SURINAME

officially Republic of Suriname, Dutch Republiek Suriname republic located on the north-central coast of South America. It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, east by French Guiana, south by Brazil, and west by Guyana. The capital is Paramaribo. Area 63,251 square miles (163,820 square km), excluding 6,809 square miles (17,635 square km) disputed with Guyana. Pop. (1993 est.) 405,000. A brief treatment of Suriname follows. For full treatment, see Suriname. officially Republic of Suriname, Dutch Republiek Suriname country located on the northern coast of South America. It covers 63,251 square miles (163,820 square kilometres), excluding two disputed territories totaling some 6,800 square miles in the southwest and southeast, bordering on Guyana and French Guiana, respectively. Suriname is bordered on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by French Guiana, on the south by Brazil, and on the west by Guyana. The capital is Paramaribo. Suriname is one of the smallest countries in South America. Formerly known as Dutch Guiana, it was a plantation colony of The Netherlands. Suriname gained its independence on Nov. 25, 1975. Additional reading An overview is provided by Henk E. Chin and Hans Buddingh', Surinam: Politics, Economics, and Society (1987). Radjnarain Mohanpersad Nannan Panday, Agriculture in Surinam, 16501940: An Inquiry into the Causes of Its Decline (1959), is a succinct analysis. Edward Dew, The Difficult Flowering of Surinam: Ethnicity and Politics in a Plural Society (1978), examines political history. Essays on Suriname's culture are collected in Albert Helman (ed.), Cultureel moziek van Suriname (1977). See also Gerard A. Nagelkerke, Suriname, a Bibliography, 19401980 (1980).Historical works include R.A.J. van Lier, Frontier Society: A Social Analysis of the History of Surinam (1971; originally published in Dutch, 2nd ed., 1971); and Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, A Short History of the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam (1979). See also Gerard A. Nagelkerke, Suriname, a Bibliography, 19401980 (1980). Henk E. Chin Administration and social conditions Government Under the 1987 constitution, legislative power is exercised by an elected 51-member National Assembly, which elects a president and vice president. The president, vice president, and members of the National Assembly serve five-year terms. The president is the chairman of a nonelective, military-influenced Council of State, which ensures that the government's actions conform to the law. It has constitutional powers to annul laws passed by the National Assembly. The judicial system consists of a Court of Justice and three cantonal courts. Education Suriname's system of education is modeled on that of The Netherlands, and Dutch is the language of instruction. School attendance is compulsory for children up to age 12, and education at all levels is free. More than 90 percent of the children in the coastal areas attend primary school. Suriname has secondary schools, junior colleges, a teacher's college, and vocational and technical schools. The University of Suriname in Paramaribo, founded in 1968 and renamed the Anton de Kom University in 1980, has faculties of law, medicine, social science and economics, engineering, and natural resources. Cultural life Suriname is a culturally divided society, with contact between its ethnic groups largely limited to the economic sphere. Fine arts, such as painting and sculpture, are primarily middle-class concerns dominated by Westernprimarily Dutchcultural standards. There is one government-owned television station (with one channel), as well as a government-owned radio station and a number of small commercial radio stations. There are a few government-owned publications and two privately owned daily newspapers.