FEDERAL PROSECUTORS have decided to pursue charges against 10 of the initial
group of 23 people accused of trespassing on Fort Benning last year during a
protest against the U.S. Army School of the Americas.
One
of those 10, Charles Liteky of Columbus, is scheduled for an arraignment
hearing today before U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth. Faircloth will
inform Liteky of the charges against him and ask him if he wants an attorney
to represent him.
The remaining nine people are expected to be represented by a Minnesota
attorney and to waive their arraignment hearings.
All of their cases are slated to come up for trial in March in U.S. District
Court in Columbus.
On Nov. 21, the second day of the annual two-day School of the Americas
protest, 65 marchers had their fingerprints and mug shots taken and were
given a letter banning them from the post for three years. The 23 that
initially faced charges had already been banned from the post prior to the
November protests.
The 10 people who will have cases pursued against them are charged with
something that is akin to trespassing, and specifically accuses them of
re-entering property after they had been ordered in writing not to do so.
The
others charged include: Richard Anderson of Duluth, Minn.; Judy Bierbaum
of Albuquerque, N.M.; Thomas Bottolene of St. Paul, Minn.; Charles Butler of
Rochester, Minn.; Hans Gerard Fischer of Brookfield, Wis.; Kathleen Fisher of
Portland, Ore.; John Honeck of Hamlin, N.Y.; Margaret Knapke of Dayton, Ohio;
and Megan Rice of Baltimore.
Members
of the School of the Americas Watch have demonstrated against the
School of the Americas each year since 1990, when SOA Watch was founded. The
protests have grown from a handful of supporters to several thousand last
year.
Watch
members have sought to increase public awareness about the school,
which it maintains has graduated some of the most notorious abusers of human
rights. Organizers say that graduates of the school are responsible for
military coups and the massacre of people in Latin America.
School
officials say they should not be judged by the actions of a small
minority of its graduates, and their interaction with Latin students promotes
democracy and American values.