C.I.A. alleged to be involved in Jonestown deaths

Press, 22 October 1980, Page 23

C.I.A. alleged to be involved in Jonestown deaths

By

ROBERT PARKER,

“Observer,” London

A sinister involvement of the C.I.A. in the deaths two years ago of 914 American members of the People’s Temple sect at Jonestown in the jungles of Guyana is being alleged in litigation that has started in the United States. The action is being brought by the five children of Congressman Leo Ryan and the relatives of three newsmen who were murdered just before the “mass suicide” in November, 1978. They had just visited the cult’s colony to investigate reports that people were being hideously and sadistically treated and held against their wills.

The Ryan children and newsmens’ relatives are claiming that C.I.A. agents had been working closely with “the Reverend” James Jones, the crazed leader of the sect, and that their purpose was to “use the Jonestown colony as a mass mind control experiment as part of the Central Intelligence Agency’s MK ULTRA programme.” They say that “massive quantities” of mind control drugs — identical to those used in previous C.I.A. experiments — were found at the camp after the deaths.

Mr Marvin Lewis, a noted West Coast attorney and a former Mayor of San Francisco who is handling the case, insists that the action is not a reckless one. The moves now being made are only the start of what could be a long legal battle in both the State and Federal courts.

The legal document setting out the allegations states that the C.I.A. with the full knowledge of the State Department, was working in Guyana to keep the Prime Minister, Forbes Burnham, in power. The Americans were keen to do this to maintain Guyana as an important source of bauxite.

The document says that the State Department knew of: “A volatile, tense, and highly charged atmosphere at Jonestown immediately before Ryan’s visit; false imprisonments of members of the colony; the existence of a huge, illicit supply of arms and ammunition at the colony: the existence of acts of

extreme violence perpetrated on members of the colony; the fact that leaders of the colony of Jonestown regarded members of the outside world with extreme and irrational distrust; and the. existence of a . large supply of mind .control; narcotics which were being used in mind control experiments, initiated by the C.IA. upon citizens of the colony.”

The truth about what really happened at Jonestown seems to be as elusive today as it was two years ago. What has become clear, as a result of curious developments over the months, is that the official explanation of “mass suicide” is hardly good enough. The first puzzling aspect was the body count By November 20, two days after the mass deaths, American and local troops had counted 383 bodies. A few days later it was suddenly announced that a staggering total of 914 bodies had been counted. / ;

Soon after this Dr Leslie Mootoo, chief me-‘; dical examiner of Guyana, said he thought only about 200 people had died voluntarily — the rest were murdered. Many of the bodies had injection marks in places where cyanide could not have been self-administered, it is claimed.—Copyright, London Observer Service.