A Tragic Loss for Humanity and for Me

Ever since last Wednesday night, when I learned of the German environmentalist's Petra Kelly's death, I have been in a complete state of mourning. She had always been the woman I admired the most, and the violent death of such an extraordinary person has affected me more deeply than any other event this year.

Her demise not only represents the loss of a great friend, but also a loss for humanity and for the global struggle for civil and environmental rights. The fact that not many of my fellow students here at Harvard know who she was, paired with my own personal anxiety over her death, has led me to write this letter.

Petra Kelly co-founded Germany's Green Party in 1979 as an organization for the rights of environmentalists, feminists, pacifists and socialists. She also participated actively in the anti-nuclear coalition, and in 1983 she and her companion, Gert Bastian, were elected to Parliament as representatives of the Green Party.

Gert had been an officer in the German military until 1980, when he opposed the use of nuclear missiles in Europe and was forced to resign. Although very soon after its founding there was a a split in the Green Party, Petra and Gert never gave up their fight for ecology and world peace. They would travel around Europe giving talks and attending conferences. Petra worked so hard, and for so many causes, that she would only sleep four hours per night.

The last time I saw Petra Kelly was at a conference in my home country, Mexico, in September of 1991. She and Gert Bastian had come to attend the Group of 100's "Morelia Symposium: Approaching the Year 2000," which consisted of writers and ecologists from throughout the world.

From the very day we met her she became an incredibly loyal and generous friend. Always smiling and full of enthusiasm, Petra was one of the warmest and most charismatic people at the symposium and her uncompromising fight for human rights and ecology was conveyed in a firm and noble manner.

Gert was the more quiet of the two and Petra did most of the talking for both of them. They were incredibly close and virtually inseparable and would often go off on their own during the conference. Having lived together for several years, they were not only lovers but also partners in their relentless activism in the Green movement in Germany. Gert was 25 years her elder, yet this difference in age seemed completely secondary to their relationship.

On Monday night, October 19, Petra and Gert's bodies were found by the police in their rented home near Bonn. Their corpses were badly decomposed, suggesting that they had been dead for at least three weeks. They had both been shot in the head and there was no sign of a struggle.

The cause of their deaths is still very unclear and confusing. Newspapers everywhere exclude the possibility of a third person being involved in the deaths. They suggest that Gert Bastian despaired and shot Petra Kelly in her sleep, then shot himself in the head, outside her bedroom. Some reports even suggest that it might have been a suicide pact.

Although they had been going through some very trying times (Gert had been in a car accident over the summer and both of them had severe financial difficulties), I do not believe that they would have given up hope and committed suicide. Petra was always full of enthusiasm and hope, even at the bleakest and most frustrating moments.

She had been nominated for the Andrei Sakharov Award of $100,000, with which, if she had received it, she planned to open a human rights office in Germany. Both she and Gert Bastian had many projects for the future and were growing equally distressed at the tide of right-wing activism and violence in Germany, about which Gert had just published a very angry article.

At least twice a week my parents (leaders of the Group of 100, an ecological group of artists and intellectuals) would receive a fax from Petra Kelly, in which she would send reports of the environmental situation throughout Europe and accounts of her struggles with politicians and bureaucrats to attain greater human and environmental rights.

At times she felt very discouraged, yet she would always end her letters with an optimistic note about the future. The one thing of which I am entirely certain is that she did not feel ready to die. At the age of 44, there were still many things she wanted to do and was going to do. Always radiant and with a very sharp wit, she befriended ecologists and other activists worldwide.

I feel, just as nearly all of Petra and Gert's friends in Germany do, that the possibility of an assassination definitely does exist, if only because they had so many enemies. Not only did they both openly criticize the Right, they were also involved in many campaigns against the nuclear power industry. Speculating on their deaths, however, does nothing to help--although for me, going over the details is the only way I can try to understand something so senseless.

Petra Kelly's death is extremely tragic for those who knew and loved her. Whether the motive for her shooting was personal despair or a political grudge, it has very frightening implications for what the global fight for ecology and human rights represents to those who dedicate their lives to it. Her murder must not, however, shatter the ideals of those who are still fighting for a world in which both humans and ecology are treated with the love and respect they deserve. I want to honor Petra Kelly by continuing on in her work for humanity and for our environment.