US Christians imprisoned for military base protest
-27/04/06
A 79-year-old United Metho
US Christians imprisoned for military base protest
-27/04/06
A 79-year-old United Methodist lay person, arrested for civil disobedience at a military facility last autumn, is among those who have been committed to Oxford Federal Penitentiary in Wisconsin, USA, this month.
He is a former short-term Iraq volunteer with Christian Peacemaker Teams, who came into the media spotlight recently as a result of the Baghdad hostage crisis.
Fred Brancel was one of 29 people now serving jail sentences for non-violent direct action at Fort Benning base in Georgia. The protest in November 2005 was against the training of special forces involved in alleged human rights violations in the developing world.
Since 1990, human rights advocates have called for the closing of the School of the Americas (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) because of documented abuses connected to soldiers from Latin American countries who are trained at the Institute.
According to SOA Watch, a grassroots, faith-based organization, the school continues to support “known human rights abusers”, says Linda Bloom, a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
Four others are already serving prison time for the protest, which drew an estimated 19,000 demonstrators, according to SOA Watch. Those sentenced range in age from 19 to 81.
The Rev Cecil Findley, a retired pastor and friend of Brancel’s, is active in Madison’s SOA Watch group and helped to organize “farewell send-offs” for him with Sister Maureen McDonnell.
The send-off services, one in Madison and one outside the prison, also saluted fellow protesters Buddy Bell, aged 23, and Delmar Schwaller, aged 81, who entered the Oxford Penitentiary on the same day.
A Wisconsin native, Brancel served from 1951 to 1971 as a Methodist missionary in Angola, Zimbabwe and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). In 1961, he was imprisoned for three months as an alleged “instigator” in the Angolan independence movement.
After returning to the United States, Brancel became a lay associate at the University United Methodist Church in Madison and later served as director-manager of a church camp in Northwest Wisconsin for 11 years until retirement. He has since travelled extensively and participated in numerous Volunteer in Mission trips. He went to Iraq in 2004 with Christian Peacemakers Team.
In a statement about his actions, Fred Brancel said, “Inspired by a book study at church and remembering President Eisenhower’s cautioning about the impact of our military-industrial complex, I decided to commit civil-disobedience at Fort Benning because of the growing deficit, growing disparity, growing distrust and growing discord/animosity and the need I see to ‘change the direction of the wind’.”
Legislation introduced by US Representative Jim McGovern (a Democrat from Massachusetts) would suspend activities at the Institute and calls for a review of foreign military training in Latin America.
The bill could come to the floor of the US House of Representatives for a vote as early as May 2006, according to SOA Watch. It currently has 128 bipartisan cosponsors. Supporters say this is a sign that demonstrations at Fort Benning have made a difference.
[Also on Ekklesia: Nun and two priests sent to prison after peaceful protests; High school students face prison for non-violent protest; Nun sent to prison after protesting killings; Book about radical priest questions morality of US foreign policy]
US Christians imprisoned for military base protest
-27/04/06
A 79-year-old United Methodist lay person, arrested for civil disobedience at a military facility last autumn, is among those who have been committed to Oxford Federal Penitentiary in Wisconsin, USA, this month.
He is a former short-term Iraq volunteer with Christian Peacemaker Teams, who came into the media spotlight recently as a result of the Baghdad hostage crisis.
Fred Brancel was one of 29 people now serving jail sentences for non-violent direct action at Fort Benning base in Georgia. The protest in November 2005 was against the training of special forces involved in alleged human rights violations in the developing world.
Since 1990, human rights advocates have called for the closing of the School of the Americas (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) because of documented abuses connected to soldiers from Latin American countries who are trained at the Institute.
According to SOA Watch, a grassroots, faith-based organization, the school continues to support “known human rights abusers”, says Linda Bloom, a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
Four others are already serving prison time for the protest, which drew an estimated 19,000 demonstrators, according to SOA Watch. Those sentenced range in age from 19 to 81.
The Rev Cecil Findley, a retired pastor and friend of Brancel’s, is active in Madison’s SOA Watch group and helped to organize “farewell send-offs” for him with Sister Maureen McDonnell.
The send-off services, one in Madison and one outside the prison, also saluted fellow protesters Buddy Bell, aged 23, and Delmar Schwaller, aged 81, who entered the Oxford Penitentiary on the same day.
A Wisconsin native, Brancel served from 1951 to 1971 as a Methodist missionary in Angola, Zimbabwe and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). In 1961, he was imprisoned for three months as an alleged “instigator” in the Angolan independence movement.
After returning to the United States, Brancel became a lay associate at the University United Methodist Church in Madison and later served as director-manager of a church camp in Northwest Wisconsin for 11 years until retirement. He has since travelled extensively and participated in numerous Volunteer in Mission trips. He went to Iraq in 2004 with Christian Peacemakers Team.
In a statement about his actions, Fred Brancel said, “Inspired by a book study at church and remembering President Eisenhower’s cautioning about the impact of our military-industrial complex, I decided to commit civil-disobedience at Fort Benning because of the growing deficit, growing disparity, growing distrust and growing discord/animosity and the need I see to ‘change the direction of the wind’.”
Legislation introduced by US Representative Jim McGovern (a Democrat from Massachusetts) would suspend activities at the Institute and calls for a review of foreign military training in Latin America.
The bill could come to the floor of the US House of Representatives for a vote as early as May 2006, according to SOA Watch. It currently has 128 bipartisan cosponsors. Supporters say this is a sign that demonstrations at Fort Benning have made a difference.
[Also on Ekklesia: Nun and two priests sent to prison after peaceful protests; High school students face prison for non-violent protest; Nun sent to prison after protesting killings; Book about radical priest questions morality of US foreign policy]