It Happened on
November 16, 1978
Guyana group hopes to ‘enlighten’ officials
By BOB KLOSE
A group of Americans, turned away earlier this week when they attempted to visit their relatives at Rev. Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple in Guyana, was optimistic today it is awakening American and Guyanese officials to what it believes to be the prison-like conditions at the religious settlement at Jonestown.
The group, which is accompanying Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-San Mateo, on a fact-finding mission to the small South American nation, Thursday met with U.S. Ambassador John Burke and today were scheduled to meet with Guyana’s Prime Minister, Forbes Burnham.
Included in the meeting at the U.S. Embassy Thursday was Tim and Grace Stoen, former Peoples Temple members and Mendocino County residents, and Ukiah school director Steven Katsaris. Katsaris contacted Berkeley-based Human Freedom Center late Thursday.
“The ambassador can’t officially do much. He listened to them. Steven feels the group opened his eyes,” Freedom Center press officer Hollie Morton said today.
“Today, they will be seeing the Prime Minister. They feel they have made quite an impact even though they haven’t gone to see Jonestown,” Morton said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Ryan reportedly has been granted a “tentative” invitation to visit Jonestown, located in dense jungle about 100 miles from the capital city of Georgetown.
According to press accounts, Ryan Thursday night said Rev. Jones reversed an earlier decision barring Ryan and the group from entering the settlement and offered at least Ryan a look at the mission.
Ryan said he planned to fly to Jonestown today and that he would be accompanied by attorney Mark Lane, a supporter of Rev. Jones.
“The primary purpose of my visit to Guyana is to ascertain whether or not Jonestown is a prison,” Ryan told reporters Thursday.
Ryan said pictures of the settlement indicate the residents are healthy and comfortable but because of complaints of relatives of the residents he had some question as to whether they are allowed to come and go once they join the religious community.
There was no reason given why Rev. Jones decided to allow Ryan into Jonestown.
However, the invitation came after Ryan held talks with Guyana Foreign Minister Rashleigh Jackson. Rev. Jones reportedly enjoys good relations with Guyanese government officials.
Relatives and the press were not included in Rev. Jones’ invitation.
“They’ll still try to make it to Jonestown to see their relatives,” Freedom Center official Morton said today in Berkeley.
Although the Ryan delegation is scheduled to leave Guyana on Sunday, Morton said neither Ryan nor the relatives plan to return to the United States until they have seen the Temple and are satisfied residents there are well.
Morton said Katsaris reported that members of the press who flew with the Ryan delegation are covering events there freely. Earlier this week the reporters were threatened with expulsion and one reporter, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Ron Javers, was held under guard for 12 hours.
About 1000 persons, most of them Americans, are believed residents of the Jonestown settlement. Rev. Jones, who once operated the church out of Redwood Valley in Mendocino County until he moved to San Francisco, left this country for Guyana in 1977 and hasn’t returned since.
Tim Stoen, a former deputy district attorney in Mendocino and San Francisco counties, and his estranged wife are former church officials. They are attempting to bring home their six-year-old son from Guyana. Rev. Jones claims he is the boy’s natural father.
Katsaris, who runs the Trinity School for Children, has a 24-year-old daughter who lives at Jonestown.
The Berkeley Human Freedom Center is run by former Peoples Temple members as well as relatives of current residents of Jonestown.
People featured in this post:
Leo J. Ryan
American teacher and politician
Jim Jones
American cult leader and mass murderer who led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978
Be patient. Your future will come to you and lie down at your feet like a dog who knows and loves you no matter what you are.
- Kurt Vonnegut