15,000 people protest the SOA/WHINSEC

by Twin Ports SOA Watch

Some of the Northlanders at the protest. Photo: Margaret N.

As the mainstream media looked the other way, a major human rights gathering took place this weekend in Columbus, GA. Some 15,000 people from across the Americas converged there for three days of teach-ins, networking and a protest against the US Army's School of the Americas/WHINSEC. Resistance movement leaders and human rights activists from Haiti, Honduras, Mexico and Colombia joined us -- a stark, country-by-country reminder that the US is not only taking the wrong path in Afghanistan, but in this hemisphere, too.

Dozens of people from the Twin Ports and Ashland took part in the weekend's events, including our largest ever Duluth student delegation. Rachael Kilgour represented the Northland at the main stage of the protest and at an evening benefit concert in downtown Columbus, singing some of her own songs and protest standards. In addition to official SOA Watch events, Duluth activists also joined migrant workers picketing grocery stores in Columbus for fair wages and stopped along the way in Atlanta to protest Coca-Cola's collaboration with death squads.

Despite occasional threats and harassment by Columbus and military police, the event went largely as planned. Michael Walli of Duluth was arrested on Sunday after he and three others attempted to enter Ft Benning. He refused to post bail but was released on his own recognizance on Monday pending a January trial.

Thanks to the Duluth Central Labor Body, the St Scholastica Monastery, and CSS Student Senate for making it possible for Duluth-area students to take part in this incredible event. Look for a report-back sometime in December, but in the meantime you can check out the photos after the jump.

People begin to arrive at Ft Benning's main gate. The Honduran coup and pending
US-Colombia military agreement are at the forefront of everyone's minds.

Margaret N. from CSS stands at the main gate. Three rows of fencing and
hundreds of MPs protect the base from those dangerous college students and nuns.

Big brother was watching.

The crowds swell to the thousands. The roots of SOA Watch are in Catholic resistance movements, including many nuns and priests who served as missionaries and were themselves imprisoned and tortured under brutal right-wing regimes in Latin America. While the protest has grown more inclusive over the years, many symbols of the that early movement -- including white crosses to commemorate the dead -- remain.

This die-in along the route of the protest commemorates the 700 women, men and children massacred in El Mozote, El Salvador by SOA graduates in 1980.

CSS and UMD students collect donations to support SOA Watch.

A puppet pageant commemorated the 20th anniversary of the murder of 6 Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her 16-year old daughter at the University of Central America in El Salvador.

The weekend ended with a solemn procession to commemorate the victims of SOA graduates. As the names of thousands of victims were read aloud from the stage, activists transformed Ft Benning's main gate into a memorial.

Oberstar joins House in snubbing international humanitarian law

By a vote of 344 to 36, with 22 members voting "present", the US House of Representatives yesterday passed a non-binding resolution dismissing a UN report on war crimes committed during Israel's 2008 assault on Gaza. The report, authored by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, concluded that both Hamas and to a larger extent the Israeli Defense Forces violated international law by targeting hospitals, schools, UN buildings, homes, food stores and other infrastructure necessary for human survival during the 2008 war. Goldstone's conclusions are supported by both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, but the pro-war resolution passed by members of Congress (most of whom presumably have not bothered to read the report), "considers the `Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict' to be irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy."

The resolution stands in a long line of "irredeemably biased" statements issued by Congress in recent years that both distort the facts on the ground and grant virtual impunity to Israel for any act of war against its neighbors or the people of the Occupied Territories. On November 4, a coalition of human rights groups issued their own statement calling on the UN General Assembly to endorse the Goldstone report, saying: "this is an opportunity for the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to send a clear message to Israeli and Palestinian leaders that civilians, regardless of their nationality, religious or ethnic background, are not legitimate targets of attack."

James Oberstar voted with the majority and Dave Obey voted "present." You can call Oberstar's office in DC at (202) 225-6211, or Duluth at (218) 727-7474 and express your disappointment.

Several Minnesota representatives showed the courage to stand up against the resoltion. Both Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison voted NO. Keep reading for McCollum's statement before the House.

Congresswoman Betty McCollum

Statement in support of human rights and in opposition to H. Res. 867

November 3, 2009

Madam Speaker, this resolution harms U.S. national security interests in the Middle East and American leadership for human rights and humanitarian law. And, while the U.S. attempts to be an honest-broker in an Israeli-Palestinian peace process this resolution is blatantly biased and damages U.S. credibility.

This resolution seeks to hide the ugliness of the Gaza War by covering-up the violent excesses committed against innocent civilians by Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces.

Why does the U.S. House want to reject an accounting of Hamas’s terrorism against Israeli civilians as if thousands of rockets were not fired at Israel ?

Why does this resolution want to deny that hundreds of Palestinian women and elders were needlessly killed by the IDF?

American made white phosphorus shells were used by Israel in civilian areas causing horrible burns to Palestinian children, yet this resolution refuses to seek the truth?

The report Congress is burying today was led by a former chief prosecutor for war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, a jurist of exceptional experience who has faced far tougher actors than his critics in this chamber, critics who have not held a single hearing or conducted a single fact-finding mission on the subject of his report.

There must be only one standard for respecting human rights, a single standard by which we must hold ourselves, our friends, and our adversaries accountable. Establishing situational standards for respecting human rights is dishonest and only encourages actions that destroy human dignity and life.

Therefore I agree with U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon who recently said at the Anti-Defamation League’s annual dinner that he is “a friend who is acutely aware of Israel 's security needs.” But on the issue of the Goldstone report Secretary Ban said, "When human rights are violated anywhere in the world we need accountability."

Today, I would ask my colleagues to vote for human rights and accountability by voting against this resolution.

Vigil and Direct Action to close the SOA/WHINSEC

by Twin Ports SOA Watch

What do the coup plotters in Honduras, death squads in Colombia, and union-busting security forces in Mexico have in common? They were all trained on the US taxpayers' dime at the School of the Americas/WHINSEC in Ft Benning, Georgia.

It would be difficult for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist government. That’s impossible.

SOA grad and Honduran Army Attorney Col. Herberth Inestroza,
justifying the military coup to the Miami Herald

Over the weekend of November 21-22, tens of thousands of people will converge at Ft Benning to say no to the SOA/WHINSEC and the repressive foreign policy it represents. We are closer than ever to passing legislation in Congress to close and investigate the school, and a strong showing at this protest is critical.

Our neck of the woods has always been well-represented at SOA protests, and this year will be no different. If you can join us, please do. If you can't, consider making a donation to offset costs for those who can.

(photo: Honduran general and SOA graduate Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, leader of the military coup that toppled democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya).


RIDES to the Protest

* Students and staff at UMD and LSC ONLY, contact Steve at wickx079(at)d(dot)umn(dot)edu or 612-501-0269. Cars depart Friday a.m. and return Monday evening. Thanks to the Duluth Central Labor Body, travel and housing expenses per person will be minimal.

* Students and staff at St Scholastica ONLY, contact Signey at SOlson7(at)css(dot)edu. School vans depart Thursday and Friday, and return Monday evening. Only $20/person for travel and housing, thanks to support from Student Senate.

* Other members of the community, contact Joel at soawtwinports(at)riseup(dot)net or 218-340-4356 for carpool info.

DONATE

A big thanks to the Duluth Central Labor Body and CSS Student Senate for generously sponsoring student travel to the protest!

But please consider pitching in a few dollars to help defray travel expenses for other northlanders - they are spending a lot of time on the road and taking time off work to represent us in Georgia! Checks can be made out to Veterans for Peace, earmarked "SOAW", and sent to:

Veterans for Peace
c/o Andy Anderson
16 E St Andrews St
Duluth, MN 55803