Diary tells of disillusionment with rebels. Dutch woman joined group in early 2003

BOGOTA,COLOMBIA. The army stumbled on the hand written diary during a raid on a guerrilla camp. It lay near the embers of a communal kitchen where fleeing rebels left their breakfast untouched.
"I'm tired, tired of the FARC, tired of the people, tired of communal living. Tired of never having anything for myself" wrote the author, a 29 year old Dutch woman.
Colombia's government couldn't have hoped for better propaganda against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. It leaked excerpts from the diary found last June to the media, even making available an English translation of the Dutch entries.
The first known person from outside Latin America to join the regions largest rebel army wasn't just disillusioned. Like most FARC foot soldiers, Tanja Nijmeijer apparently wasn't permitted to leave. "This would be worth it if I knew I was fighting for something. But I don't really believe that anymore" she wrote on November 24, 2006, according to the excerpts released by the government.
What exactly impelled Nijmeijer, a child of Europe's bourgeoisie, to take a journey from peace activist to guerrilla fighter with the nom-de-guerre "Eillen" remains largely a mystery--even to people who knew her well before she joined the FARC in early 2003.
More than a dozen friends, former colleagues and fellow peace activists describe a young woman deeply disturbed by social inequalities and guilt-ridden over her priviledged life. Nijmeijer's family refused to discuss her plight, saying doing so could endanger her life.
Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos, meanwhile, was happy to use the case to counter"guerrilla chic" in Europe, where the FARC, classified as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, has a small but determined group of supporters who run pro-rebel web sites. In the diary, Nijmeijer abhors the strict discipline imposed by FARC's male commanders: no smoking, no phone calls, no romantic relationships without their consent. She says the rank and file are hungry and bored, and she descibes FARC leaders as materialistic and corrupt.
"How will it be when we take power? The wives of the commanders in Ferrari Testa Rosas with breat implants eating caviar" she writes.
Santos told AP the Nijmeijer case should help dispell foreign leftists of the notion that the FARC is heroic.
In certain circles in Europe, there still exists the romantic image of the guerillas as Robin Hood, or Che Guevara, fighting the bad guys for the benefit of the poor, he said " Nijmeijer fell into this trap"
Nijmeijer wrote her thesis on the FARC at the University of Groningen in her homeland, then traveled to Colombia in 2000 on a work-exchange program. She taught English to well heeled children at a private school in Pereira, winning praise from fellow teachers for professionalism and a gentle classroom demeanor.
But Nijmeijer socialized little and worried colleagues at the Liceo Pino Verde with her weekend excursions on Colombia's perilous highways, where rebel roadblocks and banditry were frequent.
" I remember arguing with her that it was unsafe to travel by bus at night, but she was very independent and didn't listen"said Diana Angel, head of the school's English program
One destination, Angel and other colleagues said was the southern town of San Vicente de Caguan, at the center of a Switzerland sized safe haven ceded to the FARC to facilitate peace talks that collapsed in 2002. Nijmeijer"s political education was also shaped by her experience volunteering almost daily in a poor shantytown near Pereira.
"Colombia was the turning point" said a collage friend from Holland who worked with Nijmeijer in Colombia."She was so shocked by the gap between the rich and the poor and was determined to do something about it"
In August 2001, she got her chance, joining a humanitarian mission organized by leftist European groups to one of Colombia's most conflicted regions, southern Bolivar state. What subsequently prompted Nijmeijir to join the FARC remains unclear.
"In February 2003, she sent an e-mail saying she was going to the jungle to teach indigenous people and couldn't be reached by phone or e-mail. I had no doubts, but no firm evidence she ran off to join the rebels" said the friend from Holland

By b bruce on Dec 8, 2007, 01:11 in Friendly Talkzone.

buggy says on Dec 8, 2007, 04:55:

This story has already been posted several times ...

"Artículo 20 de la Constitución Política. Se garantiza a toda persona la libertad de expresar y difundir su pensamiento y opiniones,...No habrá censura."

Medellin Traveler says on Dec 8, 2007, 06:31:

"Colombia was the turning point" said a collage friend from Holland who worked with Nijmeijer in Colombia."She was so shocked by the gap between the rich and the poor and was determined to do something about it"

I hope Uribe and the media addresses this issue as well during all the fuzz regarding releasing the prisoners.

Medellin Es Una Chimba! - www.medellintraveler.com

Gator says on Dec 8, 2007, 07:53:

Third post-old news

"Brevior Sltare Cum Deformibus Mulieribus Est Vita!" .

b bruce says on Dec 8, 2007, 07:58:

My apology folks! It was in the Miami Herald this past week. Did not realize it had been posted before! I just hope once she let the cat out of the bag so to speak, the bad guys don't put a bullet in the back of her head!

webmanco says on Dec 8, 2007, 08:10:

http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/post/eillens-diary-foreigner-farc-mil...

The link fron the Miami Herald will help.

But, I'm going to start making some assumptions here.... Which means I might actually end up making an ass out of myself ..........Thu 04 17, 2008 11:34 am