Peru Downs Plane Killing U.S. Missionary, Baby April 21, 2001 2:49 am EST

By Simon Gardner LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - The Peruvian Air Force shot down a plane carrying American missionaries in the Amazon jungle on Friday, killing a mother and her baby, saying it opened fire after the pilot ignored warnings to land.

The evangelist's husband and son escaped the crash unhurt when the seaplane ditched in the Amazon River, the pilot's wife, Bobbi Donaldson, told Reuters. Her husband, Kevin, also survived the crash but his leg was fractured by a bullet.

The Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, identified the dead as Roni Bowers, 35, and her infant daughter, Charity, born last fall. It said Bowers' husband, Jim, and their son, Cory, were uninjured.

The Bowers, from Muskegon, Michigan, had been serving in Peru since July 1993.

"After carrying out international identification and interception procedure... which the pilot ignored... the Peruvian Air Force plane opened fire as a last resort," the Ministry of Defense said in a communiqu.

"The Peruvian Air Force... deeply regrets the loss of human life." It said its actions were part of its anti-drug operations procedures.

A spokesman had earlier denied Peru's Air Force had intercepted the Cessna 185 "floatplane", instead saying it had been intercepted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and crashed because of a poor maneuver by the pilot.

U.S. embassy personnel were rushing to the scene to provide assistance.

"We deeply regret this tragedy and we'll be looking into exactly what happened," a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.

The pilot's wife, Bobbi, said she had spoken with the dead missionary's husband.

"The plane was really shot up and was on fire when it hit the water and rolled over," Donaldson said, adding Bowers' husband believed his wife and seven-month-old daughter had been killed by the same bullet.

She said Bowers had reported to air traffic authorities by radio and told her an American plane was within sight at the time.

"We tried to talk to the police, but were turned away. We fear a cover up. A mistake we can handle, but not that," Donaldson added, saying her husband was in a stable condition, at a clinic at a small town called Pebas, some 120 miles from Iquitos. She had not been able to contact him personally.

The plane had been on a trip to secure a visa for the seven-month old child.

Donaldson said her husband had bled profusely floating in the Amazon after the bullet went through his calf. She hoped to bring him in to Iquitos in the morning.

Military activity and drug trafficking is rife in the jungle area around Iquitos, which stretches to the border of neighboring Colombia.

Are we going to hear 'religious persecution' now?

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2001

Answers

This is just one more tragic example of gross error on the part of US authorities in identifying drug smugglers. It would appear that our own people had targeted that plane for the Peruvians to shoot down.

In the meantime, drug smuggling goes on unabated here in the US, aided and abetted by numerous government people at high levels. One need only look into the Arkansas allegations being made against Clinton, which appears to have been in partnership with certain Federal participants.

Just as in the days of prohibition of alcohol, when corruption, bribery, and immense profits ruled the scene, today's "outlawing" of drugs in high public demand are once again ruining our core values.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2001