2023.01.16 15:12World eye

カルト団体「人民寺院」 ジャングルに埋もれた虐殺の記憶 ガイアナ

【ジョーンズタウン(ガイアナ)AFP=時事】南米ガイアナのジャングルの奥深くに、何の変哲もない標識とゲートが立っている。「人民寺院へようこそ」。ここにはかつて、カルト団体が造り、大人と子ども計914人が集団自殺したコミューン、ジョーンズタウンがあった。(写真はかつてのジョーンズタウン入り口に立つゲート)
 米国人の教祖ジム・ジョーンズは信者に自殺を強要し、親には子どもに毒を飲ませるよう命じた。逃げようとした信者も撃たれるか、毒を飲まされた。事件は、カルト指導者の信者を操る力を浮き彫りにした。
 現在も近くの村に住むフィッツ・デュークさんは、事件当時31歳だった。ジョーンズと貧困層のアフリカ系米国人の信者はジャングルを切り開き、人里離れた約1500ヘクタールの土地に社会主義的なユートピアを建設するために懸命に働いていたと振り返る。
 「彼らは優れた農法を知っていた」とし、地元の村人も手伝うことが多かったと付け加えた。
 「家畜もたくさん飼っていて、自給自足に近い状態だった。私たちもよく遊びに行った。上手なバンドもいたし、楽器もいろいろあった」
 しかしジョーンズは、人種差別も性差別もない、地上の楽園とうたっていたコミューンで、夜明けから夕暮れまで週6日労働を信者に強要していた。脱退者は麻薬の使用や飢餓、性的虐待などを訴えた。
 「大通りから直接見える巨大な塔から、常に誰かが双眼鏡で監視していた」とデュークさんは言う。
 また「警察より大きな銃」を持った警備員がパトカーを止め、「ここはガイアナではない。ジョーンズタウンだ」と言っていたとも話す。
 ■数百人を「洗脳」
 コミューンの生活環境を問題視する声が上がった。これを受けて1978年11月17日、レオ・ライアン下院議員率いる一行が調査のため、ジョーンズタウンを訪れた。
 翌日、飛行機で帰国しようとしていたライアン議員は、ジョーンズの部下に銃撃されて死亡した。この時、帰国を希望した信者と3人のジャーナリストも殺害されている。
 ジョーンズは以前から説教で、米政府に攻撃されると警告し、信者に服毒の予行演習をさせていた。ライアン議員に関しては米中央情報局(CIA)のスパイであり、海兵隊が攻撃の準備をしているとも告げていた。
 ジョーンズの遺体のそばで録音テープが見つかった。45分間の録音内容から、ジョーンズが「革命的な行為」だとして信者を自殺に追いやったことが後に明らかになった。
 「一人の男がなぜ、どのようにして何百人も、あのように洗脳できたのか。いまだに不思議に思う」とデュークさんは言う。
 事件発生から今年の11月で45年となる。生い茂る草木の中に立つ「ジョーンズタウン虐殺の犠牲者を悼んで」と書かれた白い板だけが、ここで起きたことを物語っている。
【翻訳編集AFPBBNews】
〔AFP=時事〕(2023/01/16-15:12)
2023.01.16 15:12World eye

Memory of macabre cult massacre buried in Guyana jungle


Deep in the Guyanese jungle, only a signpost and a nondescript plaque serve as reminders of a cult settlement where one of the most spine-chilling mass murder-suicides in modern history took place almost five decades ago.
Welcome to the People's Temple, reads the green lettering on a sign above a red dirt road announcing the entrance to what was once Jonestown, a jungle utopia-turned-nightmare, where 914 adults and children died on November 18, 1978.
They were the followers of the US reverend-guru Jim Jones, who coerced them into committing suicide, urging parents to give their children poison, while others were shot trying to flee or forced to drink the deadly liquid.
The carnage highlighted the manipulative power cult leaders wield over their followers, and those who live nearby are torn between wanting to move on and wishing the site could serve as a lesson as to what went wrong.
There is really nothing to see, unless the place is cleared up, and you will see what remains on the ground in terms of old vehicles, tractors and other things, said Fitz Duke, who lives in the remote nearby village of Port Kaituma.
He was 31 when the massacre occurred, and he recalls the presence of Jones and his following of poor African Americans, who worked hard to clear the jungle as they built what was meant to be a socialist, self-sufficient settlement on about 1,500 hectares in the middle of nowhere.
They had a very good agricultural system, Duke said, adding that local villagers would often work for the community.
They had a lot of livestock. They were almost self-sufficient in terms of food for themselves. We used to visit often. They had a very good band, a lot of instruments, he added.
However, while the community was billed as a non-racist, non-sexist, paradise on earth, it was run with an iron fist by Jones and his aides.
Ex-cult members made claims of drugs use, hunger and sexual enslavement, saying Jones forced his followers to work from dawn to dusk, six days a week.
You couldn't just come and go as you like, said Duke.
They had a huge tower to see directly on the main road. And they always had men up there to watch with their binoculars.
He said Jonestown guards with bigger guns than the police used to search the cars, and once stopped a police car, telling them it wasn't Guyana, it was Jonestown.
- Hundreds 'brainwashed' -
After complaints in the United States about the living conditions in the community, Congressman Leo Ryan visited Jonestown on November 17, 1978, to investigate.
A day later, as he prepared to board a plane home, Ryan was shot dead on the tarmac by Jones's men, who also killed three journalists and a cult member who wanted to leave.
For Jones -- who had long warned his followers of a looming assault by the US government and carried out sessions in which they and their children drank fake poison -- there was no turning back.
He told his followers that Ryan was a CIA agent and that US Marines were preparing to attack the community.
A 45-minute recording found near his body would later reveal how he incited his followers to commit suicide in what he said was a revolutionary act.
It's still a wonder why and how one man could have so many hundreds of people brainwashed like that, said Duke.
Forty-four years later, only a white slab in the overgrowth bearing the words in memory of the victims of the Jonestown massacre bears testament to what happened at the site.
The signpost at the entrance to the community was put up to replace the old version sometime after the events.
- 'A bad memory' -
Duke is among those who would prefer the massacre be forgotten.
I feel that it has done our country real, real bad. It put Guyana on the map for bad reasons. They should do away with it. They should give the land to farmers for them to cultivate it, he said.
Local authorities did not wish to speak on the massacre.
However, opposition official in Port Kaituma, Tiffnie Daniels, 31, said she would like to see the site become a place where visitors could understand what happened.
There is just a monument and the jungle. But, if children want to study that, or people want to visit as a tourist site, there is nothing, she added.
Yes, it's a bad memory, but it's also history.

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