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A new documentary and book are telling the story of an unlikely member of Colombia’s FARC guerrilla force, a female university professor from the Netherlands. She sought out and joined the FARC rebels about 8 years ago. Reporter John Otis has the story.

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MARCO WERMAN:  The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, have been fighting the government there for four decades.  Nowadays the strength of the guerillas is a far cry from what it was eight years ago.  The FARC has been pushed back into remote areas of Colombia.  Still, the group maintains a strong presence in some areas, especially near the borders of Venezuela and Ecuador.  And the FARC has one fighter who traveled all the way from the Netherlands to join the struggle.  Correspondent John Otis sent us this profile of an unlikely rebel.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE RECORDING PLAYING]

JOHN OTIS:  That’s Tanja Nijmeijer teaching English to a group of Colombian guerillas.  Nijmeijer goes by the nom du guerre Alexandra.  She’s the only European known to have joined the FARC, Colombian’s largest guerilla army.

LIDUINE ZUMPOLLE:  It’s very amazing that the girls out of free will, with an academic background with all options of life and then she chooses to join the most cruel and oldest guerrilla movement of the world.

OTIS: Liduine Zumpolle, a Dutch activist who works with demobilized Colombian guerillas has written a book about Nijmeijer.  She says Nijmeijer traveled to Colombia in 1999 and was appalled by the huge gap between rich and poor.  She got a job teaching English in the city of Pereira, but spent much of her time making contacts with FARC guerrillas.

ZUMPOLLE: That’s the classroom we used to use when Tanja was here.

OTIS: In “Closer to Tanja”, a documentary that premiered in Amsterdam last month, fellow teachers in Pereira said they had no clue about Nijmeijer’s radical side.  By 2002 Nijmeijer was accepted into the FARC’s urban militia in Bogota.  The Colombian military says she took part in several fatal bombings there.  She later joined a FARC unit in the jungle.  Dutch journalist Edwin Koopman says she was a prized recruit.

EDWIN KOOPMAN:  She is very useful for them because she speaks language.  She speaks English, she speaks some German, she might speak some French like we all do in the Netherlands.  So this has been useful in translating message from commanders.

OTIS: In 2003, Nijmeijer was filmed putting her language skills to use.  In this clip she informs three U.S. military contractors who were held hostage for five years by the FARC, that rebel commanders were accusing them of spying.

TANJA NIJMEIJER:  The commander who is sitting next to you a few moments ago that you are CIA agents.

OTIS: Nijmeijer eventually became homesick.  In a rare break with protocol, the FARC allowed her mother, Hannie Nijmeijer to visit her at a guerrilla outpost in 2005.  Hannie urged her daughter to come home, but Tanja refused.  In a video made by her mother, Tanja sent greetings to the rest of her family.  As the FARC’s fortunes began to plummet, Colombian troops found Nijmeijer’s diary in an abandoned rebel camp in 2007.  It was a major propaganda victory for the army.  Nijmeijer writes of boredom, sexual promiscuity among the guerrillas and the selfishness of her macho FARC commanders.  “How will it be when we take power?”, she asks in one entry.  With the wives of the commanders in Ferraris with breast implants eating caviar?  In another passage she writes, “This might be worth it if one knew what we’re fighting for, but the truth is I no longer believe in this.”  Rebel commanders were reported furious about Nijmeijer’s unflattering portrayal.  But according to Colombian military intelligence, she was forgiven and now serves as bodyguard for Jorge Briceno, one of the most wanted FARC leaders.  Hannie Nijmeijer returned to Colombia earlier this year to search for her daughter.  This time the FARC wanted nothing to do with her, so Hannie broadcast a message to Tanja over Armed Forces Radio urging her to come home.  It’s unclear whether Nijmeijer actually wants to leave the FARC, but it would be a huge risk because the FARC executes deserters.  If she did, though, she might not get the warmest welcome back home.  Journalist Koopman says there’s little sympathy in the Netherlands for the Dutch guerrilla.

KOOPMAN:  The general opinion about her is that she’s been stupid to go there and put herself in the situation she cannot come out from.

OTIS: For The World, I’m John Otis in Bogota.

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