Pubdate: Mon, 30 Apr 2001
Source: Hawk Eye, The (IA)
Copyright: 2001 The Hawk Eye
Contact:  http://www.thehawkeye.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/934
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?172 (Peruvian Aircraft Shooting)

BLAME GAME U.S. AND PERU SHARE BLAME IN MISSIONARIES' SHOOTDOWN.

Fingerpointing is in full swing as Peru and the United States deal with
the shooting down of a civilian missionary aircraft carrying American
citizens in Peru last weekend.

U.S.-built Peruvian Air Force A-37 jets shot down the Cessna floatplane
carrying three Baptist missionaries and two children.

Apparently Peru's military, which has shot down more than 30 civilian
planes suspected of drug running, hastily and wrongly identified the
Cessna as a drug-smuggling aircraft.

As if such an amateurish mistake weren't outrageous enough, the Peruvian
jets were guided to their target by a U.S. Defense Department spyplane
that was being operated by Central Intelligence Agency agents helping to
intercept drug smugglers.

The badly wounded pilot landed the burning Cessna on the Amazon River,
where the plane overturned.

Killed by the warplane's gunfire were a missionary and her 7-month-old
daughter. The dead woman's husband and their 6-year-old son survived.

In the days since the tragedy, the United States and Peru have played a
shameful blame game.

The Bush administration blamed the Peruvians for being trigger happy,
and intimated that the CIA's role was minimal.

Initially apologetic, Peru has since disavowed contrition, saying it did
nothing wrong.

The U.S. version of events is that the CIA agents aboard the U.S. spy
plane cautioned the Peruvians not to fire until they followed normal
procedure.

That would have been to reach the Cessna by radio, then to fly alongside
and visually request its pilot to follow the jet to land for an
inspection.

None of that was done, the Cessna pilot said.

Politically, it would have been easier for the U.S. and Peru to cover up
this pointless tragedy if there had been no survivors.

But this time the drug war's collateral damage lived to tell a tale.

And the White House and the Peruvians will share blame for a botched
exercise in which the indiscriminate and illegal use of violence has
rotted the moral plank of the anti-drug effort.
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MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk