The National Conference of Viet Nam Veteran Ministers, an organization composed of clergy and full time religious workers who served in Vietnam , meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico October 12-16, 1988 1998, in anticipation of the Jubilee Year 2000 (Leviticus 25), issued the following statement concerning human rights abuses by U. S. trained military and paramilitary forces:
As veterans of Vietnam, many of us combat veterans, we are acutely aware of the jeopardy to innocent civilians in conflicts where battle lines are unclear, where armed participants in conflicts mingle with the civilian population, and where legitimate economic and political aspirations become confused with the power and control objectives of the combatants.
We are particularly concerned about the jeopardy to innocent civilians in today's conflicts in Colombia and in the Mexican states of Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca. The many reports of human rights abuses in these conflicts, including deprivation of property, torture, rape, disappearances, and deaths, follow in a historic succession to human rights abuses in many other Latin American countries.
We are distressed at reports that foreign military personnel involved in human rights abuses have received training by the U. S. Armed forces, not only overseas but at a variety of schools in the U.S. We are especially distressed at reports that U. S. training may have contributed to human rights abuses, and that alleged human rights abusers from Latin American militaries continue to be part of this training.
We call upon the Defense Department and appropriate committees of Congress to investigate all reports of association between U. S. military training and human rights abuse and to take corrective action. We offer ourselves as Vietnam veteran ministers who have had an intimate experience of violence and war to mediate and facilitate discourse between representatives of opposing viewpoints, where such training may be taught, such as the School of the Americas.
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