A dead Kan-Kan tree, sacred to the Maroon people, rises above a housing compound set up by a road paving crew for China Dalian International that are paving the road from Brokopondo to Atjoni deep in the Amazon rainforest, Suriname. The Maroons never cut down or disturb Kan Kan trees, which are often the centerpiece for their villages. Many Maroons suggest that the Peoples Republic of China is paving this road in preparation for resource exploitation in the pristine interior rainforests of Suriname, where their ancestors sought shelter as escaped slaves hundreds of years ago...From a communique leaked by Wikileaks, the US Embassy says, "The Chinese company Dalian (China Dalian International) is very active in road building in Suriname. Some ministries reportedly prefer to work with the Chinese in order to receive what is perceived as complications-free cash-flow, while others worry about long-term effects (and political liabilities) of such hasty deals. The Chinese, meanwhile, have their eyes on Surname's rich natural resources, particularly wood". China Dalian International recently paved the road that roughly follows the Suriname River straight inland to the jungle outpost Atjoni, which many believed was the first step to build a road to Brazil opening up the interior. In a conversation with a Da Ware Tijd Newspaper staff writer, Eleazer Pross, a Memoranda of Understanding signed on 2 December 2010 between the government of Suriname and the Peoples Republic of China was voted down in the legislature here. China had offered US$ 6 billion in projects to build a railroad, or road (it was never clearly stated to the public which it was) and a deep sea harbor in Paramaribo. This would have opened up one of the world's largest untouched rainforest wildernesses to rapid encroachment along the path of the railroad/road. Eleazer Pross said today, ?the Chinese demands were basically too much. They basically demanded the entire (interior) forest (for logging) as co