Henck Arron

Biography Arron was born in Paramaribo in 1936. He completed high school in 1956, and moved to the Netherlands to study banking. Arron worked several years at the Amsterdamsche Bank. On return to Suriname, he became staff member at the Vervuurts Bank (current name Hakrinbank).

In 1961, Arron became a member of the National Party of Suriname (NPS), the main Creole party. In February 1974, Arron announced that Suriname would be seeking independence before the end of 1975. Many observers were surprised, as Arron's NPS did not have a majority in favour of independence.

The Netherlands granted Suriname independence on 25 November 1975. Its leaders were accused of fraud in the 1977 elections,

The hastily created Suriname National Army had many non-commissioned officers who tried to unionise Also, elections were planned for March of that year. On 25 February,

In 1987, the United Nations, Netherlands, France, and United States pressured the military government to negotiate, and Suriname saw a return to democracy. That year Arron was elected as Vice President of Suriname (and therefore Chairman of the Council of Ministers), serving from 26 January 1988 to 24 December 1990. Ramsewak Shankar was elected as president. Their government was overthrown in 1990 in another coup by Bouterse and the military.

In December 2000, Arron was invited by the Royal Tropical Institute to the Netherlands to talk about 25 years of Surinamese independence. On the evening of 4 December, he died at the home of his brother as a result of cardiac arrest.

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Honours Suriname: Grand Cordon (Grootlint), Honorary Order of the Yellow Star (2000)