900 begick självmord – nu blir staden turistattraktion
900 människor begick självmord samma dag i Jonestown i Guyana i november 1978. Nu, nästan 50 år senare, blir stället en turistattraktion, skriver AP.
Många är kritiska till förslaget. Det öppnar många gamla sår och är respektlöst mot offren, enligt kritikerna.
Trots kritiken har projektet starkt stöd från landets turismmyndighet och turismminister.
– Det har verkligen mitt stöd. Det är genomförbart. Vi har ju till exempel sett vad Rwanda har gjort med sin fruktansvärda tragedi, säger ministern i fråga, Oneidge Walrond.
De 900 människorna som dog gjorde det efter att ha druckit juice som sektledaren Jim Jones delat ut.
bakgrund
Jonestown
Wikipedia (en)
The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, an American cult under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 918 people died at the settlement, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and at a Temple-run building in Georgetown, Guyana's capital city. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.
A total of 909 individuals died in Jonestown itself, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, a significant number of whom were injected against their will, in an event termed "revolutionary suicide" by Jones and some Peoples Temple members on an audio tape of the event, and in prior recorded discussions. The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at Port Kaituma, including U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan, an act that Jones ordered. Four other Temple members committed murder-suicide in Georgetown at Jones' command.
Terms used to describe the deaths in Jonestown and Georgetown have evolved over time. Many contemporary media accounts after the events called the deaths a mass suicide. In contrast, later sources refer to the deaths with terms such as mass murder-suicide, a massacre, or simply mass murder. Seventy or more individuals at Jonestown were injected with poison, and a third of the victims were minors. Guards armed with firearms and crossbows had been ordered to shoot anyone who attempted to flee the settlement as Jones lobbied for suicide.
Jonestown, Guyana
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