Vigil outside US Embassy, Mon 8 July 5pm

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday July 03, 2002 22:49 by Eoin Dubsky info at refuelingpeace dot org 087-6941060

In Solidarity with SOA Watch activists on trial that day

There will be a vigil outside the US Embassy in Dublin at 5pm on Monday, 8 July, in solidarity with 37 human rights activists going to federal court for civil disobedience at the School of the Americas (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) in Columbus, Georgia.

The 37 were among 10,000 who gathered last November to call for the closure of the notorious school. The defendants peacefully crossed onto Ft. Benning, site of the school. They are charged with trespass and face up to six months in federal prison and $5,000 in fines. Trial is scheduled for July 8 before Judge Faircloth in Columbus.

Judge Faircloth is known for giving the maximum of six months to opponents of the SOA/WHISC. Seventy-one people have served a total of over forty years in prison for engaging in nonviolent resistance in a broad-based campaign to close the school. Last year 26 people were prosecuted, including Dorothy Hennessey, an 88 year-old Franciscan nun who was sentenced to six months in federal prison.

"Those who speak out for justice are facing prison time while SOA-trained torturers and assassins are operating with impunity," said an SOA Watch activist.

The SOA/WHISC is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently involved in human rights abuses and atrocities. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated the use of torture, extortion and execution.

So then it comes as no surprise that the US is doing all it can to try and destroy the International Criminal Court...

Come along on Monday at 5pm to the US Embassy --Bring friends, children, guitars, and colourful signs!