PERTH, WA: May 30, 1991
Registered by Australia Post Publication No. WAR 0202
Number 2741
POST ADDRESS: PO Box 50, Northbridge, 6000 W.A. LOCATION: 26 John St, Northbridge (east off Fitzgerald St).
TELEPHONE: (09) 328 1388
FAX (09) 328 7307
PRICE 60C
The night of death • A first hand report from the Josephite Sisters in Lima. A Columban eye witness account is on Page 6. According to witnesses three truck loads of insurgents arrived in Huasahuasi on Tuesday, May 21 at 6.30pm (7.30am Perth time, Wednesday, May 22). They did not knock on all the doors of the homes in the town, nor did they ring the church bell which they usually do with great authority in much the same way as the military would. This time they looked for people by name. They called Sister Irene from her house and they called her by name. They had gathered some people together in the town plaza and then proceded to conduct a kangaroo court style hearing for Sister Irene and some others. The court hearing lasted for about two hours. According to witnesses the insurgents (a great number of whom were young, almost children) accused her of being a North American, a "Yankee". The people replied that she was not a Yankee but an Australian. "It does not matter," they said, "we know she is an Australian." The insurgents then spoke of the food stuffs from Caritas Peru that Sister Irene had distributed, they made her and four others kneel: the professor of the Community Agriculture College RUBEN PALACIOS BLANCAS 54; the former deputy Mayor ALFREDO MORALES
We're raising the standard.
Dr_ ,fi
TORRES 56;a member of the town vigilante committee PEDRO PANDO LLANOS and the delegate for the committee which purchased the television dish for Huasahuasi AUGUSTIN VENTO MORALES 50. While they were kneeling they were each killed with one shot in the back of the head. Sister Irene was the first one to be shot. The priest in the town, Fr Leo Donnelly of the Mission Columban Society, did not know that Sister Irene was being tried. He was in the parish house with two young people and a group of catechists from Tahuan-
Sister Irene first to be shot tinsuyo who were giving a workshop in Huasahuasi. When they heard the Shining Path were about to arrive in town they gathered in the house and turned the lights off. When the shootings were over and the insurgents had left town the people came looking for the priest. They were singing. The bodies were lying together in the plaza. Some of the neighbours had covered them over. The priest gave them the last rites.
Then Fr Donnelly and two of the widows of the victims and the catechists who had come from Lima went to Tarma in the morning to report the killings to the authorities. (Names of these people are not given for security reasons.) On the evening of the killings, Fr Leo Donnelly stood watch over the bodies in the town plaza from the evening until the following morning. Sr Irene was buried in Huasahuasi by her specific request. At her requiem mass on Friday, May 24 at 10am (11pm WA time), Fr Leo Donnelly concelebrated with 17 priests who had travelled far to be present. Josephite congregational leader Sr Mary Cresp who had been with Sr Irene only a month before, flew back to Peru in time for the funeral. The large church was jammed packed for the mass. The plaza of the town was also full of people who were unable to get inside. After the mass the coffin was carried out of the church and around the plaza. People then took it in turns at carrying the coffin the one and a half kilometres to the cemetery. Sister Irene was buried in a concrete niche which was donated by a local man who had prepared the burial place for his family.
• Sister Irene McCormack's last memento to her mother, posted less than a month ago through fellow West Australian Sr Kathleen Dawe who had just visited her in Peru. "Will be home for Christmas," Sr Irene said to her mother. The photograph was taken on Ash
Wednesday by Columban Fr Rom Hayes. Sr Irene is still wearing the ashes ea her forehead. The children are four of a first play group of 40 who had queued up for half an boor before the doors opened.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S BIGGEST TOYOTA DEALER IS PROUD TO SERVE THE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY WITH THE BIGGEST SELECTION OF NEW AND DEMONSTRATOR TOYOTA'S AND THE VERY BEST DEALS AND SERVICE. OH WHAT FEELING PASSENGER CARS SCHOOL BUSES, 4WD AND COMMERCIALS
63 ADELAIDE TCE, PERTH. PH: (09) 325 8811
ALL ENQUIRIES TO JOHN O'NEILL A/H (09) 459 9593
GT EASTERN HIGHWAY, ASCOT. PH: (09) 325 8811
TOYOTA!