Experiencing SOA Watch for themselves
SMWC group talks about protest
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By Kaiti Nease
Staff writer
"The question that kept running through my mind the whole weekend was what difference does my voice make? I can't stop thinking about it. I don't know if I have an answer," stated SMWC freshman Katherine Musser, after attending the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW).
More than 12,000 people gathered outside Fort Benning, Ga., on the weekend of Nov. 21-23 to protest the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly the School of the Americas). Fourteen SMWC students and SMWC Peace and Justice adviser Elaine Yaw traveled to Georgia for the protest, meeting up with Sisters of Providence, Providence Volunteer Ministers and SP employees.
The School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) was founded by Father Roy Bourgeois in 1990 and has met annually since then. WHINSEC is a military school that recruits and trains Latin American soldiers and police to fight the war on drugs in their native countries. The protest was created due to a long and violent history of torture and inhumane killing by WHINSEC graduates. Every year a delegation from the Sisters of Providence and a group of students hosted by the Peace and Justice committee attend the protest, which has come to resemble a festival of sorts.
"I didn't feel it (the SOAW) was anti-military or anti-Fort Benning, but we could be funding other things…we could be training educators and serve workers," said Musser.
Though the closing of WHINSEC is the reason for the gathering, each person there has his or her own unique story about how they came to be a part of the protest. Some, like Bill Strong of Princeton, N.J., are there because they have seen the work of WHINSEC graduates firsthand. Strong traveled to Guatemala with Witness for Peace, an organization advocating nonviolence. While there he saw the bodies of 172 women and children who had been slaughtered and thrown into a gulch because they would not tell the military where their husbands were hiding. Some protestors had actually lost family members to WHINSEC graduates.
WHINSEC is always open for visits by civilians, but as a chance to tell its side of the story, the school opens especially for tours during the Saturday morning of the protest each year. Five SMWC students and Yaw took advantage of the opportunity and sat in on an hour and half long question and answer session with key figures at WHINSEC, including the Commandant, Chaplain, three attorneys, and a commander who has been serving in Guatemala. Those in attendance were allowed to question the panel about the school's procedures.
The WHINSEC officials defended the school's ethics and human rights courses, and stated that while they regretted the atrocities in Latin America, the school cannot be held responsible for every graduate's actions. Catrina Decker, a sophomore at SMWC, disagrees. Decker was a part of the protest last year and was touched by the vigil. This year she went "behind enemy lines" to take part in the Q&A session. Her question pertained to the fact that the soldiers there are required to attend only 2 hours of ethics classes. "It is WHINSEC's responsibility to rebuild the soldier's moral and ethical code" after the military's social degradation process, she said. Decker also said the Q&A did open her eyes to the other side of the story and led her to believe the purpose of WHINSEC is good, but its methods need to change.
Strong also believes the school needs to change because, "You can always have apologies, but that doesn't help the people who were slaughtered."
Will Covert, another attendee of the protest, echoed Strong's sentiments. Covert is a member of Veteran's for Peace, having served time in the military but never seen combat. Veterans for Peace was just one of many organizations at the protest. The group hosts several events throughout the year to promote nonviolence and end America's dependency on war.
Covert is "homeless by choice" and travels the country attending protest events. He spoke out about holding the American government, President Bush in particular, responsible for their actions in Latin America, saying, "He (George W. Bush) is a war criminal and he needs to answer to the United States, and he needs to answer to the world, for what he's done." Although Covert has known about the protest for years, this was his first visit. "I'm extremely pleased to see so many young people. I'm getting to be an old man and we need replacements," stated Covert while explaining that the battle to end violence is an ongoing process.
One of the young people attending the protest was Susannah Parish, a student at Emery University in South Carolina. Parish learned about WHINSEC in her anthropology class and was mortified that such a thing existed so close to her home. She attended the protest this year, but the experience was not what she was expecting. "I don't know, I can't speak for the group, but I thought it would be really different from how it is. I was kind of expecting picket lines and you know, really militant kind of activists out here."
Parish was moved by the atmosphere at the protest, which takes place on the street leading to the gates of Fort Benning. "There's so much love here. There's all these different people. Old, young, middle aged, from all these different walks of life. I know that's like a total cliché, but it's true. It's so varied. That's really powerful," she said on Saturday while observing the general festivities.
In the last couple of years fences have been erected on each side of the street and orange barricades are placed at the beginning of the protest area to prevent cars from entering. Security has cracked down in recent years as well, with a police helicopter hovering above the protest this year. The helicopter also followed a group of protestors as they marched through the streets of Columbus. Police attempted to stop protestors from marching in the streets and arrested 6 people for crossing the line into WHINSEC. Since 1990 more than 280 people have collectively served over 100 years in prison after being arrested at the SOAW.
A stage is assembled directly in front of the gates to Fort Benning with speakers set up along the street. The live bands and various speakers perform on the stage. Various groups and organization set up tables along one side of the road to share information and sell their wares.
A few people set up displays in the middle of the street, such as the Beehive Coalition, which uses ink drawings of bees to illustrate the deplorable state of Colombia and the war on drugs there. A memorial for victims of a slaughter in Latin America is set up in the middle of the street as well. Articles of clothing with fake blood splatters are placed next to name cards and protesters are invited to lie in one of the spots.
Other protesters bring homemade signs or dress in carnivalesque costumes. On Sunday a ceremony is held in which the victims' names are sung out from the stage and each protester raises a cross while singing back, "Presente," which is the Spanish word for present. The idea is that someone is there to remember the lives that were taken; someone is still fighting to stop the injustice. As SMWC sophomore Christina Bonse said, "Having the names be remembered to show these people are being forgotten or are not going to fade because someone bigger than them wanted them to disappear." So what difference can one voice make? The protest is now in its 18th year, but there is hope among those involved that progress is being made. Find out more about WHINSEC and the SOAW online, talk to people who have been to the protest, or write to a Congressperson. The 2008 House of Representatives' last vote to begin defunding the school was the closest it has ever been, said Strong. Louise West of Denver said that when she spoke to her Congressman about it, he knew and understood the controversy surrounding the school. West and her husband have attended the protest for 5 years now. "Every year we hope will be the last year we have to go."
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