Pubdate: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 Source: Ledger-Enquirer (GA) Copyright: 2001 Ledger-Enquirer Contact: http://www.l-e-o.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/237 PROTESTERS MARCH ON Army Institute's Officials Say Opponents Are Focused On The Past Splattered with fake blood and carrying placards condemning recent alleged atrocities in Colombia, 11 demonstrators Wednesday crossed into Fort Benning protesting a revamped post school considered a vital component of U.S. drug war policy. About 20 people, recently returned from a nine-day trip to Colombia, converged outside Fort Benning before the crossing, asserting that the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation - formerly the School of the Americas - continues to adopt human rights violations they link to its predecessor. "We're seeking to bring back the stories of the campesinos who have experienced the repression of graduates of the School of the Americas," said Eric LeCompte, 25, the Washington, D.C.-based outreach director for SOA Watch. "We're bringing those stories back here to the source." Protesters and institute officials mingled together, exchanging ideas, as the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, SOA Watch founder, hammered white crosses into the ground outside the main gate bearing the names of Colombian towns associated with massacres. The protesters criticized the defoliation associated with the U.S.-backed, $1.3 billion "Plan Colombia" anti-cocaine effort. The fumigation destroys the country's food crops in addition to coca plants, they said. "We found entire banana plantations destroyed by fumigation," LeCompte said. Institute officials, meanwhile, said the protesters were using arcane arguments to criticize an institute with a new mission. "We're not trying to be the regional hegemon," said Joe Leuer, chief of the institute's training management division. "We're trying to ensure that everybody in the region is part of the objective of peace and prosperity. "The story they're telling is a critique of history. What we're about is the future." "We're an open post and we welcome anyone to come and see what we're about," said Maj. Milton F. Mariani, the institute's public affairs officer. Last year, Congress voted to close the School of the Americas, which many in government considered had been tainted by continuing public disclosure of atrocities committed in Latin America by some of its graduates. The school reopened earlier this year under a new name, structure and curriculum, including human rights courses. The institute provides leadership training for military officers, police and civilians who work for public safety agencies in 17 Latin American countries. Of the 700 students expected to attend the institute this year, 148 of them are from Colombia, Mariani said. Protesters planned Wed-nesday's action to coincide with Tuesday's jailing of 19 people convicted of trespassing on the post during a mass protest last November and U.S. congressional debate expected today on expanded fumigation of Latin American coca fields. The march began when a young woman poured fake blood over her body, draped herself in a Colombian flag and led 10 others onto the post. The group was detained about 30 yards inside the main gate. The 11 were issued ban-and-bar letters, prohibiting them from entering the post for five years. They were then taken outside the post and released on their own recognizance, said Elsie Jackson, a Fort Benning spokeswoman. Two members of the group had previously received ban-and-bar letters and post officials were considering Wednesday whether to prosecute them for a trespassing violation, Jackson said. With some members of Congress considering an amendment that will reallocate toward education money initially earmarked for drug eradication, an SOA Watch spokeswoman said protests by groups returning from Colombia is having an effect. "It's because people like this - the people who have been to Colombia and who have seen what's happening - that the amendment is being offered," said SOA Watch spokeswoman Jackie Downing. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager