Lygia Kraag-Keteldijk

Lygia Louise Irene Kraag-Keteldijk (born June 18, 1941 in Paramaribo ) is a politician from Suriname .

biography

After obtaining her university admission (Algemene Middelbare School) in 1959, she studied non-Western sociology at the University of Utrecht , which she graduated with a diploma in 1967 . After a training period, she then worked from 1969 to 1977 at the Dutch Institute for Social Structures (Nederlands Instituut voor Maatschappelijke Opbouw) in 's-Hertogenbosch .

After her return to Suriname, she initially worked for return policy in the Ministry of Justice and then from 1979 to 1981 in the Ministry of Labor. Between 1981 and 1986 she worked for minority repatriation policy at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment of the Netherlands . In 1986 she returned to Suriname and was again employed in the Ministry of Labor.

In 1986 she began her political career. As a member of the National Party of Suriname (Nationale Partij Suriname) headed by Henck AE Arron , she became an employee of the recently founded Johan Adolf Pengel Institute (JAPIN), the scientific institute of the NPS. In 1993 she then moved to the Ministry of the Interior as an employee.

In 2001 she became Political Director of the Presidential Office and thus a close associate of President Ronald Venetiaan , who was also the new chairman of the NPS.

On September 1, 2005, the re-elected President Venetiaan appointed her Minister for Foreign Affairs, succeeding Maria E. Levens, Suriname's first female foreign minister. Immediately before that, she had also given up her Dutch nationality as cabinet members were not allowed to have dual citizenship . This has already led to disagreements in the past with Rabin Parmessar , the defeated candidate of the National Democratic Party (Nationale Democratische Partij) in the presidential election in 2005, and the former Minister for Social Affairs and Housing, Paul Somohardjo.

As Foreign Minister, she gave a speech on climate change at the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations in New York in October 2007 . A few months earlier, in March 2007, it announced that the government was considering building a nuclear power station near Groot-Chatillon on the Suriname River .

In August 2008, she stated that Suriname did not yet intend any further political union with other CARICOM members such as Trinidad and Tobago .

Web links

• Suriname at a glance
• Suriname Cabinet (as of August 17, 2009)
• Information in rulers.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ “RESPONDING TO CLIMATE CHANGE” - SPEECH BY HE LYGIA KRAAG-KETELDIJK  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Surinam wants to build a nuclear power plant ( memento of the original from November 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Suriname not ready for political 'union' ( Memento of the original from January 7th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.