  Freedom in the World 2012 - Suriname  Publisher Freedom House
Publication Date 7 September 2012 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom
in the World 2012 - Suriname, 7 September 2012, available
at: [accessed 14 March 2014]  2012 Scores  Status: Free Freedom
Rating: 2.0 Civil Liberties: 2 Political Rights: 2   Suriname's
strained relations with the Netherlands and the United States
improved somewhat in 2011 following the 2010 election of former
dictator Desiré Bouterse as president. He had been convicted on
drug-trafficking charges in the Netherlands, and has been
accused of killing his political opponents in the 1980s.   The
army ousted the elected government in 1990, and Bouterse again
took power in a bloodless coup, but international pressure led
to new elections in 1991. The NF again won a majority in the
parliament, which chose the NF's candidate, Ronald Venetiaan, as
president. Power passed to the NDP in the 1996 elections, with
Bouterse ally Jules Wijdenbosch as president, then returned to
the NF and Venetiaan