One FARC‘ing Mess…
What started as an innocent trip to explore Marxist experiments in South America, has turned into a FARC’ed up nightmare for the impressionable young Dutch peace activist.
Peace activist Tanja Nijmeijer liked to play the guitar and sing.
But, she left the life of peace activism to join the region’s largest rebel army. 
Tanja Nijmeijer plays guitar during a visit to Colombia by a group of European youth in August 2001.
But, sadly, the pretty young peace activist is not just disillusioned. Tanja has found herself trapped inside a jungle terror enclave and is not permitted to leave.
The AP reported:
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The army stumbled on the handwritten diary during a raid on a guerrilla camp. It lay near the embers of a communal kitchen where fleeing rebels left their breakfast untouched.
“I’m tired, tired of the FARC, tired of the people, tired of communal living. Tired of never having anything for myself,” wrote the author, a 29-year-old Dutch woman.
Colombia’s government couldn’t have hoped for better propaganda against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. It leaked excerpts from the diary found last June to the media, even making available an English translation of the Dutch entries.
The first known person from outside Latin America to join the region’s largest rebel army wasn’t just disillusioned. Like most FARC foot soldiers, Tanja Nijmeijer apparently wasn’t permitted to leave.
“This would be worth it if I knew I was fighting for something. But I don’t really believe that anymore,” she wrote on Nov. 24, 2006, according to the excerpts released by the government.
What exactly impelled Nijmeijer, a child of Europe’s bourgeoisie, to take a journey from peace activist to guerrilla fighter with the nom-de-guerre “Eillen” remains largely a mystery — even to people who knew her well before she joined the FARC in early 2003.
More than a dozen friends, former colleagues and fellow peace activists interviewed by The Associated Press described a young woman deeply disturbed by social inequalities and guilt-ridden over her privileged life. Nijmeijer’s family refused to discuss her plight, saying doing so could endanger her life.
Hat Tip Red Square
Here is video released of Tanja in the jungle:
(Half of the video is in Dutch)
The poor FARC-peace activist was swimming naked when the Colombian authorities discovered her diary.
The Star Phoenix reported:
Army officials say Nijmeijer and other female members of the FARC unit had been bathing in a river at the time of the raid, and were nude or semi-nude when they escaped.
The military also released a photo of the young woman, sporting pigtails and camouflage fatigues, with what appears to be a bullet belt around her neck…
Nijmeijer would be one of the few — possibly the only — recruit from a Western country.
The Dutch government has yet to confirm Nijmeijer’s FARC membership, but the diaries suggest she’s a former Spanish language student from Groeningen.
Now 23, she visited Colombia in 2000 as part of a Danish tour aimed at exploring Marxist experiments in South America. Her diary says she returned in 2002 and joined FARC.
Colombian soldiers surprised Nijmeijer’s FARC unit along Guayabero River in central Colombia. They also recovered a computer belonging to unit commander Carlos Antonio Lozada.
“The chief has fallen for a girl with big tits,” Nijmeijer reports in a Nov. 2, 2006, entry. “But it appears she brought some venereal disease with her. The chief says the government sent her in order to infect and weaken the rebel leaders.”
Jeffrey Quick has more on the sad detained peace activist turned terrorist.
