Henck Arron

Henck Arron
Henck Arron in 1988
Prime Minister of Suriname
In office 24 December 1973 – 25 February 1980
Monarch	Queen Juliana (1973-1975)
President	Johan Ferrier (1975–1980)
Governor	Johan Ferrier (1975-1980)
Preceded by	Jules Sedney
Succeeded by	Henk Chin A Sen
1st Vice President of Suriname
In office 25 January 1988 – 24 December 1990
President	Ramsewak Shankar
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Jules Wijdenbosch
Personal details
Born	April 25, 1936 Paramaribo, Suriname
Died	December 4, 2000 (aged 64) Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands
Political party	National Party of Suriname (NPS)

Henck Alphonsus Eugène Arron (25 April 1936 – 4 December 2000) was the Prime Minister of Suriname from 24 December 1973 to 25 February 1980, when he was overthrown in a coup d'état by Dési Bouterse.

After Johan Adolf Pengel died in 1970, Arron, a banker, became the leader of the NPS, the main Creole party. In 1973, Arron created a coalition, which included the pro-independence PNR party, that won that year's general election. In February 1974, Arron announced that Suriname would be seeking independence before the end of 1975. This came as a surprise because within Arron's own party there was no majority in favour of independence.^[1] Suriname was granted independence by the Netherlands on 25 November 1975. However, Surinamese politics soon degenerated into ethnic polarisation and corruption with the NPS using Dutch aid money for partisan purposes. Its leaders were accused of fraud in the 1977 elections, in which Arron won a further term, and the discontent was such that a large chunk of the population fled to the Netherlands, joining an already significant Surinamese community there. In 1980, Arron was accused of corruption and overthrown and jailed by the very military which, against the advice of the Dutch government, he had created. He bore the ill-treatment and humiliation with courage; the charges did not stick, he was released in 1981, and, a year later, became managing director of the Surinaamse Volkskredietbank.^[2]

Later in his life he served as Vice President of Suriname (and therefore Chairman of the Council of Ministers) from 26 January 1988 to 24 December 1990. His government was again overthrown in a coup led by Ivan Graanoogst.

References

1. van Amersfoort, Hans (October 2011). "How the Dutch government stimulated unwanted immigration from Suriname". IMI Working Papers, University of Oxford, p. 11.
2. Obituary "The Guardian", 24 January 2001.

Arron in 1975

Statue of Arron in Paramaribo.