Jungle Commando

[2] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Surinamese people began witnessing a dramatic fall in respect for traditional leaders and their practices, under the current government and place.

In response to this was the emergence of the Suriname National Liberation Army, a militant resistance group that struggled in an attempt to disband the current military leadership of the country and constitute a democracy.

Locals referred to the group as the Jungle Commando as it was formed by high-ranking officials who had previously fled the military, most notably Ronnie Brunswijk.

Nearing the end of November 1986, the Jungle Commando would be responsible for the destruction of two bridges on the east–west highway into Moengo, leading to their inevitable takeover of the area.

Soon after, on December 1, the Surinamese government would issue a state of emergency for the area, and on the following day, the Jungle Commando would be driven out of Moengo.

In late December, the Jungle Commando would kidnap the son of Granman Belfon Aboikoni to signal that they were still in the area and had only moved up river toward central Suriname.

This caused the village of Pokigron to request military support to help ward off the Jungle Commandos as the area was now in economic disarray.

On August 31, the Jungle Commando would hijack a ferry containing over forty vehicles 54 miles west of Paramaribo on the Coppename River.

After a military coup occurred again in 1991, the permanent council of the OAS issued an appeal in an attempt to reestablish the democratic order that had previously been unstated.

One year later, in 1992, the newly elected president, Venetian, would introduce the Peace Commission, beginning the process that would ultimately cause the conflict between the jungle commando and its splinter groups and the Surinamese government to end.