Though the whole documentary reflects Peru, it’s only a matter of time when we will be in their shoes and some other country would be watching our ordeal.

By Shammi Shah

Fervent and excited, I finally got to see the documentary last month, which I had been longing to gorge my eyes on. Thanks to Martin Chautari and my friend who took me there for the first time. I’m talking about none other than the “State of Fear”. Enthralled as much I was, I found myself to be a different person after watching the documentary. Guilty conscious within me dragged my feet to my way back home. Why? Nothing I might write will make you understand what exactly I’m talking about unless you watch it for yourself.

Each frame made me think of my own country caught up in the desolate war of power. I add my heartfelt gratitude to the one who compiled such a poignant narration of truth. Everything burns and there you stand in awe watching it burn. Then you forget it the next day, like it didn’t happen at all or maybe just a nightmare you’ve had. Without remorse you go back to living your life. It may take us 20 more years of war and devastation, pain and anguish to realize we too have our share for whatever happened in our country and then probably it would be too late. Here I stand accused by myself for the state of our country and you too have a part of the share.

An unforgettable array of characters takes us down a troubling road peopled by perpetrators and victims, and bystanders who only watched as the horror unfolded. But it is also the story of courageous Peruvians who fought to maintain their democracy and persevered in their search for truth and justice.

“State of Fear” is set in the extraordinary deserts, mountains, and jungles of Peru; it is filmed in high-resolution digital video by US and Peruvian professionals and tells a gripping story of escalating violence and repression. Terrorist attacks by the Shining Path guerrillas provoked a military occupation of the countryside. Military Justice replaced civil authority, widespread abuses by the Peruvian Army went unpunished, and the terrorism continued to spread.

Though the whole documentary reflects Peru, it’s only a matter of time when we will be in their shoes and some other country would be watching our ordeal.
Eventually nearly 70,000 civilians died at the hands of the Shining Path and the Peruvian military. Old-fashioned police intelligence finally subdued the terrorist threat but Peruvian leaders continued to use the fear of terrorism to gut the democracy, making Peru a virtual dictatorship where a vast web of corruption replaced the rule of law.

The Shining Path, a Maoist revolutionary army forged by a college professor named Abimael Guzman, set off a bloody reign of terror in rural villages throughout the 1980s in response to social injustice. Abimael Guzman’s Mao-inspired Shining Path guerrillas, sought to either forcibly convert or kill any villagers who did not rally to their cause. The government’s reaction to the guerrillas was equally blind and bloody: non conversant with the language and disdaining the indigenous population, the government saw all the villagers as potential insurgents and the military unleashed wholesale destruction upon villages. People famously elected Alberto Fujimori, impressed by his platform of strong-arm anti-terrorism, but Fujimori, far from restoring democratic institutions, rekindled fears of widespread “terrorism” to continue to exert absolute power, running a government rife with corruption and branding anyone who dared stand up to him as terrorist or traitor.

In 2000, this autocratic regime collapsed beneath the weight of its own corruption and the new democratic government established a “Truth Commission” that opened a door to the past, throwing light on the relentless violence that had engulfed this Andean nation for twenty years. The Truth Commission granted Skylight Pictures access to its extensive testimonial evidence from 20 years of violence, as well as hundreds of hours of rarely seen archival material and thousands of exquisite still photographs that will help bring this timely story to an international audience.

Though the whole documentary reflects Peru, it’s only a matter of time when we will be in their shoes and some other country would be watching our ordeal. Epitome of abuse of power and the lust that drives people is quite striking and just what Nepal is going through right now. Not a soul present there with me would doubt my words when I say, “That’s Nepal ten years from now,” battered and bruised to the core. We all blame one or the other element–Maoists, Government and Monarch– for everything that goes around and stand as meek spectators. Its past time we did something about it and prevent making our country another Peru.

The question still remains, would we rather wait for ten more years or start talking and do whatever it takes to prevent such disgrace of the nation and its people? We’ve already had ten years of fighting. War on terror was declared and nobody has won – or, to be more precise, everybody has lost, what would you do?

Does Nepal have to go through the same circumstance to come out of the peril it is in? How different are we from that nation? The smiling sorrow on the face of each Nepali speaks the fact that everyone fears to even think of. I personally urge each individual who cares for the nation to watch the documentary and take time to care about the grave realities shown and do something about it so that Nepal does not turn into another State of Fear. Let’s not go down the Shining Path and let adversity climb up it.

If you ask me where we stand, well, we are half way down the “Shining Path” and still tumbling down. Is Nepal another “State of Fear”? You decide it for yourselves!!

(A computer engineer by training, Ms. Shah is working as a multimedia designer in Kathmandu. Please send your comments to [email protected] or [email protected])

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