The Cuban government murdered my brother, Armando Alejandre Jr., on Feb. 24, 1996. It also murdered Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales. The four were flying in two small, unarmed civilian planes when, without warning, they were shot down over international waters by Cuban air force MiGs.

This was only the second such flight for Armando. At almost 6 feet 8 inches, he was too big to sit comfortably in the Cessna. He had no love of flying and rarely worked with groups, preferring to act on his own.

Our family came to the United States from Cuba when Armando was 10. His love for his adopted homeland grew to the point that he was willing to give his life for it. He enlisted in the Marines at age 18 and volunteered and served in Vietnam. At the same time his love for Cuba grew, too. He keenly felt the injustices and sufferings endured by the Cubans on the island.

After Vietnam, Armando made a life with his wife and daughter. Gradually, though, preoccupation with the plight of Cuba grew. He started publicly to denounce the abuses of the Castro regime. He physically tried to oust Cuban government sympathizers from the San Carlos Institute in Key West. He protested before the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., where he climbed over a fence and broke his leg in a fall. He went to Colombia during one of Castro's visits to criticize openly the Cuban government and was arrested and forced to leave the country.

But Armando also gradually changed his views on how to help Cubans on the island achieve basic rights. He turned away from violence and outside intervention, and began advocating for peaceful means and internal solutions. He joined a group for the first time, a Miami-based support group for Cuban dissidents united under Concilio Cubano in Cuba.

For his widow, his daughter, his parents, his sisters, for all relatives and friends, Armando's death has left a void impossible to fill. But he also left us a dual mission: Obtain justice for the Feb. 24 murders and speak up in defense of human rights in Cuba and elsewhere.

We now have, too, a new extended family formed by Costa, de la Peña, Morales and Alejandre kin. Our efforts are largely spent trying to balance our ``before the shootdown,'' everyday lives, with this new commitment. It is very difficult.

The families have been thrust into national and international arenas at which we had no previous experience. We have become hardened to lack of respect and injustice. We have heard ourselves identified as ``the Cubans'' by White House staff. We listened as a South American human-rights representative in Geneva offered condolences for the shootdown, and then immediately expressed his elation that Cuba had ``put one over'' on the United States. A senior U. S. Department of State official told us that he had to be cautious ``not to side'' with us, and other U. S. officials have refused to meet with us because we've already seen them ``once.'' A U. S. government list of terrorist acts for 1996 doesn't bother to include the shootdown.

Most devastating to us as Americans is to find our own government consistently placing obstacles in our way -- especially the White House and the Department of State. It is also incredible to find that U. S. policy, in the interests of ``diplomacy,'' seems to bend over backward to protect the rights of the Cuban government while ignoring our rights.

Who are the victims here? The four dead men, and in turn their families, or U. S.-Cuba relations?

There have been some accomplishments. One is that United Nations's Human Rights Commission in Geneva condemned the shootdown. Another is that U. S. District Judge James Lawrence King ruled against Cuba and the Cuban air force, saying that the four men were murdered ``in outrageous contempt for international law and basic human rights.'' He also awarded considerable punitive damages against Cuba and its Air Force in order to ``serve in some small way as deterrent.'' The support of our senators and representatives has also been encouraging.

We are still searching for justice, however. We thought the idea simple. Civilized societies abhor murder and punish murderers. But our most important goal, having the Justice Department bring criminal charges against those directly responsible, still eludes us.

There is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we are constantly pressing the government for indictments. We understand that these would not be served now; we would be satisfied to have them ready for a time when the murderers can be brought to trial. Ruben Martines Puente, head of the Cuban Air Force, who authorized the shootdown, brothers Lorenzo Alberto and Francisco Perez y Perez, and Emilio Palacios Morales, the MiG pilots, should be among the indicted.

Armando and I were very close. Every day I miss our discussions over the rock wall, family gossip, phone calls. I am sure that if the situation were reversed my brother would never stop fighting to bring my murderers to justice. I can do no less for him.