Posted: Friday, November 21, 2008 12:00 am
Gazette-Times
At least two Corvallis women are among the protesters expected this weekend at Fort Benning, Ga., to call attention to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Strategic Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas.
And a number of mid-valley churches and other institutions will join the protest this weekend with crosses and signs in front of their locations.
For almost two decades, activists have gathered in Fort Benning each November to protest the institute, which trains military officers from Latin America countries. The school opened in 1946. Opponents of the school say that its graduates have been linked to the intimidation and murder of political opposition, the targeting of civilians by death squads and other reported crimes against humanity.
Joining the protest this month in Georgia are Corvallis residents Aleita Hass-Holcombe and Joan Noyce. Hass-Holcombe is at Fort Benning representing the group Witnesses for Peace. Noyce says she plans to join a memorial service scheduled for Sunday for victims of institute graduates.
In addition, people throughout the mid-valley will support the protest crosses and signs calling attention to the institute. Two churches, First United Methodist and First Congregational in Corvallis, had crosses up last weekend. This Sunday, Nov. 23, St. Mary's, the Friends, Unitarian Universalist, Mennonites at Westminster House and Albany Peace Action will be participating.
Some of the crosses bear the names and ages of people who protesters say have died because of the institute; other crosses, however, bear no names and those are meant to represent victims whose names are unknown.
In December 2000, the Pentagon briefly closed the School of the Americas, but it reopened one month later under the new name. The military maintains that the institute now is a different institution, but opponents have argued that the changes largely have been cosmetic.