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A Nobel Peace Prize nominee you can believe in.
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On Saturday, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate American Friends Service Committee selected its nominations for the peace prize. Today, the announcement was made that their selections were SOA Watch, along with Father Roy Bourgeois MM, who has been active with the SOAW. SOAW's communications coordinator, Hendrik Voss, said "We are very humbled to be nominated for this very prestigious prize," Voss said. "It's recognition of the work of the people all across the Americas that are struggling and resisting militarization throughout the Americas."
The announcement is very timely. The SOAW is currently holding a demonstration at Fort Benning Georgia. AFSC's John Meyer announced the nomination at the gate of Fort Benning.
Fort Benning is the home of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas. The WHISC trains members of the armed forces of many right wing juntas in Latin America.
Activists call the WHISC the "School of the Assassins". The SOA Watch says that graduates of the school have performed assassinations, including those of six Jesuit priests, Elba Ramos, who worked with them, and her 14 year old daughter Celia Ramos in San Salvador twenty years ago this weekend. The WHISC has also been tied to many disappearances and torture. Close to 5000 are protesting outside of Fort Benning in Columbus Georgia. Before the protesters made the traditional "presente march", the Indigo Girls played at a rally.
Early in the day, Nancy Gwin of Syracuse, New York, Michael Walli of Washington, DC, Kenneth Hayes of Austin, Texas and Franciscan Father Luis Vitale of Oakland, California were arrested by the military for entering the fort. All have bailed out, except Walli, who refused to pay bail and will remain in jail until their January trial.
During the "presente march" fifty people left the permitted route and were threatened with arrest. So far, there has been no word on whether they were arrested.
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