School
of assassinsLissa Rees reports on the growing annual protest outside the 'School of the Americas' in the United States.
SOA protest | 28-11-02
School
of assassins
Lissa
Rees reports on the growing annual protest outside
the 'School of the Americas' in the United States.
On 16 November 2002 around 12,000 people traveled to Fort Benning, Georgia, to participate in the 12th annual protest against the continuing existence of the School of the Americas and the repressive foreign policy of the US, which the school represents. The school's name was changed last year to the WHISC (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Co-operation), but its business is still the same: training members of the Latin American military in methods of terrorizing civilians through their disappearance, torture and murder.
Since
it was opened in Panama in 1946, the School has often been the subject of controversy.
After years of pressure, in 1996 the Pentagon was finally forced to make public
the training materials used at the School to teach soldiers methods of torture
and execution. These manuals are no longer in use, but the SOA continues to
teach terror, funded by US tax dollars.
Protesters came from all over the Americas to grieve for the thousands who have died at the hands of the school's graduates, to celebrate dissent and to bring their voices together to say: 'Shut it Down!' Speakers included Adriana Bartow of the Where Are The Children Now Campaign, Guatemala, Marino Cordoba of the National Association of Displaced Afro-Colombians, and Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of the SOAW (School of the Americas Watch). Music came from Indigo Girls and others, including the catchy Don't Pay Your Taxes, referring to the growing movement of resistance to paying taxes that fund war, and It's All About Oil, by Amy Martin, which provoked cheers in the audience.
The Puppetistas paraded giant papier mache figures through the crowd, representing the protesters who have been jailed for acts of civil disobedience against the SOA/WHISC in previous years, hope in the form of a huge yellow sun, and a gigantic pan-basher urging onlookers to express their dissent in a cacerolero inspired by the people of Argentina.
One of the main events of the weekend was the Vigil, which took place on Sunday afternoon. A huge column of protesters carrying white crosses with the names of some of the hundreds of thousands of victims of the SOA slowly moved towards to the gates of the School. They laid down their crosses at the foot of the gates, or wedged them into the fence, reminders of thousands of lives lost. Some figures, dressed in black, lay motionless on the ground, symbols of the dead. Later, removing the crosses and posters bearing the faces of so many children, so much potential lost, would some young soldier pause to read a name and wonder for a moment about that person; who they were, and who they left behind?
A handful of counter-protesters played loud music outside the vigil, in an attempt to disrupt the atmosphere. In contrast to the treatment of SOAW-organized protesters - who had to undergo body-searches by police on the way in to the protest area - counter-protesters were not searched and did not have to apply for a permit for their event. Ninety seven people were arrested by military police over the weekend for peaceably entering the base in acts of civil disobedience, said the SOAW. These included six nuns and a 12-year-old boy. Last year's protest drew about 7,000 people, and around 30 arrests.
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*** Check www.soaw.org for Latin American Solidarity events coming up in early 2003 ***
Lissa Rees for the NI website.
All photos courtesy of www.indymedia.org
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