wfn.org | Former Disciples Overseas Ministries leader calls for justice

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

American imprisoned in Peru
Date: July 25, 2001
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Curt Miller
E-mail: Cmiller@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

01a-40

	INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- A Disciples advocate for justice for an
American journalist and human rights activist imprisoned in Peru
says it is significant that the General Assembly of the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has added its voice to
those calling for the release of Lori Berenson.  The Disciples
General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for Berenson's
release at its July 13-17 meeting in Kansas City.

	"It's important because this is a great injustice," said the
Rev. William Nottingham, former president of the Division of
Overseas Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ). "It is important for our people to see somebody who
understands what the basis of our mission internationally has
been, for 40 years-- namely, solidarity with people who are
suffering in the third world, the economic exploitation that
they're under, the present conditions that make a greater gap
between rich and poor in the world.  Lori is something of a
symbol of this and she's also a victim of it."

	Nottingham was present in a Lima civil courtroom June 20 when
Berenson was pronounced guilty and sentenced to 20 years behind
bars.

	Berenson, a native New Yorker, traveled to Peru in 1994 to
study its history, culture and politics. On assignment for two
U.S. publications, and with Peruvian press credentials, she was
researching articles on the effects of poverty on the women of
Peru at the time of her arrest in November 1995.  She was later
accused of treason for allegedly assisting members of the
pro-Cuban Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in a plot to
attack Peru's Congress.

	A "hooded," or secret  military court convicted her of the
charge in January 1996 and sentenced her to life in prison.  In
August 2000, the military court revoked the life sentence and
granted her a new trial in civilian court.

	In her civil trial in March, prosecutors alleged that she
arrived in Peru in 1994 as part of an international network of
radicals to aid the MRTA.  She was accused of renting a house
used by the rebels as a hide-out and training center and posing
as a journalist with the wife of a top guerilla leader to enter
Congress to plan a takeover. Throughout, Berenson maintained her
innocence.

	June 20 the civilian court announced a guilty verdict and
sentenced Berenson to 20 years in prison. At the sentencing
Berenson, in a 45-minute address to the court, maintained "I am
innocent of all charges against me. Neither of my trials, in the
civilian or military court, have proven me guilty of any crime.
I am not a terrorist. I condemn terrorism. I always have."  She
admitted that she had rented a house jointly with another person
-- but said "I did not rent it to hide anyone or for any reason
related to the MRTA."

	Nottingham has been involved with the Berenson family for more
than five years.  Soon after he learned of Lori's 1995 arrest,
he took an interest, because "I knew that this was a person
exactly like the young people that our Division of Overseas, now
Global Ministries, had sent overseas in the 1970s and 1980s by
the score. We sent them into conditions of oppression and
resistance where it (accusations and arrest) could have happened
to any of them," Nottingham said.  "I didn't know whether she
was religious or not, but I knew that she regarded the third
world and felt it and understood it in exactly the same way that
we did."  He has visited Berenson in prison three times and has
served as a source of support for Berenson's parents throughout
the ordeal.  He visited with Lori on Father's Day when her
father could not be present.

	Nottingham was one of four U.S. religious figures to issue a
declaration after the June 20 sentencing.  It says, in part, "We
are convinced that there is no basis at all to consider her
(Berenson) a terrorist.  We know she is a person who abhors
violence and has a great feeling of compassion for the poor of
our world, and we understand that and commend it ... in her case
there is only circumstantial evidence, and in place of proving
anything, the judges depended on something the Peruvian Penal
code calls 'the criterion of conscience,' in other words, the
judges' impression or private opinion.  Whatever relationships
she may have had, which led to charges, have not been proven to
have any criminal content or intention."  The statement was
signed by Nottingham; the Rev. James Lawson, Jr., United
Methodist Church, Los Angeles, Calif.; Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs,
Temple Kol Tikvah, Woodland Hills, Calif.; and Fr. Bill Bichsel,
S.J., Tacoma Catholic Worker, Tacoma Wash.

	The General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) adopted resolution #0119, "Calling for the Release of
Lori Berenson from Prison in Peru," in Kansas City July 17.  The
resolution, sponsored by Eastgate Christian Church,
Indianapolis, maintains that Berenson's arrest, the charges
against her, her convictions and imprisonment all are unjust.
It asks that "the president of the United States be urged to
seek the release of Lori Berenson on the basis of his mandate
(United States Code 22, Section 1732) 'to achieve liberation for
an American citizen wrongfully imprisoned in a foreign country
by any means necessary, short of war.'"

	"We believe that under the new government of (Peruvian
president-elect Alejandro) Toledo, and with new conditions in
the country coming all the time, there's a possibility for her
release. But it's only as we mobilize public opinion in this
country that the demand will be kept alive and that she'll have
a chance to be released," Nottingham said.

	"She will make a contribution in this country and in the world,
as a result of this experience, I'm convinced, that will be
remarkable. It will show also that as painful as it's been, as
regrettable as it's been, God will have brought something strong
and positive out of it.  That is our hope."

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