[848] in peace2
Re: help Lori
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bergner)
Thu Jun 21 16:03:47 2001
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 16:02:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: Bergner <bergner@MIT.EDU>
To: <peace-list@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <200106211844.OAA10141@gold.mit.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.30.0106211500430.16775-100000@ctpivory.lns.mit.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Dear MIT activist community,
Please forgive my skepticism. I have been awaiting with interest the
news of the verdict which I read this morning. There was no doubt in my
mind that Berenson did not receive a fair trial the first time around,
but this was _supposed_ to be it. I certainly do not feel qualified
to judge whether or not this trial was fair, and I will wait for analysis
from more knowledgeable international organizations. Meanwhile, an
appeals process is underway.
It is not inconceivable to me that Berenson was involved in illegal
activity in Peru. While she was seemingly not a militant, it is
suspicious for an American visitor to rent one apartment and sublet it
while living somewhere else. She stands accused as a collaborator of and
information gatherer for the MRTA, a terrorist organization. Her own
responses to charges brought against her five years ago and today sound
irritated and indignant, not innocent. This is not in itself an
indictment of Berenson. And even if she were guilty, it is possible that
the evidence against her would not hold up in an American court.
Still, I know people here in the US who might have at least implicitly
supported the MRTA in Peru, and had they gone there and acted on those
convictions, they might have suffered similar consequences. It seems to
me both arrogant and colonialist to think you can go to Peru, fight with
the rebels against a corrupt government there, and then emerge unscathed
from the conflict. That is not the local reality.
Lori Berenson is not a member of a persecuted minority. She is a
privileged, white New Yorker. That doesn't mean she can't find herself on
the wrong end of a corrupt system, but it does mitigate any outgoing
assumption that she will be framed. Popular opinion of her in Peru seems
to be rather low, and while that may be due to government propaganda, it
may also have something to do with the unpleasant picture I have suggested
of this gringa idealist coming to Peru to help the helpless by supporting
the rebels, as she did in El Salvador.
There are benevolent and good-hearted people who go where conditions are
dismal and do what they can to help. But they do not usually go at it
alone; they work with reputable organizations whether as service providers
or even as journalists. What exactly was Lori Berenson doing in Peru with
no connection to any such organization?
By all means, if she is innocent of collaborating with the MRTA, I wish
her all the speed in overturning her conviction. I certainly do not
want to shrug off the significance of her imprisonment. But there are
activists who cross the line of nonviolence even if it is for the right
intentions. It is not in our interest to come blindly to their defense,
when our own credibility is at stake.
Yoav.
---------------------------------------------
Your silence will not protect you.
--Audre Lorde
Y. B. Bergner | MIT 6-415
bergner@mit.edu | 77 Massachusetts Ave.
617-253-7194 | Cambridge MA, 02139
---------------------------------------------
