions, to multinational timber and mining companies (Indonesian, Malaysian, Chinese, and Canadian). The effect of current policies toward Maroons is nothing less than ethnocide.
Keywords
human rights; quilombolas; Surinam