wfn.org | Presbyterians say School of Americas makeover would be a matter of

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Note #6132 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

"new name, same shame"
24-July-2000
00269

Presbyterians say School of Americas makeover would be a matter of "new
name, same shame"

Military school would add human-rights courses, recruit civilian students

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The U.S. Army School of the Americas, marred by years of
controversy over its training tactics and the behavior of its graduates, is
on the brink of an overhaul that would include a new name, a new curriculum
and new emphasis on a civilian presence.
	But to Presbyterian Marilyn White, a longtime opponent of the training
center for Latin American military officers in Fort Benning, Ga., "it's a
new name, same shame."
	She and other Presbyterians vow to continue fighting to close the school. 
	"It's a face-lift. Maybe not even that," said White, co-chair of the
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF), which staunchly opposes the school in
accordance with a 1994 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly
resolution calling for its closure. The Assembly reaffirmed that position in
1995 and has maintained that stance ever since.
	The school has trained more than 60,000 Latin American military and police
in counter-insurgency warfare over the last 50 years, focusing on combat
arms, military intelligence, psychological operations and commando tactics.
Critics have long accused SOA graduates of turning that training against
populations in their home countries. But the Army's plans to reorganize the
school took a step forward on July 13 when the U.S. Senate approved the
National Defense Authorization Act for 2001, including proposed changes for
the School of the Americas (SOA).
	The Army hopes the overhaul -- which would  require students to enroll in
human-rights courses -- will silence detractors by changing the school's
strictly military focus to a more academic one.	Under the measure the SOA
would officially "close" and "reopen" under a new name: "Western Hemisphere
Institute for Professional and Educational Training." Once political
approval is granted, the changes would take effect by February 2001.
	The Army recently proposed the changes after mounting opposition to the
school from religious groups, including the PC(USA), the first denomination
officially to call for shutting down the military academy. The proposed
changes are also aimed at quieting congressional critics. The U.S. House of
Representatives in May narrowly rejected an amendment that would have closed
down the school, which is about 85 miles southwest of Atlanta.
	Proposed changes for the school do not impress long-time SOA opponent Ann
Huntwork, a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland, Ore., who
called the fight to close the military training ground a "long-term effort"
in which religious groups must continue taking the lead.
	"This movement is so much more based among people of faith ... than most
other political movements. I think that's one of the sources of its power,"
said Huntwork, a medical social worker who, along with her physician
husband, Bruce, served as a medical missionary in Iran for 12 years. "I also
think it's the reason why they've been able to keep a really non-violent
witness."
	Huntwork, who was barred from Fort Benning after being arrested there
during two previous demonstrations, is awaiting a court date for her part in
digging a shallow grave on post with five other anti-SOA demonstrators in
March. Huntwork and the others intended to bury a child-sized coffin and
plant flags representing nations where children were allegedly murdered by
soldiers connected to the School of the Americas. They had just come from
attending a hearing for protesters arrested during an earlier demonstration.
	"When you actually look at what is proposed," Huntwork said, "there's
nothing that looks like any change of any significance at all."	Meta Ukena,
who has joined White and other PPF members in SOA demonstrations, denounced
the proposed retooling as a "stupid" public-relations "smokescreen" to clean
up the school's unsavory reputation.
	"It is ‘a rose by any other name,'" said Ukena, quoting a line from
Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" to suggest that the school's military
mission would remain unchanged despite a new name.
	"I think it shows they're running scared and felt they had to do
something," said Ukena, a PPF member and Vermont, N.Y., resident who vowed
to continue protesting against the SOA. "They had to do something to let the
likes of us see that they are serious about changing the place. That is said
with irony because it hasn't changed any."
	Presbyterian Anne Barstow, also a PPF member, mirrored Ukena's comments,
calling the proposed changes "purely cosmetic" and asserting that "it's
business as usual at the School of the Americas."
	"Clearly we have put them on the defensive," said the resident of New York
City and New England, who has participated in protests against the school.
"They felt they had to make this change in name. It proves the huge amount
of pressure that we are putting on them (is having an impact)."
	The SOA's director of public affairs, Nicolas Britto, said by telephone
that critics have unfairly tarnished the school's reputation because of the
actions of a very few graduates. He said enrollment there includes American
as well as Latin-American soldiers, and word of a curriculum that includes
torture and other inhumane warfare tactics is untrue. He said the school has
been unfairly characterized as "the School of the Assassins."
	"First of all, all these things about a School of the Assassins, that we
train people to rape, that is totally a flat lie," Britto said. "Those
things have never been taught at the school or at any military school in the
United States. Whether it is an Army school, Navy school, Air Force or
anything else. Those things are illegal. And the military of the United
States is not above the law."
	Britto said there are regular public tours of the school, noting that SOA
officials recently played host to a congressional delegation of 16 staff
members, and that nearly two-dozen teachers from Wisconsin are scheduled to
visit soon. He said a Lutheran church group and 20 college students from
Minnesota also had visited.
	"We don't hide anything," he said. "You can come here and see what we
have." Britto added that between 900 to 1,000 Latin-American and U.S.
soldiers enroll in the school's 58 classes each year.
	"So when you are accusing the School of the Americas of teaching torture
and rape," Britto said, "you are accusing soldiers of the United States
Army, not just the Latin Americans."
	Also planned for the school is an advisory board to include members of
Congress and human-rights leaders. The Department of Defense would assume
authority over the school from the Army, and students would be required to
take courses in human rights, the rule of law, due process, civilian control
of the military and the role of military in civilian states. The school
would also step up its recruitment of civilian students and faculty.
	The Senate package now goes back to the House of Representatives, which
previously adopted its own changes for the SOA by a 10-vote margin.
	White, who resides in suburban Houston, Texas, does not support the changes
and said they will not diminish the peace fellowship's opposition to the
school. She called the makeover "cosmetic," and said she believes the
school's emphasis will remain the same.
	"The school will still continue training Latin-American military
personnel," White said. "Many of them are members of military organizations
that are not accountable to civilian authority in a way we would expect in
this country. The human rights record in many of the countries continues to
be atrocious, and any support for those military organizations is
unacceptable."
	The Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest and Vietnam War veteran, has
organized protests against the school for a decade from his residence near
Fort Benning, Ga.. He said he is not impressed with the proposed changes.
His SOA Watch group is preparing to hold its 11th vigil outside the main
gate of Fort Benning on Nov. 18 and 19. Bourgeois, who launched the campaign
after graduates of the school were linked to the 1989 murders of six Jesuit
priests and two women
in El Salvador, said demonstrations will continue until the school closes
its doors permanently.
	"This does not change anything," he told the Presbyterian News Service from
Columbus, Ga., where Fort Benning is located. "You don't teach democracy
through the barrel of a gun. If they really want to teach democracy they
should shut down the school and send those soldiers to some of the finer
U.S. colleges and universities."

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