Quick Facts
Biography
Ruben Rozendaal (born 1956 - ) is a former Surinamese soldier who was involved in the military coup in Suriname in 1980 and suspect of December murders.
Events
According to the statement of Freddy Derby, union leader and the only survivor of the December murders, Rozendaal is one of the four soldiers who retrieved Derby from his home on the night of 7 to 8 December 1982.
In 2012, Rozendaal said that in the 1980s and early 1990s, Dési Bouterse supplied the FARC of Colombia with weapons in exchange for cocaine. A 2006 document from the American embassy (published by Wikileaks) reported a possible connection between Bouterse and the FARC. Rozendaal mentioned that:-
"I saw him at half past five in the morning on December 8. (...) He lied to us that a coup would take place, and the people therefore had to be picked up. I believed him then, but in retrospect it turns out not to be true. This was not a military action, just brutal and cowardly murder. The people were taken out of bed and to Fort Zeelandia and were treated like animals." (translated)