| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, December 10 2001 |
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| In 1995, a young American woman traveling through Latin America as a human-rights volunteer and freelance journalist was arrested in Lima, Peru, and accused of being a terrorist. According to Peruvian authorities, the young New Yorker was a member of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. A large house she had just rented, they said, was to be used as headquarters for the leftist rebel group as it prepared for an attack on the Peruvian Congress. According to her, it was just a house she would share with "roommates."
Lori Berenson was tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison by a military tribunal presided over by so-called faceless judges. In 1996, the State Department issued the following statement: "The U.S. deeply regrets that Ms. Berenson was not tried in an open civilian court with full rights of legal defense, in accordance with international legal norms." It also called for the case to be tried in a civilian court. Earlier this year, she went on trial again, this time before a panel of civilian judges, and was convicted a second time. Her new sentence: 20 years behind bars for collaborating with terrorists.
Berenson was lucky enough to have the U.S. government looking out for her interests. But there are thousands of civilians accused of treason and terrorism in Peru who have been tried by hooded judges in secret courts, where defense attorneys are not allowed to question witnesses or access evidence.
In Argentina during the infamous dirty war of the 1970s, civilians suspected of terrorism never even got to trial. The military disposed of them in the most grotesque ways. Thousands were blindfolded and dumped into the sea from helicopters and military planes. Many were taken away only because their names appeared in the phone book of a suspected leftist. About 30,000 disappeared. In Chile, under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, more than 2,000 people vanished or were assassinated. The National Intelligence Directorate, known as DINA, kept secret detention centers where prisoners were routinely tortured. There have been similar atrocities in Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Cuba - and the list goes on.
I am not sure if we can draw any parallels to these cases of military justice, or injustice. But I must say that they did come to mind when President Bush announced the authorization of our very own military tribunals to try noncitizens suspected of terrorism. There are certainly more differences than similarities. To begin with, the United States is not a military dictatorship, thank God. Our democratic system makes it virtually impossible for people who oppose our government to just disappear, as so many did in Argentina. Nor would it be possible for thousands to be tortured, as in Chile. But, like in Chile, Argentina and Peru, there are hundreds of detainees in American jails accused or suspected of being terrorists. We don't know who they are, why they are held or what the evidence is against them. We don't know if they are terrorists or someone whose name happened to appear in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It's very hard to argue against extreme measures at a time when irrational actions put this country on a state of highest alert. However, it's also hard not to wonder whether we might not go too far. We all want to see the terrorists who committed the atrocities of Sept. 11 brought to justice. We want to make sure we catch anyone who might be planning a similar attack. You might even argue that terrorists don't deserve the same legal rights as other criminals. But the United States should be careful not to trample over the very values this country is defending in its war against terrorism. And it should treat foreign nationals accused of crimes the same way we expect Americans to be treated in other countries. |
