War resisters

1 February 2007Review

University of Toronto Press, 2004; ISBN 0 8020 8661 6; £28

In These Strange Criminals, Peter Brock collects stories of imprisoned conscientious objectors since the First World War, and - with one exception - from the English speaking world; Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the USA. While at times repetitive - but that's the nature of prison life - the different stories manage to capture the experience of imprisoned COs, their thinking, and also the changes to prison over the course of 50 years.

Brock chose prison memoirs from a…

1 September 2005News

On 10 August, gay Turkish conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment on two charges of insubordination.
Mehmet Tarhan declared his conscientious objection in 2001, and was arrested in April 2005 (see PN 2461), and transferred to the military prison in Sivas. In protest against maltreatment by other prisoners, encouraged by the prison authorities, he went on hunger strike for 28 days until his demands were met.

Tarhan was released from…

1 July 2005News

On 21 June, Turkish conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan ended his hunger strike: after 28 days, the prison authorities agreed to his conditions of equal treatment.

The gay CO began the drastic action partly in resp

3 June 2005Comment

Ceremonies to mark International COs' Day on 15 May are becoming more widespread in Britain, having taken place in at least seven cities this year. The day was established by War Resisters' International in 1982, and has since been a focus of anti-militarist events worldwide each year.

In Edinburgh, a ceremony involving both Green and Scottish Socialist MSPs included reading a list of Scottish COs who had suffered for their principles in the last two World Wars.

In the…

3 June 2005Comment

On 15 May -- International Conscientious Objectors' Day -- activists from more than 10 countries (Bosnia-Hercegovina, Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Israel,Macedonia, Spain, Serbia, Montenegro, USA) demonstrated in Thessaloniki against the treatment of conscientious objectors in Greece.

The demonstration started atthe monument of Grigoris Lambrakis -- a Greek anti-nuclear campaigner who was murdered by fascists linked tothe military at that precise location in 1963 (…

3 May 2005Comment

In Greece today, militarism manifests itself most visibly in the tens of thousands of young men who every year are obliged to perform compulsory military service.

Unlike most other EU member states, Greece still practises conscription, with the authorities demanding that all Greek males between the ages of 19 and 45 join the armed forces.

Greek men have declared their objection to compulsory military service since long before the right to conscientious objection was…

1 May 2005News

Mehmet Tarhan, a gay activist, anarchist, and declared conscientious objector, was arrested on 8 April and taken to “his” military unit in Tokat in eastern Turkey by force.

Tarhan declared his objection to military service on 27 October 2001, and has never hidden.

On 20 April 2005 he was transferred to a military hospital after the prosecutor ordered an “examination of his homosexuality” - something which the Turkish military considers an illness, and “rotten”. A positive…

1 April 2005News

In Russia, 23 February is traditionally the “Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland” — converted from the Soviet “Red Army Day”.

But for the Chechens and Ingush it is the anniversary of the deportation of their entire people from the Caucasus to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzistan by Stalin back in 1944. They were only allowed to return in 1956, to a country which was then populated by Russians and neighbouring people — one of the sources of today's conflicts in the North…

1 February 2005News

US army deserters

The US army is facing strong criticism from within its own ranks over the war in Iraq. Around 5500 soldiers have deserted since coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003 with some seeking refuge in Canada. One of these is Jeremy Hinzman, a soldier in the Elite Infantry Division, 82nd Airborne, who fled to Canada seeking refugee protection after being refused status as a conscientious objector. Hinzman stated, “This is a criminal war and any act of violence in an unjustified…

1 February 2005Review

Pen Press Publishers 2004; ISBN 1 9047 5412 0

The fate of those brave men who deserted the German army during the Nazi dictatorship, and what became of them after WW2, is something which few people know much about. That these circa 20,000 deserters were either shot, or placed in labour battalions was bad enough. Yet having been branded with a “criminal record” for their war resistance, they suffered more fiscal, social, and employment discrimination once they were back within civilian society. As former “criminals” they were restricted…

1 December 2004News

Delivering a clear message against war, members of the War Resisters League marched from Ground Zero to the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan on the morning of 3 November.

More than 70 people chose to mark the day after the “election” by voting with their bodies, not just their ballots, to end the war. The group called for the money spent on warfare - now approaching US$200 billion in addition to the annual $440 billion annual military budget - to be spent on schools, jobs…

1 September 2004News

A UN report released on 30 July found that economic and living conditions in all Palestinian areas had deteriorated, with 63% of Palestinians now living in poverty.

The UN report concluded, “The sustainable option for addressing the current economic and social deprivation lies in lifting the occupation of Palestinian territory.”

ICJ Ruling

In July judges from the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Israel's separation wall is illegal under International…

1 June 2004News

It's 15 May, 10.45am: a group of four Chilean activists approaches Alameda and the Altar de la Patria with its eternal flame of Chilean “nationhood”. They position themselves “incognito” in the middle of Alameda, on the green in the middle of this dual carriageway, opposite La Moneda, the presidential palace. They communicate what they see to several small groups of activists from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Spain, Britain, Uruguay, and Venezuela, waiting at Universidad de…

1 April 2004Review

Other Press, 2003; ISBN 1 59051043 7; 250pp

This book is a collection of interviews with Israeli soldiers who at some stage decided to refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories.

Some of these soldiers are familiar to readers of WRI's co-alert email lists, as their imprisonment was reported to generate support. Others were lucky and didn't spent time behind bars (so far). None of the soldiers interviewed in this book is a pacifist. All of them continue to serve in the IDF. Still, this book gives some insights into their moral…

3 December 2003Comment

Not many people are aware that every year more than 60 young men are sentenced to six and a half months of imprisonment because of their refusal to take part in the system of compulsory military service in Finland. This makes Finland the only European Union country in which Amnesty International says there are prisoners of conscience.

Jussi Hermaja.
PHOTO: FOR MOTHER EARTH

Conscription system in Finland

There is still a very extensive conscription system in Finland.…