12,000 GATHER IN GEORGIA TO PROTEST THE SOA
On November 20-21, 2000, thousands of veterans, students, Grandmothers for Peace, nuns, unionists, and others came to stand at the gates of Ft. Benning-home of the School of the Americas (SOA). They came to remember six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter murdered ten years before by SOA graduates in El Salvador. They came 12,000 strong from across the US, Latin America, and elsewhere to honor the countless SOA victims throughout Latin America. And they came to tell the Pentagon and the US Congress that the "School of Assassins" should be shut down.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL) sounded the call as did actor Martin Sheen, Fr. Dan Berrigan, SJ, and the many eloquent speakers. Rufina Amaya, survivor of the El Mozote massacre, spoke powerfully of the day SOA-trained soldiers murdered everyone in her village, and she wept as the names of her children and 900 friends and neighbors were sung as part of the funeral litany. Mexican labor organizer Eduardo Diaz told the familiar SOA story of military and paramilitary union busting tactics in his country. Colombian TV journalist Richard Velez, described how he was beaten in 1996 by military troops under the command of an SOA graduate. The crowd clapped and joined the singing as musicians from the US, Latin America, and Native America shared their songs and inspirations. Veteran peace activist Pete Seeger led the way. During the memorial service Sunday morning, Socamgi Lakota Grace Menard honored SOA victims with a Lakota Ceremonial Dance that signaled the beginning of the funeral procession. Dressed in liturgical garb, Catholic Worker Steve Jacobs (MO), student Laurel Pagent-Seekins (Oberlin College), and peace activist Margaret Knapke (OH) led the procession of mourners across the line onto Ft. Benning carrying coffins, crosses, and other symbols.
Military police arrested 65 of the 4,408 who "crossed the line" onto Ft. Benning to protest continued operation of the School of the Americas combat-training school run by the US Army for Latin American military. Of the 65 arrested, 23 will go on trial as early as February before the US federal district judge in Columbus, Georgia. The maximum sentence is six months in federal prison and a $5,000 fine. Most of those taken into custody were "High Risk Line Crossers" who led the massive funeral procession from the main-gate vigil site onto Ft. Benning. The High Risk group wore black mourning clothes and carried adult- and child-sized coffins to honor SOA victims. The procession moved forward to a litany of victim names sung by the thousands who stood vigil at the main gate of the US Army base. When military police confronted the procession about one mile in, the High Risk group staged a massacre, pouring blood-colored paint on themselves and the coffins. Oberlin College student Laurel Pagent-Seekins, Catholic Worker Steve Jacobs, and Margaret Knapke from the Dayton Pledge of Resistance acted as a liturgical team ministering to the massacre victims. Veteran peace activist Fr. Dan Berrigan, SJ, and actor Martin Sheen joined the team as they knelt by the dead among the coffins.
Over 4,000 mourners holding small white crosses and other symbols honoring the dead reverently filed by the massacre scene as military police attempted to escort them onto waiting buses. Several large groups of protestors refused to board and instead maintained their vigil inside Ft. Benning until dark. At that time they re-formed the funeral procession and returned to the main gate, where thousands waited in solidarity with the nearly 4,500 who had risked arrest on the Army base.
·Urge Your PBS Station to Air "Father Roy: Inside the School of Assassins," the 1-hour documentary about the SOA and the campaign to close it down. This program has aired on 140 PBS stations in 33 states. Some of the major cities where it has not yet shown are: Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Louis, Des Moines, New Orleans, San Diego, Rochester, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Birmingham, Austin, Oklahoma City, Richmond, VA, Washington, DC, and Portland, OR.
·Get Your Bishop and the Bishops' Conference on Board. Over 200 Catholic bishops from the US and Latin America support a resolution initiated by Bishops Gumbleton (Detroit) and Williams (Lexington) calling for closing the SOA. Check the <www.soaw-ne.org> for the complete list or call Linda Panetta (215) 473-2162. Thank your bishop if he has signed the letter. If he has not, urge him to do so immediately. Please also write Tom Quigley, USCC, 3211 4th St. NE, Washington, DC 20017. Urge the US Bishops' Conference to issue a support statement to close the SOA.
·Call Your Representatives and Senators. Urge them to co-sponsor SOA bills.
·HR 732, the bill to close the SOA, has 154 cosponsors. The companion Senate bill, S 873, has 15. Another SOA vote is likely. Check to see if your Rep. and Senators have signed on <www.soaw.org> or call SOAW (202) 234-3440.
·Write a Check to support our work to SOAW, P.O. Box 4566, Washington, DC 20017. Contributions to SOAW are not tax deductible.
Winter 2000
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