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Sixty illegal Brazilians arrested for crossing border criminal activities

Jul 12, 2012 News

(PARAMARIBO, Suriname)Increased cooperation between the Suriname army and soldiers stationed in French Guyana has so far resulted in the arrests of close to sixty illegal Brazilians suspected of cross border criminal activities.
Two gendarmes were killed last month during clashes between gendarmes (police) and Brazilian gangs near Dorlin, a village of gold miners in French Guyana.
Two officials conducting an operation against illegal gold mining, similar to Guyana’s Operation El Dorado, were killed on June 27 after a gang including a group of illegal Brazilian gold miners ambushed the enforcement officers in neighbouring French Guiana.
Since then the gangs have evaded capture by slipping over the Marowijne River, the border between Suriname and French Guyana. Surinamese and French armies have worked together to capture them. A new military post was opened on the Surinamese side, in the Amerindian village of Anapaike, opposite the army station in the village of Twenké.
This river barricade is intended to prevent illegal crossing of the river by the criminals, explained Melvin Linscheer, Suriname’s National Security Director.
The gold rich hinterlands of Suriname and French Guyana have over the past years attracted thousands of Brazilians. Suriname is flanked by Brazil in the south and French Guyana in the east. Speculations place the number of Brazilians that live in Suriname at some 30,000, many of them illegal. Just like the Maroon population of east Suriname, many of the Brazilian gold miners operate on both sides of the border. Clashes with local residents and authorities are common.
It hadn’t been the first time that the Suriname/French Guiana border has ignited in clashes in which illegal Brazilians were involved. After nine people were killed in a fight between feuding gangs last January in Dorlin, then French President Nicholas Sarkozy promised to increase military presence in the area.
And on the Suriname side of the border, tensions with the Brazilians erupted in the village of Albina when a Brazilian gold-miner stabbed a Maroon, following a long broiling feud. Maroons subsequently went on a rampage, aiming their anger at the immigrant population of the village, setting Chinese shops on fire, beating up and raping Brazilians. Five were eventually sentenced to prison terms for these crimes, but the tense situation obviously remains a source of concern.
High on the list of suspects of men wanted by both Suriname and the French, is 25-year-old Ferreira Manoel Moura aka Manoelzinho; in Suriname he is wanted for the murder of fellow Brazilian Arauja Antonio Gomes on June 21, last, in Paramaribo. The French suspect that Manoelzinho was involved in the shooting at Dorlin that left the two Gendarmes dead.
Colonel Linscheer reported that the intention is to deport the 57 illegals that have been arrested so far during the joint Suriname/French exercise, back to Brazil..
Suriname Army Commander Colonel Hedwig Gillard last Friday met with his French counterpart, General Bernard Metz, to discuss further cooperation and strategies aimed at curbing the cross border criminality. “The problem of the illegal Brazilian gold miners is a joint one that we have to tackle jointly. (Fortunately) we have a good relationship with the French,” Gillard said.

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