wfn.org | House Trims Funding for 'School of the Assassins'

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

16-August-1999 
99261 
 
    House Trims Funding for `School of the Assassins' 
 
    Presbyterians say their war against controversial program 
    is far from over 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
WASHINGTON - Opponents of a controversial U.S. military academy accused of 
training murderers recently scored their first legislative victory in a 
decade-long campaign to close the so-called "School of the Assassins." 
 
    The U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), in Fort Benning, Ga., has 
been the target of widespread criticism by human-right activists and church 
people because many of its graduates have been implicated in murders and 
egregious human-rights violations. 
 
    On July 29, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 230-197 in favor of 
cutting some funding for the school. While welcoming news of the vote, 
opponents noted that the battle is far from over. The measure would not 
necessarily close the school but would only trim its budget. 
 
    "This victory is just one step in the effort to close the School of the 
Americas," said Marilyn  White, co-chair of the Presbyterian Peace 
Fellowship, which has been active in the campaign against the SOA. "If this 
amendment survives a conference with the Senate and makes it into the final 
version of the bill, it will still only reduce the funding by 10 percent. 
I'm delighted that the amendment passed with a 33-vote margin, but we still 
have work to do." 
 
    In 1994, the 206th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
approved an overture calling for the SOA's closure. The action, the first 
of its kind by a major religious denomination, was upheld a year later 
despite a move to overturn it by the Flint River Presbytery in Georgia, 
which includes Fort Benning. 
 
    "We're very enthused that we won this vote ... (because) it's the first 
time we ever won, and also because it was by a pretty good margin," said 
Heather Dean, legislative and research coordinator for the School of the 
Americas Watch, a Washington, D.C. group that opposes the school. "At the 
same time, we haven't declared it a final victory." 
 
    Opposition to the SOA mounted in 1989 after some of its graduates in El 
Salvador were linked to the murders of six Jesuit priests, their 
housekeeper and her daughter. Pressure to close the school has been 
increasing steadily with annual demonstrations at Fort Benning sponsored by 
the School of the Americas Watch. 
 
    "I think it's just encouraging that Congress has for the first time 
publicly made it clear that they don't want to be associated with the kinds 
of abuses that have occurred related to SOA graduates," said Dean, "and I 
think that's a very encouraging step forward." 
 
    In 1993, after former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy, D-Mass., introduced a 
proposal to eliminate some funding of the SOA, the measure was defeated 
256-174. Last year, the House voted down a similar bill, sponsored by Joe 
Moakley, D-Mass., but the vote was much closer - 212-201. 
 
    "We are in fact whittling away at the school and the evil that it's 
doing, even though the school still remains open, and still remains a 
symbol of the worst of U.S. policy," said Peace Fellowship member Bill 
Galvin of Baltimore, Md., who was arrested (as was White) during an 
anti-SOA protest in Washington in May. The charges were later dismissed. 
"Even people who don't want to confront that policy see there's still some 
things that are seriously morally wrong here, and are willing to whittle 
away at it. But it's not over yet; we still have a long way to go." 
 
    The House actually voted to eliminate funding for scholarships for 
students from foreign countries. Estimates of the amount center around $2 
million, according to Karin Walser, a spokesperson for Moakley. 
 
    "The School of the Americas has trained some of the most brutal 
assassins, some of the cruelest dictators and some of the worst abusers of 
human rights the Western Hemisphere has ever seen," Moakley said on the 
House floor before last month's late-night vote. "If we don't stand for 
human rights down in Georgia, how can we possibly expect to promote them 
anywhere else in the world?" 
 
    The Defense Department's own budget provides about $3 million for the 
school, which has turned out such notorious graduates as former dictators 
Manuel Noriega of Panama and Augusto Pinochet of Chile. The School of the 
Americas trains about 2,000 Latin American soldiers a year at a cost of $20 
million. Course topics at the SOA include combat skills, commando tactics, 
military intelligence and torture techniques. 
 
    Army officials acknowledge that a few SOA graduates have committed 
crimes, but claim the program is largely responsible for the growth of 
democracy in Latin America. They also point out that the curriculum 
includes a mandatory course in human rights. 
 
    "U.S. soldiers didn't and don't encourage the criminal acts that were 
committed by those foreigners - never did, don't, never will," Col. Glenn 
Weidner, the school's commandant, said in a recent interview. 
 
    Those who oppose the SOA hope the commanding 33-vote margin in the 
House will prompt the Senate to take up the issue for the first time. They 
also intend to press for a House vote to close the school entirely. 
 
     "It could go either way, actually, on that committee," said Dean, 
referring to a House-Senate conference committee that will consider the 
measure next month. "I think that there's some very strong members on that 
committee who support us, and there are also quite a few who don't. But 
we're going to be working really hard on that." 
 
 
    Some information for this story is from The Columbus (Ga.) Ledger- 
Enquirer newspaper. 

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