Jonestown Victims Remembered

more images

OAKLAND (GaeaTimes.com) For the people who had died in the Jonestown tragedy, a memorial service was organized at the Oakland Evergreen Cemetery earlier this week. The tragedy happened 32 years back in 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana.

The memorial service on Thursday was held by Rev Jynona Norwood of San Francisco, who has been organizing this event every year ever since the tragedy took place. She has also undertaken the effort of building a memorial wall in remembrance of the tragic incident, to pay homage to the victims. Rev Jynona Norwood’s family had lost 27 members, in this tragic incident, including a 3 month old infant. She claims that she has often experienced horrible dreams centered around this disastrous incident. As many as 900 people had died in the Jonestown massacre. According to sources, 350 children, of which 40 were infants who had lost their lives in the tragedy, belonged to the black community. All of them had gathered under the umbrella of the Peoples Temple, which offered to claim itself as a world of peace, where distinctions would not be made. On the other hand, there have been contrary reports that the children were taken to concentration camps where they were made to work forcibly.

According to a source, speakers who had gathered at the memorial, were seen repeatedly stressing on the fact that the deaths were not the outcome of suicides, which made it evident that they were desperate to dispel the rumor which is often associated with the incident, that the victims were taken at gunpoint and forced to drink cyanide. On the whole, the memorial service witnessed the presence of some eminent people who presented their feelings associated with the Jonestown massacre.