swelter
Thursday, September 28th, 2006There is a lot of talk in Peace Corps, that bureaucratic dinosaur, of not getting involved with the politics of the country you are in. It is another paradox of our government since simply being in certain countries as a single American becomes a politic act regardless of your beliefs. Still, Washington DC has an amazing ability of issuing tenets and then look the other way. The summer of 1995 in Yerevan was curious. Due to the closing of the countries sole nuclear power plant 1there were only a few hours of electricity available a day. It was also the summer when the Health Minister went on TV to say Armenians could not get AIDS because, "our too blood pure" and blamed those suffering from the disease as a result of having "Turkish blood." Nationalistic pride ran high and even I, unable to understand a lot of the language, could sense there was tension in the capitol city.
One night a bunch of us volunteers decided to go the US Embassy to catch a film in English. We were suppose to be back to our host families before dark but being contrary due to our "American blood" we stayed out until much later. The US Embassy is down the street from the Parliament Building with its high fence and guards. What greeted us in the dusk was a large crowd of grim looking people. They stood at the gates and young-looking soldiers stood between them and the building. We wound our way through the throng while nobody did anything. The next day President Levon Ter-Petrossian went on TV denouncing the riot of the night before. Arrests had been made. What is the role of a witness in situations like this? They talk about the work you do in Peace Corps as "the hardest job you'll ever love" but I think bearing witness much harder.
Tongue tied in a city under curfew:
one dusk was very much like another
except when it was filled with people. Few
hundred, perhaps, milled in the street. Soldier-
school-boys surrounded Parliament. Summer
amok; the five of us crept, hand in hand,
through the mute crowd. No shouting, no laughter,
no cry. The President would soon demand
the quick arrest of all "renegades." Brand
protests "riots." Tongue tied in a city
under curfew we walked through that unplanned,
silent, "riot;" what else in this story
can you see? The three men beaten helpless
and shot? Is that your role as a witness?
