wfn.org | House amendment cuts School of Americas funding

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 4, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom**(212) 870-3803**New York
10-21-32-71B{403}

By United Methodist News Service

A controversial military training school could receive a cut in funding if
the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Aid Bill is approved.

An amendment to that bill, approved July 30, would withhold about $1.5
million from the U.S. Army School of the Americas, based at Fort Benning,
Ga. The amendment, sponsored by Reps. Joseph Moakley, D-Mass., and Joseph
Scarborough, R-Fla., passed 230 to 197 and included the approval of more
than 50 Republicans. 

Several United Methodist bodies - including the Board of Church and Society
and the Council of Bishops - have joined the call for closing the School of
the Americas. The school, which trains soldiers from Latin America and the
Caribbean, has been accused of teaching techniques that promote military
abuse and the violation of human rights in those countries.

When United Methodist bishops approved a resolution on the school in spring
1998, they noted that it is "perceived by the marginalized to be a source of
oppression and a symbol of violence." Because of that, the bishops urged
President Clinton and Congress to close the school "as an act of solidarity
with the poor and the marginalized of Latin America."

Robin Ringler, a Board of Church and Society executive, called the House
amendment vote "a baby step in the right direction." Because the U.S.
Senate's foreign aid bill retains the school's funding, she encouraged
United Methodists to contact their senators, especially those on the foreign
operations subcommittee, about the issue.

The Board of Church and Society will present a resolution next May to
General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body, calling for the
School of the Americas to be closed.

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