Presidential candidate said closing school would be doing 'God's work'

This weekend's SOA Watch protest is personal for U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

The Ohio Democrat and long-shot presidential candidate will be one of the protesters gathering at Fort Benning's main gate Sunday to demand the closing of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation -- formerly known as the School of the Americas.

One of the martyrs in the SOA cause is Dorothy Kazel, a Cleveland nun who was raped and killed Dec. 2, 1980, by El Salvador National Guardsmen.

"I know the Kazel family very well," said Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor.

His relationship with the Kazels goes back to high school. He knew the family well enough to attend Kazel's going away party before she left for her mission work in El Salvador.

Kazel was known as "Madre Dorthea" in the Central American community where she worked to help refugees of the Salvador Civil War obtain food, shelter and medical supplies. She was one of four women killed that day. Kucinich also knew Jean Donovan, a layperson who was also one of the victims.

When Kucinich takes the Fort Benning Road stage shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday, he will do what he has been doing since he was elected to Congress in 1997 -- call for the closure of the U.S. Army school. This will be the first time he's attended the protest and the first time the protest has had a presidential candidate address a crowd that is expected to be more than 20,000 people.

"I am looking forward to joining thousands of Americans from all around the country in standing for human rights and for a new direction in U.S. international policy," Kucinich said in a telephone interview this week. "This is a question of justice being done. The School of the Americas has trained people to kill innocent civilians. It's a matter of simple justice that requires it to be shut down, and for America to stop supporting regimes that violate human rights."

While Kucinich stands for that new direction, he wants to make one thing clear -- it's not about the soldiers.

"I will also talk about the soldiers and how we can't separate ourselves from the soldiers and their families," Kucinich said. "This is a debate about policy that is set by the commander in chief and by decades of unchallenged international direction."

Eric LeCompte, one of the SOA Watch organizers, said having Kucinich take part in the vigil sends a positive message.

"What it illustrates is this is a national issue," LeCompte said. "Not only do people across the country care about this, but it's reaching the presidential campaign. The presidential debate will allow us another venue to seek the closure of the school."

Kucinich said because this country is at war, it's important that people's voices are heard this weekend.

"We don't give up our rights when we are at war," he said. "We need to stand by our rights. That is when it's most important to do it. This administration has taken this country in a direction that is anti-democratic."

Kucinich worked with the late Congressman Joe Moakley and his successor, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., to try and pass legislation that will cut federal funding to the school, which trains military and police for Central American and Latin American countries. So far, those legislative actions have been unsuccessful.

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