Ethiopians

The Oct. 27 article on Ethiopian Christians (“Queen of Sheba's Visit to King Solomon Sparked Centuries of Pilgrimage to Jerusalem”) claims that they “do not believe in the Trinity.”This is untrue. When we read that comment to a friend, a Coptic Catholic, he confirmed that the Ethiopian Orthodox believe in the Trinity.

James and Rosemarie Scott Queens, New York

Bad Apples

I would like to respond to the letter “School of the Americas”(Sept. 29) from Capt. Kevin McIver. I am a Jesuit priest serving a four-month federal sentence for demonstrating against the School of the Americas (SOA). I am presently incarcerated at the prison camp at Sheridan, Ore; 12 of my companions were also given prison sentences.

The U.N. Truth Commission investigated the activities in the El Salvador war (1979-91) in which our government supported the military dictatorship there with supplies, military training, and the use of U.S. troops. The commission indicted 60 of the highest ranking military officers for human rights abuses. Of these officers, 49 were SOA graduates. Their victims included Archbishop Oscar Romero, four Religious women, six Jesuits, a housekeeper and daughter, 900 inhabitants of El Mazote, and countless others. The deadly Atalactl Battalion, responsible for many of the atrocities, trained at the SOA.

What is true of El Salvador is true of most other Latin America countries. Through the years there have been 10 SOA-trained military dictators in various Latin America countries who were involved in terrible slaughters of their own people.

Amnesty International notes that Columbia has had the worst human rights record in the western hemisphere in the last few years. SOA graduates from Columbia, using the excuse of drug interdiction efforts, are using their counter-insurgency tactics against their own people. The course in human rights that has been introduced into curriculum as a result of public protest “is a laugh,”says retired Major Joseph Blair, who was an instructor at the SOA. He simply says, “the school should be closed.”The government has admitted the existence of a manual of torture that was put out by the SOA as part of the training program.

This has not been, as the government claims, the “work of a few bad apples.”The opposite is true.

For our government and its representatives to say that the SOA is necessary to introduce democracy into Latin America is tantamount to placing the fox in charge of the chicken house. We need to accept responsibility for allowing the SOA to remain open. Working together to close the SOA will be a way for us to gain our souls and our freedom and help the people of Central America gain theirs.

Father Bill Bichsel, S.J. Federal inmate no. 86275-020 Tacoma, Washington

Northern Ireland

In an otherwise excellent article on Cardinal Cahal Daly (“For Retiring Irish Primate, Peace Hinges on Faith,”Oct. 20), Ben Kobus writes of íthe potential resurgence of the Northern Ireland crisis.î

The “Northern Ireland crisis”—which is as old as Northern Ireland—will persist so long as Northern Ireland exists. The English set up two Irelands: in the “south,”a state 90 percent Roman Catholic, which brought the best out of the Catholics—peace, equality, civil and religious freedom, power-sharing with Jews and Protestants etc.; in the “north,”a monstrosity! Ulster was divided; tens of thousands of Ulster Protestants trapped in the Republic. Nearly 1 million Protestants locked into a state with 600,000 Roman Catholics who expected in 1920 an end to four centuries of Protestant abuse!

Northern Ireland's second city, Derry, had a 68 percent Roman Catholic majority and a Catholic lord mayor. Counties Fermanagh and Tyrone had Roman Catholic majorities. Most of the countryside was in the hands of Roman Catholics and 100,000 of them lived in Belfast. Today only 50.6 percent of the people identify themselves as Protestants (1991 census). The end is in sight.

If Ben Kobus covered the story from Londonderry instead of London he would have seen the struggle for votes, jobs, and housing and an end to repression as an everyday affair.

Robert Phelan Belmar, New Jersey