CPTNET
22 April 1998
Washington, D.C.: Rally to Close the School of the "Assassins"
Notes from Prisoner #88104-020

A rally is planned in Washington, D.C. to call for the closing of the School
of the Americas (SOA), a government-funded training program for Latin
American military officers. The rally will take place from 12 to 5 pm on
Sunday, April 26, in Lafayette Park. People have dubbed the SOA the "school
of assassins" because of human rights violations, including torture and
murder, committed by numerous graduates.

On November 16, 1997, 2,000 people vigiled at Ft. Benning, GA, where the SOA
is located, to call for the closing of the school. Christian Peacemaker
Team full time Corps member Anne Herman (63) was one of 25 participants who
received a six-month prison sentence for their participation in a public
action inside the base.

Six hundred and one participants of the 2,000 vigilers joined a funeral
procession onto the base carrying petitions calling for the closing of the
SOA. They were all arrested, but 25 of them had been previously barred from
entering Fort Bennings' grounds following a similar action. Herman and the
other 24 received the six-month sentence. She is serving the first six
months of her three year term with CPT at Danbury Federal Prison Camp in
Connecticut. Her notes on Easter follow.

* * *

Happy Easter and Passover everyone! The chaplain's office put on a very
traditional observance for those attending Catholic services . . . Some of
us got together and celebrated in a less traditional manner. We did a
washing of the hands (instead of feet) on Thursday evening. On Saturday we
did a Stations of the Cross that related to our time. We sang lots of songs.

After two months in a spacious room with windows and good ventilation, I
have been moved to "preferred housing." My old room had beds for six women
but they were never all filled at one time. Now I lived in a
six-foot-square space with only one other woman. The partitions are the
temporary kind that start a foot from the floor and end three feet from the
ceiling. There are between 40 and 50 of us in one large basement area. My
"cube" is on an inside wall far from the sunlight. In order for one of us
to get dressed the other must leave because the space is so small. We have
a bunk bed, two lockers and two chairs in this six-foot-square space. I
believe it is called preferred housing because the staff would prefer to
have us there. I have a great roommate. Neither of us expects to receive
honors for the cleanliness or neatness of our cube. Those who earn honors
get to eat first.

Anne Herman, #88104-020