She wanted to give her life for a revolutionary ideal. Thought she would never leave the Colombian jungle again. But things turned out differently. Now the Dutch ex-guerrilla fighter Tanja Nijmeijer comes with a book. Testimonials are available from kidnapping victims, from soldiers, from politicians, but this is my story.
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Nijmeijer, born and raised in Denekamp, was 24 years old when she joined the FARC in 2002. During study visits to Colombia, she was touched by the inequality in the country. She became known as a member of the Marxist-Leninist movement when her diary was found in 2007, after an attack by the Colombian army on the camp where she was staying.
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Nijmeijer was involved in attacks in the Colombian capital Bogota, among other things. Later, as a translator and negotiator, she was part of a peace delegation that negotiated with the Colombian government in Cuba. In 2010, the US government put her on a terror list. After the peace agreement between the guerrillas and the government of Colombia was signed in 2016, most of the approximately 7,000 FARC fighters laid down their arms.
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Away from the FARC
At the beginning of last year it was announced that Nijmeijer had left the FARC because she no longer agreed with the political decisions of the party. She continued to live in Colombia. “If for years on end you can’t relate to what’s being discussed, planned and decided, it’s time to leave,” she wrote at the time. in a statement. After that it was relatively quiet around her. Until now.
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“This book is an account of what I have seen and experienced,” she wrote in a statement, which she shared on Twitter on Tuesday. “That does not necessarily fit into the frame of reference that most Europeans have from the FARC, or from Colombia.”
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And, she adds: “There are testimonials available from kidnapping victims, from soldiers, from politicians, but this is my story, the testimony of someone who is still convinced that another world is possible.”
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The book titled ‘Tanja Nijmeijer, from guerrilla to peace process‘ will be out on Nov 4. Hollands Diep is the publisher.
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