OAS ELECTORAL OBSERVATION MISSION in Suriname PRESS RELEASE Following an invitation by the Government of Suriname for the OAS to observe the forthcoming elections, and as a result of agreements signed between the Government of Suriname and the OAS on 29 April 2000, the OAS will deploy a team of approximately 15 observers from 10 countries who will be present in Suriname’s ten electoral districts on Election Day. The OAS will continue its electoral presence until the inauguration of the next president. Most of the OAS observers have either previous experience observing elections in Suriname or in other OAS member states. The OAS which is conducting simultaneous electoral missions in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Peru and Venezuela as well as Suriname has fielded nearly 50 electoral observation missions in approximately one-half of the 34 member states of the OAS during the past decade. The organization, which has a long record of cooperative projects, programs and activities with the people and government of Suriname conducted electoral observations in 1991 and 1996. The Secretary General of the OAS, Dr. Cesar Gaviria, appointed Ambassador Colin Granderson, a career diplomat of Trinidad and Tobago, as head of the OAS Election Observation Mission in Suriname (OAS – EOMSUR). He arrived in Suriname on 15 May 2000. Ambassador Granderson served as Executive Director of the OAS/UN International Civilian Mission in Haiti from February 1993 to March 2000. While in Haiti, he also served as Chief of Mission for the OAS Election Observation Mission for the December 1995 presidential elections and for the local government and partial legislative elections of April 1997. Ambassador Granderson is at present a member of the advisory panel of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to review UN peace operations.