Phoolan Devi

The Indian daughter of a low-caste family - was married off at age 11, fled her brutal husband and joined a gang of robbers. She was raped by men from the village of Behmai, then returned at the head of a gang in 1980 and massacred a number of upper-caste men from the village. She became a heroine to many members of the lower castes as a symbol of their oppression under the strict caste system - an image that was solidified by the 1994 film ``Bandit Queen,'' which told her life story. Devi surrendered to police in 1983, denying ordering a massacre. She was imprisoned for 11 years awaiting trial on charges including mass murder. She was finally released on bail, but her trial was drawn out by legal wrangling. Residents of Behmai have long denied Devi was raped. She was elected to Parliament's lower house in 1996.

Rachel Corrie

ISM STATEMENT ON THE KILLING OF RACHEL CORRIE
Rachel Corrie was an American activist for volunteering for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement of both Palestinians and internationals working together for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. Rachel Corrie, was murdered on Sunday March 16, when she was purposely run over by an Israeli-driven, US-made (Caterpillar D9) bulldozer, while trying to prevent a Palestinian civilian home from being demolished by the Israeli military in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip. Rachel was in Rafah volunteering for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement of both Palestinians and internationals working together for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. Rachel and the ISM have chosen nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles to resist the daily brutality of Israel's 36-year-old military occupation and its ongoing and illegal land confiscation and settlement of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A direct result of the international community's failure to offer Palestinians an international protection force, Rachel Corrie and other ISM activists have actively confronted Israel's policy of home demolition and international apathy towards this policy by living with families under threat and by refusing to leave homes or areas threatened with demolition. The ISM believes that its presence slows the process of destruction and hopes that the international community will ultimately act to support the daily nonviolent struggle of normal Palestinian families to exist.

(From http://www.rachelcorrie.org/ism.htm)

Los Zapatistas

The Zapatistas of the EZLN (Ejercito Zapatista por Liberacion Nacional) came into the public consciousness on January 1, 1994, the day that the North American Free Trade Agreement was to become activated. They are Mayan Indians and non-indigenous members of the Mexican underclass, called campesinos of the Southeastern Mexican region of Chiapas. These Zapatista are an organic army of people who were displaced from the highlands of southern Mexico and resettled on ejidos ( rural communal production units) in the Lacandon Jungle. Before becoming soldiers they were cultivators, land less wage laborers, artisans, and a small minority of intellectuals. While Subcommander Insurgent Marcos has functioned as an unofficial mouthpiece for the Zapatistas, they speak as a collective, not as individual leaders. They wear ski masks as a symbolic gesture of collectivism. The EZLN doesn't want the public to associate with one person leading them, but an entire people with the same voice.

(From http://www.providence.edu/polisci/projects/zapatistas/zapatistas.htm)

Chechen Rebels

In October 2002, 41 Chechen terrorists took more than 700 people hostage in a Moscow theater, demanding an end to Russia's war against their homeland. The second half of a musical had just begun for an audience of about 700 people when a man in military fatigues took the stage. Theatergoers initially believed him to be an actor, but realized otherwise when the 41 Muslim Chechen separatists - 22 men and 19 veiled women - sealed off the building, demanding withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, which had declared its independence in 1991. Each of the women was heavily wired with explosives, while the men were armed with pistols and automatic rifles.
Shortly thereafter, the Russian military sealed off surrounding streets, declaring that they would make no deals. Then the first in a series of unexpected twists occurred. A young woman, apparently drunk, snuck past the police blockade and entered the building, where she ridiculed the Chechens separatists and encouraged the audience to rise up against their captors. The Chechens shot her to death, and a hush fell over the theater as the hostages realized the actual scope of their defenselessness.
After more than two days, Russian troops released a powerful anesthetic gas blended with an aerosol spray into the theater, which rendered the gunmen and hostages unconscious. Troops entered the theater, executing every terrorist, including the 19 unconscious women who had never received orders to set off their explosives. While no hostages died during the siege, the rescue turned lethal - the experimental gas proved to be deadly, and although antidotes exist, there weren't enough medical personnel on hand to attend to everyone. This shocking lapse led to the deaths of 129 hostages, many of whom choked on their tongues or their own vomit after being laid in the street, flat on their backs. What had seemed like a miraculous Russian victory ended tragically.