Wim Udenhout, the former Prime Minister, died on Monday night in the Paramaribo Academic Hospital, according to his family.
He was 85.
During the transition from military rule to elected government, Udenhout served as Prime Minister from February 1984 until July 1986.
Although he was the leader of the government and the Council of Ministers on paper, the actual political power was held by then army commander Desi Bouterse, who took power in a coup on February 25, 1980.
After being outlawed during the December 8, 1982 murders, in which five media workers were among the 15 people killed, the media were allowed to operate freely during his presidency.
According to media accounts at the time, one of the conditions he demanded from Bouterse’s military junta before accepting the position of prime minister was the restoration of journalistic freedom.
Udenhout, who earned a doctorate in English Literature from Leiden University, went to the Netherlands in 1975, but returned to Paramaribo to work as a teacher and head of the English section at the Institute for Teacher Education.
Udenhout served as Suriname’s ambassador to the United States and permanent representative to the Organization of American States (OAS) from 1989 to 1997.
