CPTNet
FT. BENNING, GA: CPT at SOA
November 19, 2001

Five CPTers and supporters were among 85 people arrested for trespassing on
Sunday during a solemn funeral procession at Fort Benning, home of the U.S.
Army School of the Americas (SOA). In addition, thirty people maintaining a
sit-in through the evening outside the gates of the base were arrested by
Columbus police around 10:00pm.

CPT-Colombia team member Scott Kerr (Downers Grove, IL) and intern Ben
Horst (Evanston, IL) are currently awaiting trial in the Muscogee County
jail. Corps member Sara Reschly (Chicago, IL), Reservist Esther Ho
(Hayward, CA), and seventeen-year-old CPT supporter, Helena Graham from
Plough Creek Fellowship in Tiskilwa, IL were all given five-year "Ban and
Bar" letters and released from the base at 4:30pm Sunday.

More than forty-five people joined the CPT action group, walking together
in an 8000-person funeral procession which transformed the closed gates of
Ft. Benning into a memorial wall with crosses, flowers, banners and other
symbols calling for closure of the SOA.

Upon reaching the gates of the base, the CPT group knelt in a large circle
and began a ceremony of washing the U.S. and Canadian flags. Another fifty
people joined the circle as the group read prayerfully in unison a brief
statement explaining their action:

"...We recognize that the teaching of terror here at the SOA desecrates the
very values of democracy and truth and respect for human rights that our
countries claim to uphold. The flag, as a symbol of those values, is
stained with the blood of our brothers and sisters in Latin America,
Afghanistan and many places around the world...Through the washing of these
flags, we express our desire to cleanse the wounds caused by war-making and
to clean the stains of shame from our nations..."

The group read a Litany of Resistance that has been used by CPT teams at
military installations in both Chiapas and Colombia. CPTers then poured
streams of water over the U.S. flag and placed it gently in a basin. As the
group sang "Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying," participants washed
their own hands in the flag-draped basin to acknowledge their complicity in
the violence produced by the SOA and to signify their commitment to work
for the transformation of such institutions.

Still singing, the team of five proceeded to deliver the basin and flag to
the SOA, located deep inside the base. They reached an area of the
chainlink and barbed-wire fence (erected at Ft. Benning after the attacks
of September 11) where they were able to crawl under onto Ft. Benning
property. All five were immediately taken into custody by Military Police.

The SOA, which provides counterinsurgency training for Latin American
soldiers including terror tactics targeting civilian populations, was
officially closed last year. It was re-opened the next day under a new name
(Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation -- WHISC) but with
the same shameful curriculum. Colombia has the highest enrollment in the
School today.

A growing, nonviolent movement has gathered at the gates of Ft. Benning for
twelve years on the anniversary of the November 16, 1989 massacre of six
Jesuit priests in El Salvador at the hands of SOA graduates to commemorate
all victims U.S.-sponsored terrorism.

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Full text of CPT's statement:

We are here today to remember those who have lost their lives as a result
of acts of terror.

We recognize that the teaching of terror on our own soil here at the SOA
desecrates the very values of democracy and truth and respect for human
rights that our country claims to uphold. The flag, as a symbol of those
values, is stained with the blood of our brothers and sisters in Latin
America, Afghanistan and many places around the world.

As citizens of the United States and Canada, we confess our own complicity
in the terror experienced by many in the human family. Our over-consumption
of the world's resources creates the demand for violent "defense" of "our
way of life" and our tax dollars support this violence.

Our prayer is one of repentance. Through the washing of these flags, we
express our desire to cleanse the wounds caused by war-making and to clean
the stains of shame from our nations. We commit ourselves to this work of
transformation. We call on the SOA (WHISC) to turn away from inflicting
terror and participate in the healing of the nations.

Christian Peacemaker Teams is a program of Brethren, Quaker and Mennonite
Churches. CPT P. O. Box 6508 Chicago, IL 60680 tel. 312-455-1199 FAX
312-432-1213, E-Mail cpt [at] igc [dot] org?Subject=Re:%20FT.%20BENNING,%20GA:%20CPT%20at%20SOA&In-Reply-To=<1006207438@mennolink> WEB www.cpt.org