| PHILADELPHIA
- October 2 - “Resistance against oppressive US foreign policy and the
School of Assassins is a necessity, not a crime!” This was the presiding tone
among the more than 50 supporters who held vigil outside the Philadelphia
courthouse this morning as the five SOA Watch activists went on trial for
peacefully protesting the School of the Americas (SOA), located at Ft. Benning,
GA. Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, from Detroit, Michigan, offered eloquent
testimony about the atrocities committed by graduates of the SOA. Represented
by former Pennsylvania Attorney General Shane Creamer (who took the case pro
bono) and Public Defender Shawn Nolan, the activists were acquitted on all
charges (disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, obstructing justice, obstructing
a highway, and conspiracy to obstruct a highway).
During the Republican National Convention (July 31, 2000), the five enacted a
massacre carried out by SOA graduates, presided over by Uncle Sam. Defendant
Laurel Paget-Seekins stated, “We put the SOA on trial today and the verdict
shows that the real crime is the training of soldiers to repress their own
people. We will continue to nonviolently act to close this school of terror
until it is shut down for good.”
The growing public outcry over the SOA and the exposure of the atrocities
perpetrated by its graduates has moved Congress to action. Legislation to
close the school gradually gained bipartisan support, forcing the Pentagon to
rename the SOA: the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, in
January 2001. The Defense Department’s intent was to disassociate the school
from its murderous past, but the citizens’ movement and Congress were not
fooled. On May 10, 2001, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the House (HR
1810) to close the SOA and investigate the relationship between the training
and the countless human rights abuses perpetrated by graduates of the school.
During its 55-year history, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American
soldiers. It continues to train hundreds of soldiers yearly in combat skills
such as commando tactics, mine warfare, military intelligence and psychological
operations. SOA-trained troops return home to wage war against their own
civilian population. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been
tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred and forced into refugee
camps by those trained at the SOA.
During the course of a decade, 75 SOA opponents have spent over 40 years
collectively in federal prisons for nonviolent acts of civil resistance to SOA
violence. The “SOA Philly 5” commit themselves to working in solidarity with
the 24 nonviolent resisters who are currently in federal prisons by continuing
their witness to close this school of torture.
(See second page for biographies of the defendants)
For more information, and to view photos of the protest visit: www.soawne.org
“SOA Philly 5"
These human rights activists were arrested while acting out a massacre
committed by graduates of the School of the Americas (SOA), commonly referred
to as the “School of Assassins.” For years the training at the SOA included
manuals advocating the use of torture, kidnappings and executions. The street
theater was a creative attempt to bring the reality of the violence being waged
against the poor and indigenous communities throughout Latin America to the
streets of Philadelphia.
Ally Styan, 18, is a recent high school graduate from Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania and is currently working in the national office of SOA Watch.
Ally has traveled to Nicaragua and Chiapas, Mexico to look at the effects of US
foreign policy on the people of Latin America. These experiences led Ally to
organize the Youth Coalition for Human Rights, a social justice group at her
high school. Since the RNC, Ally has continued in her work to bring justice
and peace to the people of the Global South. She has continued to put her body
on the line in acts of civil disobedience to call attention to the violence of
the SOA.
Laurel Paget-Seekins, 21, grew up in Philo, California. She graduated with
honors from Oberlin College with a degree in mathematics and liberation
struggles studies. Laurel has been working to close the School of the Americas
for four years, co-coordinating an active student SOAW chapter in Oberlin,
Ohio. She has traveled to Ft. Benning, Georgia, six times to protest the SOA.
Last January, she was part of a 31-day fast and vigil at the gates to Ft.
Benning. Laurel is dedicated to nonviolence and to acting to create a more
just world.
Rebecca Johnson, 22, a recent graduate of Oberlin College and a social justice
activist, has spent nearly four years organizing to close the school of
assassins. In January 2001 she organized a 31-day fast and vigil at the gates
of Ft. Benning to draw attention to the reopening of the school under a
different name. As a woman of nonviolence, Becky hopes to denounce terrorism
in this trial, especially terrorism funded by the US government in Latin
America. As she mourns in the wake of the September 11 tragedy, she asks, “Are
our hands clean?”
Bill Brown, 32, lives and works in Philadelphia. Bill has been involved with
the human rights movement in the Philadelphia area for several years spending
the last three focusing on the School of the Americas. Bill has been to Ft.
Benning three times, crossing the line twice, most recently acting as a
peacekeeper. Bill completed a 14-day fast in April 2000 to draw attention to
the crimes of the SOA. Bill has lobbied for the closure of the school, helping
to hold our public officials accountable for how our tax dollars are spent.
Bill was part of an SOA Watch affinity group that ventured to Quebec this past
spring to protest the FTAA.
Linda Panetta, 35, from Medford, NJ, is founder of SOA Watch/NE. She has been working extensively on Latin American issues for the past 15 years. She lived
and worked in Guatemala and Nicaragua in the late 1980’s, and in Oaxaca, Mexico
in the mid-90’s. She recently returned from Colombia, and continues to travel
to Latin America working on human rights issues. Linda is the producer and
director of the award winning documentary “School of the Americas: An Insider
Speaks Out!” (over 6,000 copies sold), and author of the book “Solidarity in
Action.” She does extensive lecturing, and has directed the effort with Bishop
Gumbleton, which to date has resulted in a resolution signed by over 300
bishops calling for the closure of the SOA. Linda is a freelance photographer
documenting, among other things, the realities in Latin America.
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