|RNational holiday:|N Independence Day, November 25.
|RNature and climate:|N Narrow and swampy coastal plains followed by a hilly savannah and in the most southern parts a mountainous area with tropical rainforests.
Many rivers cross the country.
Average temperature throughout the year 27°C
Percipitation 2000 mm by the coast and 3000 mm in the mountains.
|RPeople:|N 37% East Indians, 31% Mulattoes, 15% Indonesians, 10% blacks and minorities of Chinese, aboriginal Indians and Europeans.
|REconomy:|N 29% of the labour force is occupied in agriculture, 15% in industry and trade and 42% in government services.
Only 1% of the land is arable, Most important crops are rice, sugarcanes, coffee, cacao, citrusfruits and bananas.
Suriname have vast resources of bauxite. Export of bauxite and aluminiumoxide accounts for 90% of the export revenues. There are also iron ore and some other minerals, which are not yet extracted.
The vast forests is a natural resource that is not fully developed.
There are a lot of fish, mainly shrimps, in the sea off the coast.
Since the 1970:s great efforts have been made to process the domestic resources before export.
|RHistory:|N Suriname was originally inhabited by Indians. In the 17th century europeans started to colonize the area and set up plantations and imported slaves from Africa. When slavery was abolished 1863 they brought in contract workers from India, China and Indonesia instead. Suriname was first colonized by the British but in 1667 they gave it to the Netherlands in exchange for the New York-colony in North America.
In 1954 Suriname became a self-ruling part of the Netherlands with a governor. It became an independent country in 1975 and the former governor was elected president.
A considerable part of the population opposed independence. Opposition was especially strong among the East Indians and Indonesians and about 40% of the population left Suriname and settled in the motherland the Netherlands in the months before independence.
In 1980 the democratically elected president and government was ousted in a military coup. Further coup-attempts were made in 1981 and 1982.
General elections were held in 1987 and democracy was reestablished in 1988.
