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Started in Panama in 1946 to teach jungle-fighting tactics to American GIs, the school now trains officers from Latin America. In 1984 it moved to Fort Benning. Although all the students are foreign, the school is funded by the Pentagon and costs American taxpayers $4 million a year. Critics say the school has earned the nickname "School of the Assassins" in Central America because its graduates have been linked to the torture and execution of countless victims of military rule. In 1989 the United Nations reported that six Jesuit priests killed in El Salvador were murdered by SOA alums. More recently, U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy has charged that SOA graduates are leading the Mexican government's human-rights violations against the Chiapas Indians. Since 1990, Father Roy Borgeouis has led protests against the school. After last year's demonstration, 25 people, including Jones and Borgeouis, were convicted of misdemeanor trespassing. They were sentenced to six months in prison and given a $3,000 fine. The sentences, which began last Monday, surprised protesters. "At the most we thought we'd get one to two months," Jones says. "Two people even pled no contest. But we all got the same sentence. The way the judge was responding to the prosecutor, it made me feel as if something was worked out ahead of time." Presiding over Jones' trial was Georgia justice J. Robert Elliot, a legendary civil-rights foe. In 1962, he banned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from his district. Twelve years later, he set aside the court-martial of Lt. William Calley, convicted of premeditated murder in the infamous My Lai Massacre. That decision was later overturned. Jones says he was compelled to protest in Georgia because of his experiences as an undergraduate in Belize, where he worked with refugees from Guatemala and El Salvador. "Everyone there has heard of the School of the Americas, and they know what it stands for. In these countries, the security forces get totally out of control." In Belize, Jones met a woman who had fled Guatemala after her brother had been murdered by such soldiers. "It wasn't even a political issue," Jones says. "They just basically robbed and killed him." Jones' father, Dr. Stephen Jones, is chief of medicine for Good Samaritan and Emanuel hospitals and a longtime member of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Last Friday, the younger Jones spent one of his last free evenings with the group and the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, telling them about the protest. "One out of 100 graduates of the School of the Americas is linked to human-rights abuse," he said. "I want it closed." He isn't alone. Last year, Kennedy's bill to close the school narrowly failed passage. Similar legislation is pending this year. U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Furse, like the other Democrats in Oregon's congressional delegation, supports Kennedy's measure. "The type of people being trained there are the people who go back to countries that are dictatorships," she says. Graduates of the school include Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and Roberto D'Abuisson, leader of the El Salvador death squad. Training manuals recently released from the school describe torture and interrogation techniques that fly in the face of the Geneva Convention. Furse, founder of the Oregon Peace Institute, says last year's protests could make the difference this session. "We came very close to shutting it down last year," she says. "Civil disobedience is always so impressive. This is the sort of thing that tweaks the attention [of Congress]." If not, protesters plan to be back later this year. Jones will be released in time to be there. He's going, he says, but he won't break any laws that could land him back in jail. "I'm committed to the program at Tulane," he says. "I want to get into a position of influence so I can do something to really help, possibly in the United Nations." Some of Jones' local supporters are seeking a presidential pardon, but Jones is prepared to do his time. His stepmother, Beth Jones, says, "We're very proud of him. There aren't many people who have the courage of convictions Christopher has." |
