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From: Tom Burghardt <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN, `Their Terrorists, Our Freedom Fighters'
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*****
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|| * -- SPECIAL -- * -- April 28, 1997 -- * -- EDITION -- * ||
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* SPECIAL EDITION *
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`FUJIMORI'S MASSACRE'
*
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THEIR TERRORISTS, OUR FREEDOM FIGHTERS
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By William Blum
Imagine that what happened in Peru had taken place in Cuba
-- 15 Cuban dissidents taking over a large social gathering and
holding a few hundred people hostage, including Castro's brother
Raul, and other prominent officials, as well as foreign
ambassadors and businessmen. Imagine that the Cuban rebels made
demands similar to those of the MRTA in Peru -- raising the
standard of living of the masses, bettering prison conditions,
freeing a number of political prisoners, and improving the state
of civil liberties.
Imagine the reaction of the American media. The MRTA
"terrorists", through an arcane ideological alchemy, would be
transformed into anti-communist "freedom fighters". Their
demands would be reported fully, seriously, and regularly, not
confined to the great media black hole behind the printing
press. The condemnation of the action -- what had been seen as
an appalling, illegitimate way to achieve social change would
give way effortlessly to a heartfelt understanding that under
intolerable conditions, desperate people can be reduced to
reckless measures.
We now know that in Lima, Peruvian commandos, under orders
to take no prisoners, executed all the rebels who survived the
initial onslaught. Only President Fujimori still denies this.
Two male rebels were captured alive in a room, told to stand
against a wall, and shot with separate bursts of gunfire, one
after the other. Two teen-age rebel girls were also shot to
death despite one of them yelling "We surrender! We surrender!"
Agriculture Minister Rodolfo Munante, one of the hostages,
said that "One rebel surrendered in the room where the judges
were ... he told the judges he surrendered, but then (a soldier)
entered and machine-gunned (the rebels) in the room."
Each rebel was given a final "coup de grace" shot in the
forehead to make sure he were dead.
Munante had a further story to tell. He said he could not
sleep for thinking about a young rebel who spared his life.
"I've hardly slept. I went to bed late and was thinking all the
time ... I've remembered and remembered the attitude of that
youngster." Moments after the Peruvian troops burst into the
building to rescue the hostages, one of the teenage rebels came
into the room where high-ranking captives were held and pointed
his rifle straight at the Agriculture Minister.
"I don't know what happened," said Munante, "I don't know if
he doubted, but I saw sadness in his eyes, maybe because of the
order to kill us, or maybe because he saw his life slipping away.
Then, in a matter of seconds, he turned straight around and
closed the door."
The young man, who was shot dead within seconds, may have
had second thoughts due to the close ties that had formed between
captors and captives after 18 weeks inside the residence, said
Munante. "After so many days of talking and talking an emotional
bond had been established."
"I feel a lot for the youngsters, who were humble people
from the Peruvian jungle," said Jorge Gumucio, the Bolivian
ambassador, who was also a hostage. "But we knew from the start
that it was either us or them."
It would have been a lot more of "us", but "them" released
more than 80 percent of the hostages within a week; then, as time
went by, released others who had become ill, never killed a
single hostage, never hurt any of them. They were rewarded by a
complete refusal by Fujimori to make even the slightest
concession, all the while planning their summary execution.
Imagine again that Cuba had been the stage for this tragedy.
The halls of Congress would have been filled with operatic wails
and forehead smiting over the cold-blooded execution of the
freedom fighters, with Jesse Helms waving a sword and pleading to
lead the invasion of Cuba. Ol' Bill, at his heartfelt best,
would have told the families of the slain rebels: "I feel your
pain!". Flags would have flown at half-mast in Miami, and any
one there who dared to question the prevailing wisdom or the
prevailing emotion would risk premature death.
But inasmuch as these idealistic young people were not
seeking to overthrow a socialist government, their lives have
been accorded scant value in the American media. An editorial in
The Washington Post remarked upon the "successful rescue in which
there were amazingly small losses of life: One hostage and two
attackers died." Then, quite parenthetically: "The guerrillas,
who had claimed a revolutionary cause but found few takers among
Peru's terrorism-weary population, lost all 14 of their own."
Obscured also in this statement is the idea that fear of a
lifetime of torture and imprisonment in one of Peru's infamous
hellholes might just be responsible for discouraging people from
publicly expressing support for the MRTA, let alone joining them.
Not to mention social indoctrination. One of the saddest sights
to observe in the TV coverage of the events, was the sight of the
many Peruvian soldiers celebrating their victory. These
indigena-looking young men, finding in military service perhaps
their only way to escape poverty, hunger and unemployment,
shouting for joy, back-slapping, high-fiving, burning an MRTA
flag, all because they had killed a number of other poverty-
stricken young indigenas who were struggling to wrench a
concession or two from the government to lighten the load of the
poor and the imprisoned.
A "terrorist" -- the Nazi's term for WW II resistance
fighters -- fights for what he believes in; a soldier fights for
what someone else believes in -- in this case the wealthy
coercing the poor to kill the poor to keep the wealthy in power.
So it always was.
It should come as no surprise that the commando units were
trained in part for the operation by the United States, Great
Britain, and Israel. Each has long experience in suppressing
social and political change amongst colonial subjects. Support
of the Peruvian government in such circumstances is regarded as
the most natural and good thing in the world. No one stops to
think -- If these governments felt compelled to intervene in Peru
in a purely internal matter, why didn't they take the side of the
rebels, rather than abetting state terrorism? Of course, if Cuba
had done so, there would have been world-wide denunciation of
Fidel Castro for subversion and violation of international law.
If the Soviet Union still existed, the rebel action in Peru
would have been branded as part of the International Communist
Conspiracy. Which conspiracy do the anti-communists blame now?
Could it be that the "terrorist" actions of the cold war were all
home grown, springing from indigenous roots?
*
William Blum is the author of _Killing Hope: U.S. Military
and CIA Interventions Since World War II_, Common Courage
Press, 1995, Monroe, Maine
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://members.aol.com/bblum6/American_holocaust.htm
*
For up to the minute news on the crimes of the Fujimori
regime and the massacre of the 14 MRTA militants, please
visit the excellent MRTA Solidarity Page maintained by the
comrades at Arm The Spirit.
Honor To The Martyrs Of The Edgar Sanchez Commando!
Tupac Amaru Lives! The Struggle Continues!
MRTA Solidarity Page - http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/mrta.htm
* * *
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