-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> <FONT COLOR="#000099">eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! </FONT><A HREF="http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/1406/_/974706856/"><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> 1. MEDIA ALERT! [**10,000 Gather at the gates of Ft. Benning Military Base to Close the US Army School of the Americas **3,600 Risk Arrest by Crossing the Line in Civil Disobedience **Simultaneous Action in Chiapas, Mexico] 2. 1,700 Arrested at School of the Americas Protest PEACE! ------ Close the School of Assassins! School of the Americas Watch http://www.soaw.org --------------------------------------------- 1. MEDIA ALERT! [**10,000 Gather at the gates of Ft. Benning Military Base to Close the US Army School of the Americas **3,600 Risk Arrest by Crossing the Line in Civil Disobedience **Simultaneous Action in Chiapas, Mexico] From: SOA Watch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: MEDIA ALERT! Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2000 20:43:52 -0800 Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Here is the press release that went out this evening on today's inspiring and totally nonviolent action. It was a triumph for all who perservered through the rain and heightened security to bear witness here at Ft. Benning. LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE POWER OF NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION!! We urge local groups to adapt this release for use in their local media work tomorrow and in the future. Please be aware that as of this hour (midnight EST) everyone has been released and is accounted for, to the best of our knowledge. School of Americas Watch PO Box 4566 ~ Washington DC 20017 ~ www.soaw.org PRESS ADVISORY***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***Nov. 19th 2000 Contact: Fr. Roy Bourgeois 706-682-5369, Randy Serraglio 706-682-3843 or 706-682-2979 **10,000 Gather at the gates of Ft. Benning Military Base to Close the US Army School of the Americas **3,600 Risk Arrest by Crossing the Line in Civil Disobedience **Simultaneous Action in Chiapas, Mexico Over 10,000 people from all over the Americas gathered at the gates of Ft. Benning today to demand the closure of the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). Over 3,600 risked arrest by crossing onto the base in a massive act of civil disobedience. Thousands were called to express their outrage at the deadly impacts of U.S. counterinsurgency training on Latin American communities. An estimated 2,000 protesters were arrested and processed. Hundreds of protesters, including clergy, students, veterans, grandparents and others are still being held on the base. At 11am, about 3,400 filed onto the base in a solemn funeral procession, carrying thousands of crosses and other sacred symbols inscribed with the names of victims of SOA violence in Latin America. They were led by a group dressed in black shrouds and white death masks who carried coffins to commemorate the assassination of six Jesuit priests and their two co-workers in El Salvador in 1989 by SOA graduates. When met by military police a half mile inside the gate, the lead group fell to the ground, reenacting a massacre. They were among the first to be carried away by the military police. Once the entire first procession had completely crossed the line, 32 additional activists, dressed as campesinos and soldiers, crossed the line and staged a massacre by Colombian paramilitaries. They were immediately taken into custody by military police. Then a second procession of 200 activists with giant puppets, costumes and drums entered the base. Other affinity groups entered simultaneously through different entrances and engaged in various creative actions of nonviolent resistance, such as street-theater and the blocking of the road with their bodies. Dozens of activists planted corn in Ft. Benning soil as a symbol of life and hope. In Chiapas, Mexico 300 members of the civil society group Las Abejas fasted and prayed simultaneously with the Georgia action. At great personal risk, Mexican human rights activists planted corn in soil at a military camp in Chiapas in a coordinated symbolic action. The vigil featured speakers from Chiapas and Colombia, as well as several other Latin American nations. Both Colombia and Chiapas have been targeted for massive U.S. military aid and counterinsurgency training. Colombia has more SOA graduates (10,000) than any other nation. Paramilitary death squads are a key element of civilian targeted warfare as it is taught at the SOA. In Colombia, former Defense Minister Gen. Harold Bedoya, SOA graduate and guest instructor, has advocated the use of paramilitaries for years. In Chiapas, Gen. Jose Ruben Rivas Pena, who took the elite Command and General Staff course at the SOA, has also called for the use of paramilitaries. Paramilitaries, in collaboration with the Colombian and Mexican militaries, are now cited for the vast majority of human rights abuses in these conflicts. �We know the names of the generals and the high-ranking officers implicated in these killings, and nothing has been done,� said Luis Eduardo Guerra, a Colombian peace activist whose community has repeatedly been targeted by paramilitaries. �We know that the officers who trained the paramilitaries were trained at the School of the Americas. ---------------------------------------------------- 2. 1,700 Arrested at School of the Americas Protest ---------------------------------------------------- From: "Claudia K. White" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Via Bay_Area_Activist list: http://www.egroups.com/community/bay_area_activist Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2000 21:01:28 -0800 Subject: !b_a_Act: [cia-drugs]1,700 Arrested at School of the Americas Protest Thanks everyone attending and participating in the SOAW, and look Martin Sheen is redeeming himself again ;) Peace In [EMAIL PROTECTED], David Goldman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Nov 19, 2000 - 08:27 PM 1,700 Arrested at School of the Americas Protest By Elliott Minor Associated Press Writer COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Police arrested 1,700 protesters who had marched into Fort Benning on Sunday demanding the closing of the Army's School of the Americas, a training center for Latin American soldiers. About twice that number, including actor Martin Sheen, had entered the west-central Georgia post, chanting and carrying cardboard coffins and crosses, while others continued the protest outside the gates. The demonstrations have been spearheaded for 11 years by Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest who served in Bolivia. Bourgeois blames the school for human rights abuses committed by some of the school's former students. Army officials termed the charge absurd. "I'd characterize it as false and as propaganda," Maj. Gen. John LeMoyne, the post commander, said at a news conference Sunday. "Roy's thesis is based on emotion and falsehood." Wearing plastic parkas, many of the protesters shivered in near-freezing temperatures and occasional rain as they marched to a point where they were halted by military and civilian police. Police officials estimated 6,500 people gathered outside the gate for the protest, about half the number that appeared last year. The group School of Americas Watch organizes the demonstrations each year near the anniversary of the Nov. 16, 1989, killings in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests. A United Nations panel found 19 Salvadoran officers involved in the slayings had been trained at the school, the group said. Col. G.T. Myers, Fort Benning's provost marshal, said most of the protesters arrested Sunday were charged with trespassing, given a warning and released. Some who poured fake blood on the street were charged with damaging government property, he said. A few of those charged may be prosecuted by the U.S. attorney's office, Myers said. Sheen, who plays the nation's president in the television show West Wing, was arrested, Myers said, but the colonel said he did not know what laws the actor was accused of breaking. Sheen has joined the protests for the past three years. All those arrested were given letters barring them from visiting Fort Benning for five years. Those barred from the post who are charged with trespassing there again within that period could be subject to a year in prison. Bougeois and Sheen gave brief pep talks before the march. "I have a directive I mean to share with you," Sheen said. "To the secretary of Defense: Dear Mr. Cohen, as the acting president of the United States, I want you to declare the School of the Americas closed." The School of the Americas is scheduled to close on Dec. 15 and be replaced by the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The new school will be run by the Defense Department, under guiding principles of the Organization of American States. Bourgeois has said the name change is just cosmetic and his group will continue to protest against the school. Shortly after Sheen's speech Sunday, he joined a procession that marched slowly through the post's main gate. At the front of the procession were demonstrators wearing white death masks, black robes and carrying coffins. After they had advanced about one-quarter mile, they poured fake blood on themselves and "died" in the street. Police rushed in to tag them, photograph them and cart them off on stretchers to waiting buses. Sister Mary Johnalyn, 68, of West Allis, Wis., said she was photographed, fingerprinted and given a "ban and bar" letter, meaning she is barred from Fort Benning for five years. She said she was charged with damaging U.S. property for spilling fake blood. "I was a missionary in Mexico and I found those people so loving," she said. "I don't want them to come up here and learn to be ugly murderers. I'm also here to honor those who suffered and died." Processing the large number of demonstrators could take until early Monday, Myers said. That wasn't good news for John Dunn, 27, of Cleveland. Dunn said he drove a charter bus with 50 passengers to Fort Benning and was expected to drive them back on Sunday night. He joined the demonstration impulsively. "I'm taking my chances like everybody else," he said. "It's a little more chancy for me because if I'm not there to drive them back, I'm in trouble." --- End forwarded message --- Reminder: HOLIDAY PELTIER GIFT DRIVE http://www.egroups.com/message/MainLineNews/8225 [Peltier Walk For Freedom, December 10 NY City] http://www.egroups.com/message/MainLineNews/7749 xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox Claudia White~Main Line News~Human & Civil Rights Campaign Internationale' http://www.angelfire.com/ut/Angel1 Main Line News: Web Read http://www.egroups.com/messages/MainLineNews xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo Pray for the Dine'h and traditional Hopi at Big Mountain, AZ, USA. http://members.xoom.com/senaa/HomePage.html xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Close the School of Assassins! School of the Americas Watch http://www.soaw.org *** If you've received this email from a different account than SOA Watch and you want to subscribe to the SOA Watch email list, send a blank email to <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] *** --------------------------------------------------------------------- Peace! *STRIDER* Sector Air Raid Warden at /RENEGADE/ /RENEGADE/ news_service: http://fornits.com/renegade/ DEDICATED TO SPIRIT, TRUTH, PEACE, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM e-list info: http://fornits.com/renegade/peaars.cgi?fetch=3763 usenet: news:alt.thebird news:misc.activism.progressive chat: http://jupiter.beseen.com/chat/rooms/i/1055/ e-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION -- Ethiopian Proverb
