|
|
|
|
|
CLICK
HERE BELOW FOR LATEST UPDATES
TO CURRENT 5 DAYS
CURRENT DATE IN HISTORY << 2 days back| < Previous day| |Next day > |2 days ahead >> |
  2000 Dec 15: School for dictators, torturers and assassins to change name. The "School of the Americas", in Fort Benning, Georgia, a U.S. army facility critics have labeled a school for dictators, torturers and assassins is being closed today under that name, to reopen on 17 January 2001 as the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.”. The list of graduates from the School of the Americas is a who’s who of Latin American despots. Students have included Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri of Argentina, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Other graduates cut a swath through El Salvador during its civil war, being involved in the 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the El Mozote massacre in which 900 peasants were killed, and the 1989 murders of six Jesuit priests. On 17 January, the same school will reopen in the same location, to be run by the Defense Department rather than the Army. It will be known as the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.” In an article distributed by the SOA, Army Secretary Louis Caldera hypocritically said that he hoped the move would end years of “acrimonious debate” over the school. But the military is doing nothing more than changing the name of a school that over the years has won the name “School of the Assassins.” “I am worried that nothing will change,” said Rep. Joe Moakley, D-Mass., who spearheaded the effort in Congress to close the school. “In one month, the School of the Americas with a new name will reopen in the exact same place, it will train the exact same Latin American soldiers, but I sincerely hope some of its graduates will not go on to commit the exact same horrendous human rights violations,” Moakley said. The School of Americas Watch activist group, which over the years has staged numerous protests outside its gates, said it would step up its campaign to close the new institute as well. “It’s like taking a bottle of poison and labeling it penicillin. It’s still deadly,” said the group’s founder, Roy Bourgeois. Human Rights or Foreign Policy? The SOA, which began life in Panama, has trained more than 63'000 soldiers from 21 countries. It claims that instilling a respect for human rights and democracy in soldiers from a region traditionally plagued by military rule and repression is a keystone of its training, particularly since the end of the Cold War and the dwindling of leftist insurgencies. Critics, however, said that in that era human rights considerations took second place to U.S. foreign policy aims. Ever since the years of civil war in Central America, annual public protests outside the school’s gates and an ongoing campaign have been the focus of public attention for those who have opposed the school. But SOA commandant Col. Glenn Weidner said the human rights situation in many Latin American countries has “improved dramatically” because of the training and U.S. demands for more accountability from its allies. “With the end of the Cold War and the resolution of many of the armed conflicts in the region, the challenges in Latin America have changed,” Weidner said, according to the Army News Service. The Army has always maintained the School of the Americas is nothing more than an education facility. It says it cannot be responsible for those officers who may have attended the school briefly and then gone on to commit human rights abuses in their own countries. But clearly opposition has had its impact. The House of Representatives decided in May to close the school, after demands from a number of U.S. politicians. In the fiscal year 2001 defense spending bill recently passed by Congress, the new institute was formally established with what proponents insist will be key changes that will solve past problems. For example, classes will now focus on topics such as peacekeeping, disaster relief and counterdrug operations rather than classic Cold War training in counterinsurgency. Human rights teaching will be a pillar. And now that the school will be run by the Defense Department, students can come from outside the military — including Latin American police departments and civilian government agencies. At least some of these changes were already under way however at the old School of the Americas. So critics and Congress will be watching closely throughout the coming months to see if improvements in the new school are permanent. |
|
http://www.soaw.org/
School
of the Americas Watch The US Army School of Americas, based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American soldiers in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. Graduates of the SOA have been responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians. SOA Watch is an independent organization that seeks to close the US Army School of the Americas through vigils and fasts, demonstrations and nonviolent protest, as well as media and legislative work. The changes to the SOA put forth in the 2001 Defense Authorization Bill are scheduled to take place January 17, 2001. On that date the SOA will close and be reborn under the name of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. In May 2000 the US House of representatives voted by a narrow ten vote margin to accept Administration / DOD sponsored "reforms" attached to the Defense Authorization Bill (HR4502). Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen, the chiefs of the Army and Navy, the Commandant of the SOA, General Colin Powell, and others lobbied Representatives in the days and weeks before the vote to pressure them to pass the proposal. Two hundred four Representatives stood up to the White House and DOD, and voted for the Moakley/Scarborough Amendment which would have closed the school, but in the final count, the Pentagon was able to muster the votes it needed to keep running business as usual at the SOA. On January 17, 2001 the SOA will be renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. However, the School of the America's continuing connection to atrocities and human rights abuses remains unacknowledged, unaddressed, and unchanged. Even SOA supporter, the late Senator Paul Coverdell, characterized the changes as "cosmetic", saying they would ensure that the old SOA could continue its mission and operation. The reasons to close the SOA still exist, including: (to name just a few…) SOA Graduates continue to commit atrocities. For example: Notorious
Graduates
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
http://www.ciponline.org/facts/soa.htm:
The School of the Americas (SOA), located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, is the U.S. Army’s Spanish-language training facility for Latin American military personnel. Established in 1946, the school, along with the U.S. Air Force's Inter-American Air Forces Academy (IAAFA), attracts the largest number of Latin American military students. The Army’s operations and maintenance account pays the school’s fixed costs. Student tuition costs are covered mainly by grants through the International Military Education and Training (IMET) and International Narcotics Control (INC) programs, or purchases of training through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. The school has been questioned for years, as it trained many military personnel before and during the years of the "national security doctrine" -- the dirty war years in the Southern Cone and the civil war years in Central America -- in which Latin American militaries ruled or had disproportionate government influence and committed serious human rights violations. Training manuals used at the SOA and elsewhere from the early 1980s through 1991 promoted techniques that violated human rights and democratic standards. SOA graduates continue to surface in news reports regarding both current human rights cases and new reports on past cases. Defenders of the school, however, argue that they do not teach abuse, and that today the curriculum includes human rights as a component of every class. They also argue that no school should be held accountable for the actions of only some of its graduates. Section 911 of the 2001 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5408) adds a new section 2166 to Title 10, U.S. Code (the part of U.S. law that governs the military). The new section makes several largely superficial changes to the School of the Americas' name and mandate. The
Fort Benning facility is to be renamed the "Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. “ The
renamed school's official purpose shall be "to provide
professional education and training to eligible personnel
of nations of the Western Hemisphere within the context
of the democratic principles set forth in the Charter
of the Organization of American States ... while fostering
mutual knowledge, transparency, confidence, and cooperation
among the participating nations and promoting democratic
values, respect for human rights, and knowledge and understanding
of United States customs and traditions. “ Codifying
an existing school policy, the new law requires that each
student receive at least eight hours of instruction in
"human rights, the rule of law, due process, civilian
control of the military, and the role of the military
in a democratic society. “ The
new law allows Latin American civilians and police
personnel to attend the school, and requires that the
Secretary of State be consulted in the selection of
students. Courses
given at the school must focus on leadership development,
counter-drug operations, peace support operations,
disaster relief, or "any other matter the Secretary
[of Defense] deems appropriate. “ It is not clear
whether this provision will require any specific changes
in the school's curriculum.
|
|
| The "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation" is authorized by section 2166 of Title 10,
U.S. Code. Section 4415 of Title 10, which formerly authorized the School of the Americas, was repealed by section 911 of the 2001 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5408). The changes the new law makes to the school are enumerated in the bulleted list above. The 2000 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill required the Secretary of Defense to provide a certification of doctrine and a new report on training and graduates' performance by January 15, 2000. The certification and report are available on the SOA web site. |
site safe for children 