And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
US Victim Received Threats by Phone
.c The Associated Press
By MARTHA BELLISLE
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Terence Freitas knew he'd made enemies during his quest to
defend the culture of an Indian tribe in the remote Colombian rain forests.
``Back off or die,'' warned the voices on his answering machine.
Freitas, just two months shy of his 25th birthday, was on his fifth trip to
work with the U'wa when a band of armed men dragged the lanky biologist and
two American companions from their car.
Their bodies were found a week ago, bound and blindfolded in a field just
across the Venezuela border. All three had been shot in the face and chest;
the women shot four times each, Freitas six.
``My son understood clearly the dangers involved in his trips to Colombia,''
his mother, Julie Freitas, said at her North Hollywood home.
``Terence took those threats seriously, but because of his deeply felt
connection to the U'wa, he chose to return and try to help organize an
educational project.''
The bodies of Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, and Lahe'ena'e Gay, 39, were
returned to the United States on Wednesday, the same day that Colombia's
largest rebel group took responsibility for their executions.
A senior commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- FARC --
admitted that a guerrilla commander had kidnapped and killed the three. Raul
Reyes said the officer had ``captured them and executed them without
consulting higher ranking bodies.''
Mrs. Freitas said her son had feared right-wing paramilitary groups -- the
alleged source of threats against him -- more than the leftist FARC rebels.
But she said assigning blame for the deaths, which threatened to disrupt
Colombia's peace process, should not undermine the purpose of her son's
mission.
``No matter who is responsible for my son's murder we will continue to carry
on his work,'' Mrs. Freitas said. ``The last thing we want is for this
personal tragedy to turn into a tragedy for an entire nation. That will happen
if the peace talks end.''
The three had traveled to Colombia under the auspices of Hawaii-based Pacific
Cultural Conservancy International, said Marianne Herbert, a program director
for the group.
In December, the 8,000-strong U'wa voted to reject the state educational
system. The women were invited to the reserve to explore installing
educational models in the communities, Ms. Herbert said.
``Their intentions were purely educational -- it had nothing to do with the
previous work Terence had been doing concerning oil drilling,'' she said.
``They were aware of the political climate and potential danger, but they were
cautious.''
Freitas had joined the U'wa effort in May 1997 after serving as an observer
during a meeting between Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. and
tribal president Roberto Cobaria. The oil giant had invested $12 million on
seismic tests in hopes of drilling in the region.
Later that month, Freitas made his first trip to Colombia and returned to the
United State to form the U'wa Defense Working Group, a coalition of about 14
organizations.
``He traveled there to support the U'wa people in their fight to prevent
Occidental Petroleum from drilling on their ancestral land,'' Mrs. Freitas
said. ``The U'wa thought of him as one of their own.''
Friends of the two women executed along with Freitas described them as
similarly dedicated and determined.
Washinawatok, who lived in the Brooklyn borough of New York City with her
husband and 14-year-old son, Maeh-ki, made caring for others her top priority,
friends and relatives said.
``If she knew that you were not well, ... she would make it her business to
find time to come and be with you,'' said Esmeralda Brown, chairwoman of the
Committee for the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples and a
friend of Washinawatok. ``If you were in pain she would come and cry with you,
she was that warm.''
Gay, 39, was a ``female Indiana Jones'' who survived several bouts with death
while dedicating her life to others, a friend told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald
in Hilo. ``She's an inspiration in my life,'' said Darlene Fergerstrom. ``She
would put others before herself.''
Fergerstrom said Gay recovered from cancer and a heart attack, survived a
restaurant shootout in El Salvador and saved a girl from an attacker on Oahu
even though she was stabbed several times in the process.
``I've always thought of her as kind of indestructible,'' she said.
The three were kidnapped Feb. 25. Mrs. Freitas said she was worried about her
son's work in a country torn by feudal interests and armies.
But, she said, her son always had reassured her: ``Ma, I promise you, I always
will come back.''
AP-NY-03-11-99 0205EST
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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