Changes at School of Americas don’t satisfy Presbyterian critics
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, July 26, 2000
Presbyterians who have long been critics of the U.S. Army School of the Americas in Georgia have not been won over by a change in name, curriculum and civilian presence.
“It’s a new name, same shame,” Marilyn White, co-chair of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, told the Presbyterian News Service.
In 1994, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) approved a resolution calling for closing the school. That resolution grew out of an ecumenical, anti-military movement whose participants alleged that the school was essentially training Latin American terrorists.
Allegations are challenged
Those allegations are challenged in an analysis written by Jim DeCamp, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Oostburg, Wis., and a U.S. Army Reserve chaplain with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
DeCamp visited the School of the Americas during one of his reserve assignments at Fort Benning, Ga. He has made a detailed study of the allegations against the School of the Americas and compiled a point-by-point response. An abbreviated version of DeCamp’s analysis was published in the May-June 2000 issue of The Presbyterian Layman.
In July, the U.S. Senate approved the Army’s plans to rename and reorganize the School of the Americas. The new name would be “Western Hemisphere Institute for Professional and Educational Training” and the organizational structure would focus more on academic programs than military.
Changes under way
According to DeCamp’s analysis, several of the changes have been under way. He says the School of the Americas (USARSA) “promotes the democratic values of freedom of religion and press, respect for human rights and the subordination of the military to civilian rule. It also preserves peace in the region by training military forces to deal with drug-trafficking, teaching humanitarian de-mining, building trust between officers of neighboring armies and introducing Latin Americans to our nation’s good will.”
The Presbyterian News Service story did not quote DeCamp or any other Presbyterian who believes the school is serving an important purpose. It published the comments of those Presbyterians who have demonstrated against the school, including Ann Huntwork of Portland, Ore., a medical social worker who has been arrested twice during demonstrations and is now barred from entering Fort Benning.
“When you actually look at what is proposed,” Huntwork told the Presbyterian News Service, “there’s nothing that looks like any change of any significance at all.”
The news service quoted Meta Ukena as denouncing the proposed retooling as a “stupid” public-relations “smokescreen” to clean up the school’s reputation. “I think it shows they’re running scared and felt they had to do something,” said Ukena, a Vermont, N.Y., resident.
‘School of Assassins’
Opponents of the School of the Americas have called it the “School of Assassins” and accused the school – without any evidence – of training terrorists in rape and torture.
“With the savage treatment the School has received in most of our religious press, it’s not surprising that the truth seems stranger than fiction,” DeCamp says. “But Presbyterians have always had a passion for the truth. The truth is that USARSA is a top-notch institution, exerting a positive influence throughout Latin America among military officers, noncommissioned officers and government civilians.”
DeCamp says the “If USARSA closed its doors, inter-American military ties would be weakened, and the U. S. would lose this opportunity to influence future Latin American leaders. U. S.-influenced human rights progress could be slowed or reversed, and the concept of military subordination to civilian authority could be challenged. The U. S. Army School of the Americas provides unique and irreplaceable training for soldiers from throughout Latin America. It is training that benefits all of us in our hemisphere. We Presbyterians need to appreciate and defend this influence for democratic values.”