2
13.
In the present Case of the Moiwana Community, following the Court’s
Judgment of 6/15/2005, a ceremony took place in Suriname on 11/29/2005 that
should not pass unnoticed, and that well reveals the advances of human conscience
within our region. A communication emitted the following day (11/30/2005) by the
Forest Peoples Programme and Reuters Foundation, reported that:
"Surviving relatives of 39 Maroon people killed in Suriname's Moiwana
Community massacre have returned to their birthplace for the first time since the
1986 killings for a memorial service. Women of the N'djuka people, dressed in
blue and white mourning wraps, wept during the ceremony held on Tuesday near
three giant memorial oil lamps while Moiwana dignitaries sprinkled the soil with
water to ward off evil.
The ceremony took place after Suriname agreed this week to heed an
International Court order to compensate victims of the 1986 massacre when
soldiers killed 39 unarmed N'djuka Maroon people, mainly women and children.
(...) The Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica in June told the
government [of Suriname] to compensate the surviving relatives and punish
those responsible in a ruling that made the return of the villagers possible. (...)
The Maroon people represent about 15 percent of Suriname's population and are
descendants of escaped African slaves. (...)".
14.
A day later (12/1/2005), another communication of the Caribbean Net News,
gave notice that a presidential representative affirmed in that ceremony that “the
Moiwana Community will be rebuilt,” and another high official promised “to give the
grounds of the Moiwana community collectively to the villagers.” This communication
also informed that:
"In an emotional ceremony (...), surviving relatives remembered the
more than 39 men, women and children killed in a military attack on the Maroon
village Moiwana in Suriname. (...) It was the first time in 19 years that most of
the people had come back to the now abandoned area where the innocent
villagers were slaughtered.
[...It was] noted that although Suriname was convicted by the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights and the relatives of the victims will receive
compensation, 'this will not take away the pain in our hearts'. During the
ceremony survivors recounted the events of that tragic day, how brothers,
sisters, pregnant women and old men were gunned down at point blank range by
army troops. (...)".
15.
In the present case of the Moiwana Community the issue of the return –
evidently voluntary, the only type admissible – of those surviving community members
who opt for it, comes to the fore. This brings to the forefront the issues of delimitation,
demarcation and titling of the community’s territories ordered by the Court (supra).
The question of the return (of refugees and displaced persons) has been the object of
particular attention in recent years, within the United Nations (in particular, by the High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its Commission on Human Rights). The
UNHCR has included it in its recent Global Consultations on International Protection, in
which I had the opportunity to take part. In the 4th session of those Consultations
(April 2002), for example, particular concern was expressed in assuring the effective
security of returnees, their means of survival, work conditions, social reintegration, and