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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Reporting Back to the Community: Students and Community Members To Hold a School |
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by Demian Kogan
Email: uiucsoaw (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!) |
16 Feb 2002
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On Tuesday, February 19th, at 8:00 pm in the K1&K2 rooms of the University YMCA, members and supporters of the University of Illinois chapter of Amnesty International School of the Americas committee (UIUCSOAW) will be conducting an educational forum about the U.S. Army School of the Americas. The forum will educate about the School of the Americas, while members from the affinity group will report back to the community on the direct action in November. |
After months of planning, and a twelve hour car ride from Urbana-Champaign Illinois, to Columbus Georgia, a group of 20 students and community members met in a small Holiday Inn off the interstate on Friday evening, November 16, 2001. These 20 people comprised the Urbana-Champaign affinity group to the SOA Watch direct action to close down the School of the Americas.
On Tuesday, February 19th, at 8:00 pm in the K1&K2 rooms of the University YMCA, members and supporters of the University of Illinois chapter of Amnesty International School of the Americas committee (UIUCSOAW) will be conducting an educational forum about the U.S. Army School of the Americas. The forum will educate about the School of the Americas, while members from the affinity group will report back to the community on the direct action in November.
The Amnesty International committee known as UIUCSOAW organized various educational events revolved around the growing movement to close down the school of the Americas throughout the first semester in preparation of SOA Watch’s direct action. Their efforts independently coordinated the local affinity group of 20 to Columbus Georgia.
On November 18th, 2001, 20 students and community members joined thousands at the gates of the military base Ft. Benning in Georgia, to take part in the growing movement to call for the closing of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC), formerly known as the SOA. The US Army School of the Americas trains Latin American soldiers in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. Graduates of the School of the Americas are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America, such as the El Mozote massacre of 900 civilians, the murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and a sixteen-year-old girl, the “La Cantuta massacre” of nine Peruvian university students, and their professor, and the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Over 10,000 soldiers from Colombia have trained at the SOA, more than any other country. Reports issued in 2000 by the U.S. State Department document the involvement of Colombian SOA graduates in kidnapping, murder, massacres, and setting up paramilitary groups.
Following UIUCSOAW’s presentation will be a short question and answer section.
Amnesty International is a program of the University YMCA.
The YMCA is located on 1001 Wright in Champaign.
Amnesty International is a multi-issue organization working to protect human rights around the world. |
