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Church leaders and peace activists will converge on Fort Benning to
protest the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) on November 13-16
from 10 am to 5 pm. The School of the Americas, dubbed the "School
of Assassins," repeatedly has been cited by human rights groups,
including the UN Truth Commission, for training Latin America's worst
human rights abusers.
"We are expecting the largest gathering ever," predicted Carol
Richardson, Interim Director of the SOA Watch, the group that has
been organizing the annual November prayer vigil since 1990. "People
from all over the country are coming by the busloads to participate.
The SOA has left a trail of blood and suffering in every Latin
American country where the graduates have returned. We will not
allow the truth to be silenced about the School's 50 years of shame."
The November 16 vigil will commemorate the seventh anniversary of the
massacre of six Jesuit priests and two women co-workers at the hands
of SOA graduates in El Salvador. Rev. Gregory F. Lucey, S.J.,
President of the US Jesuit Conference, has called upon President
Clinton to put "an end to governmental funding of the School of the
Americas." In a letter to the President, Rev. Lucey asked, "How much
longer will the United States officially support such abuses by Latin
American militaries? Will more religious personnel be put at risk?"
The US Jesuit Conference is the national office of the Society of
Jesus in Washington, DC.
In a statement of solidarity for the November vigil, the priests and
religious of the Diocese of Chalatenago in El Salvador confirm,
"During the civil war in El Salvador, we saw with our own eyes the
terror and death learned at the School." In September, the
Department of Defense released seven SOA training manuals used to
instruct Latin American soldiers in such tactics as executions of
guerrillas, extortion, physical abuse, and paying bounties for enemy
dead. The DOD revelation confirmed what church leaders and peace
activists have long known: The SOA has a shameful history of
teaching Latin American military torture and murder to achieve their
political objectives.
During the November 1995 vigil, protesters were arrested as they
reenacted the 1989 Jesuit massacre. As a result, 13
people--including a 74 year old nun,a mother of 8, a California trial lawyers,
Catholic priests, and WWII and Vietnam veterans--served prison terms
in Federal institutions around the country. Maryknoll priest, Fr.
Roy Bourgeois, director of the SOA Watch is currently in the Atlanta
Federal Prison Camp and will not be released until mid-December.
Vigil organizers are planning another nonviolent civil disobedience
action on November 16. "We will plant a graveyard of crosses and
markers to honor the thousands in Latin America who have been
tortured, murdered, raped, kidnapped, beaten, arrested, intimidated
and silenced by the brutality of SOA graduates. We will speak for
those who can no longer speak. The School of Assassins must be
closed." Richardson said.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: CAROL RICHARDSON OR BILL MCNULTY
(706) 682-5369
Maryann Bell
Peace Studies Center
University at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4392
TELEPHONE: 516-632-7107
FAX: 516-632-7132