Surinamese author Astrid Heli Roemer in 2016. Photo by Raúl Neijhorst via Wikimedia Commons, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Noted Surinamese writer, Astrid Roemer, who this year became the first writer from her country to receive the prestigious Dutch Literary Prize (Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren), has made some now-infamous comments that seem set to be ingrained in her legacy. The uproar concerns Roemer's description of former Suriname president Dési Bouterse as “unforgettably brave.” In 2019, Bouterse was sentenced to a 20-year jail term after a military court found him guilty of murder for the execution of 15 dissidents in 1982, an act that became known as the “December murders.” Bouterse first came to power in 1980 through a coup d'etat which ushered in an era of military rule, during which he was accused of numerous human rights violations. Roemer's comments prompted both shock and outrage, both in Suriname and abroad. While she will still receive the coveted literary prize, worth about 55,000 United States dollars, the organisers have cancelled the formal award ceremony, which had been carded for October, explaining that it would not be appropriate given “Ms. Roemer’s recent views and statements.” On her Facebook page, Roemer described the cancellation as “een pak van mijn hart,” or “a load off my mind,” and had this to say about Bouterse: Onze Surinaamse gemeenschap Desi Bouterse hard nodig heeft gehad om zelfbewuster te worden. Merci Man. Our Surinamese community needed Desi Bouterse the most in order to become more self-aware. Thank you, man. After Bouterse's 1980 coup came a series of killings that were confirmed by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations, including those that happened between December 7 and 8, 1982, when 15 men—journalists, scientists, and trade union leaders opposing Bouterse's military regime—were shot dead at Fort Zeelandia, a fortress located in the capital, Paramaribo. The lone survivor, who eventually testified at Bouterse's 2019 trial, described him as being in charge, “calm and cold-blooded”. The interior courtyard of Fort Zeelandia, where the ‘December murders’ were carried out. Photo by Dan Lundberg on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. Tried in absentia, Bouterse protested his 20-year sentence, prompting demands that he should receive another 20 years in prison, an issue on which the court will rule come August 30, though Bouterse will be able to appeal. The judges of the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren commended Roemer's “unconventional, poetic” writing. At 78, she has drawn on a lifetime of existing in a colonial space to produce her highly regarded work. Though she has not relegated herself to solely discussing slavery or the country's tumultuous political legacy, her literary representations of Surinamese history have won her other accolades. In 2016, she was the first Caribbean writer to win the P.C. Hooft-prijs Dutch literary award, at which time the jury noted, “political engagement and literary experiment go hand in hand with Roemer,” an observation which perhaps renders the author's bold statements about Bouterse not completely surprising. She refused to label him a murderer, explaining: Ik begrijp dat mensen dat niet prettig vinden, maar ik ben geneigd om Desi Bouterse te geloven als hij zegt: ik heb geen burgermoorden gewild. Ik geloof hem. I understand that people do not like that, but I tend to believe Desi Bouterse when he says: ‘I didn't want civilian murders.’ I believe him. The moment she said it, reactions came in left and right. Attorney Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You, a member of the Commemoration Committee for Victims of Suriname and wife of one of the victims of the December murders, said she was “shocked and stunned by Roemer's statements”: Ik wist eigenlijk niet wat ik zag en hoorde. Ik kijk er vooral van op dat ze zegt dat er geen bewijs is voor de uitspraak dat Bouterse een moordenaar zou zijn. Er is een vonnis, uitvoerig gemotiveerd. Ik was bij die zitting. Het is evident dat hij is veroordeeld voor medeplichtigheid aan moord. I actually did not know what I saw and heard. I am especially surprised that she says that there is no evidence for the verdict that Bouterse was a murderer. There is a verdict, extensively motivated. I was at that hearing. It is evident that he has been convicted of complicity in murder. Another lawyer, Gerard Spong, was clipped in his reaction: Ze niet goed snik. She is not good in the head. In response to Spong's plea to deny her the prize entirely, Roemer—in a tweet that now appears to be deleted—quipped: Well, well Spong…STORM IN A GLASS OF WATER.