wfn.org | Congressional Panel Restores Funding for School of the Americas

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

4-October-1999 
99324 
 
    Congressional Panel Restores Funding 
    for School of the Americas 
 
    Pastor Says Church Has a `Spiritual and Moral' Obligation 
    to Keep Fighting to Close Controversial Academy 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
WASHINGTON - Many Presbyterians hoped last summer's convincing House vote 
to trim funding for the controversial School of the Americas (SOA) would be 
the first step toward shutting it down. 
 
    After a decade of fighting on Capital Hill and demonstrating at the 
Pentagon, SOA opponents finally scored a congressional victory in July, 
when the House of Representatives approved an amendment to reduce funding 
of a program that enables foreign students to attend the training center at 
Fort Benning, Ga. 
 
    Last month, however, a Senate-House conference committee voted 8-7 to 
reverse the funding cut - although the House had approved it by a 33-vote 
margin. 
 
    SOA opponents knew the measure was unlikely to survive in the 
conference committee - and also knew that the proposed cut wouldn't close 
the school even if it were approved. 
 
    "Shame on them," said Meta Ukena, a former chair of the Presbyterian 
Peace Fellowship, which has long been active in the anti-SOA campaign. "We 
were disappointed, but at the same time strengthened by the closeness of 
the (conference committee) vote. We'll keep coming back - back to Congress. 
We'll keep up with the protests until this damn thing is closed." 
 
    Opponents said their spirits were not dampened by the setback. They 
vowed to keep fighting for the closing of the U.S. Army-operated military 
school sometimes called the "School of the Assassins," because its 
graduates include dictators, soldiers and paramilitary officers linked to 
human-rights abuses in Latin America. 
 
    In 1994, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) became the first religious 
denomination to adopt an official policy of calling for the SOA to be 
closed. Since then, church members, notably those of the Presbyterian Peace 
Fellowship, have taken part in numerous non-violent demonstrations. 
 
    "No, not a shock, but a big disappointment," said the Rev. Leonard 
Bjorkman, Peace Fellowship co-chair, when asked about the restoration of 
the budget cuts. "We know that we're in a real uphill battle, and we're 
prepared to stay for the long haul, until the school is closed." 
 
    Bjorkman's co-chair, Marilyn White, had a similar reaction. 
 
    "I am very disappointed that the Conference Committee did not support 
the will of the House of Representatives," said White, who was arrested in 
May during a protest at the Pentagon after she painted images of SOA 
victims on a sidewalk. 
 
     "The debate in the House was very convincing in establishing that the 
SOA is an obsolete artifact of the Cold War, and does not deserve another 
penny of our taxes," White continued. "As for the Presbyterian Peace 
Fellowship, we will continue to oppose the School of Americas until it is 
closed for good." 
 
    On July 29, the House voted 230-197 to cut the fund. That was the first 
conclusive House vote against SOA, but the measure died when House and 
Senate members met on Sept. 22 to iron out differences between their 
versions of next year's spending bills for foreign operations - including 
$2 million for SOA. 
 
    Eight House members of the committee, all Republicans, outvoted six 
Democrats and one Republican to overturn the House vote and maintain 
funding for the school. 
 
    An SOA official said in a recently published report that the 
committee's vote is a reflection of the importance of the school. 
 
    "We are very excited, and we feel that finally the American people, 
through Congress, have decided that the school is needed; and we're happy 
that it is over," said SOA spokesman Nicholas Britto. 
 
    Bjorkman said SOA is actually a symbol of a misguided U.S. policy in 
Latin America, and it is up to the church to continue fighting to close the 
school because it has a "spiritual and moral" obligation "to repent for the 
sins of the past of our government." 
 
    "We will have to stick with this for years to come," Bjorkman said by 
phone from Calvary Presbyterian Church in Auburn, N.Y., where he is interim 
pastor, "because the people there (in Latin America) need to have a 
relationship with us that is really one that fosters their lives, and not 
just fosters them as places for cheap labor while American CEOs make 
millions." 
 
    If the amendment been sustained, opponents of the SOA would have won 
only a moral victory; the budget cut would have had little impact on the 
school. However, the school's foes had hoped that their House victory would 
signal that the school should be closed, according to Rep. Joe Moakley, 
D-Mass., the congressional leader of school opponents. 
 
    Karin Walser, a spokesperson for Rep. Joe Moakley, D-Mass., the leader 
of SOA opponents in the House, said Moakley "feels that the House sent a 
very clear message to the United States Army that it wants the school 
closed." 
 
    The committee's vote has no effect on House and Senate bills calling 
for the school's outright closing. SOA opponents have a year to gather 
enough co-sponsors to bring the bills to a vote. 

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