The monthly email newsletter of War Resisters' International's The Right to Refuse to Kill programme || Index of past issues

Editorial

Welcome to the June/July issue of the co-update e-newsletter. This is a double issue, as next month we will be at the WRI Seminar and Council meeting in Korea (see below), and then are likely to join the G8 protests at Gleneagles in Scotland.

The last month was very hectic regarding issues of conscientious objection, as you can guess from the long list of co-alerts at the end of this newsletter.
Unexpectedly, the situation in Greece worsened in May - new court cases and arrests, and harsh sentences. War Resisters' International responded jointly with Amnesty International and the European Bureau for Consceintious Objection - see the joint statement in this newsletter. At the same time, the situation in Turkey escalated. And WRI is also supporting the lobbying efforts of the Finnish Union of COs, which hopes for some improvements with a new law on conscientious objection presently being drafted by the Finnish Ministry of Labour (you can send an email from the WRI website).

We hope that summer will be a bit calmer, and that all the efforts for conscientious objectors in Greece, Turkey, Chile, Finland, Israel and elsewhere will bring some positive results, which we will then report in the next issue of CO-Update on 1 August.

Andreas Speck

Upcoming events

WRI Seminar 2005 in South Korea

In cooperation with several partner organisations from South Korea, War Resisters' International is preparing for its 2005 seminar and Council meeting, which will take place near Seoul at the end of June / beginning of July 2005. The theme of the seminar will be "Peace in North-East Asia". Information is available on the WRI website.

Please use our online registration form to register for the seminar.
Seminar: 26-29 June 2005
WRI Council Meeting: 30 June-2 July 2005.

CO-Update

Monthly email newsletter of WRI's Right to Refuse to Kill Programme

War Resisters' International, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX, Britain; tel +44-20-7278 4040; fax +44-20-7278 0444; email co-update-editor@wri-irg.org

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Turkey: Maltreatment of conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan

Arrest of nonviolent activists and conscientious objectors at trial in Sivas

In May, the situation of imprisoned gay conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan worsened considerably, and War Resisters' International put out several co-alerts on his case, and also set up a special Turkey campaign page - at present in English and German, to respond to the news on abuse and death threats against Mehmet Tarhan. Mehmet Tarhan started a hunger strike in protest against the authorities inactivity and abuse on 26 May, after his trial.

Suna Coskun, Mehmet Tarhan's lawyer, reported on the abuse her client faces on 24 May. On arrival at the Military Prison in Sivas, staff sergeant Mustafa Selvi threatened Mehmet Tarhan with transfer to "Common Cell No 2", where the "wildest" prisoners are imprisoned. Later Mehmet Tarhan was ordered to enter "Common Cell No 1" on his own. The cell was dark, and the inmates (which Mehmet Tarhan could not see) ordered him to sit down on a chair next to the door. They started to ask questions. They wanted to know whether he was a terrorist or traiter, in which case they would kill him. Then the inmates started to beat Mehmet Tarhan, and insulted him because of his long hair. Prisoner Ertan Mertoglu showed his weapon to Mehmet Tarhan and threatened to kill him. This attacked was ended by other prisoners. Mehmet Tarhan was then transferred to the dormitory, where a few moments later the same prisoners attacked him again. The beat him everywhere and pulled on his hair. The attack turned into an act of lynching. After 20 minutes, other prisoners again stopped the attack. After the attack in Common Cell No 2, the light bulbs in the cell were tightened again, so that the normal light in the cells was made to work again. This indicates that the attack had been prepared. Later, the prisoners who beat Mehmet Tarhan came to him and told him that staff sergeant Mustafa Selvi had told them that he was a terrorist, and "you know how you have to deal with him". They said that this was the reason they beat him. Mehmet Tarhan was then transferred to a single cell, but during each time Mehmet Tarhan left the cell, the prisoners Ertan Mertoglu, Hakki Dincel, Ersoy Özbulduk, and Ercan Kizilboga threatened him. They told him: "We could have killed you on the first day if we wanted. But we still can do it." Mehmet Tarhan was fearing of his life, and therefore did not tell anyone. But then the prisoners demanded first money, and later clothes, and telephone cards. On 29 April, the prisoners Hakki Dincel, Ersoy Özbulduk, and Ertan Mertoglu demanded 500 YTL (about 290 EUROs) and added he would know what to expect, if he would not pay. Mehmet Tarhan answered that he is unable to pay such an amount. One week later he submitted to the threats and handed over 300 YTL to Ercan Kizilboga and Ertan Mertoglu. Then, his extortioners demanded clothers. On 9 May 2005 they demanded three black suits. To guarantee that he would deliver, they forced him to call his sister and listened during the phone conversation. On 11 May 2005, Emine Tarhan brought two black suits, shoes, tyes, and shirts to the prison, which were handed over to Ertan Mertoglu by the prison authorities. Mehmet Tarhan's upper lip and the right side of his lower lip cracked as a result of these attacks. He is suffering ecchymosis at the chin, the neck, and other parts of his body. As a result of being beaten on his chest he suffered from breathing problems until 30 April. In the following days, he contiunously lost hair. Because of being beaten on his knee, legs, and feet he suffered from ecchymosis there, and for a long time had difficulties standing up.

Mehmet Tarhan informed the prison authorities about the abuse on his first day. As the report above shows, the prison authorities did do nothing to stop the abuse, and actively encouraged other prisoners to abuse Mehmet Tarhan. After her visit on 19 May, Mehmet Tarhan's lawyer Suna Coskun alerted the prison authorities, and demanded an examination of Mehmet Tarhan, and a new lock for Mehmet Tarhan's cell. On 20 May, the prison authorities recorded the abuse, and promised to ensure his safety. At the trial on 26 May, the abuse was clearly visible: Mehmet Tarhan had bruises all over his body, and could hardly walk.

The trial also lead to new developments which give rise to concerns. After the trial, police arrested three conscientious objectors out of the groups of supporters, and then nine more activists for "resisting the police", because they tried to nonviolently prevent a police van with the arrested objectors from leaving. Although eveyone got released during the night, the circumstances were quite strange. The three objectors were brought to the recruitment office well after office hours, and the recruitment office was opened especially for them. At the recruitment office, the three objectors had to give their ID cards, and where told to come back in the morning, when they would be able to pick up their ID cards. They were then released. A fourth objectors was briefly arrested in the night. He was sleeping in a car outside a friends house in Sivas, and arrested by police. He too was brought to the recruitment office in the middle of the night, and released after he had handed over his ID card. He too was told to come back in the morning. Of course, nobody followed this order.

The other activists were released too, but are likely to face trumped up charges of "assaulting the police". War Resisters' International does not know yet when their trial will take place.

War Resisters' International is again organising an international delegation for the trial on 9 June. In addition, War Resisters' International also calls for actions in front of Turkish embassies and consulates on 9 June, and for protest emails/faxes/letters to the Turkish authorities, and Turkish embassies. WRI set up a web facility to send protest emails to the Turkish President Ahmet Nezdet Secer.

A documentation on conscientious objection in Turkey is available on WRI's website for download.

Greece: Joint statement of WRI, Amnesty International, and the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection

Greece has broken European consensus

JOINT PUBLIC STATEMENT

"It is high time the Greek authorities respect and comply with European and international standards and recommendations and put an end to all prosecutions, imprisonments and violations of the human rights of conscientious objectors" the three international organisations stated today, condemning in the strongest terms the recent wave of sentences against conscientious objectors in Greece. “The Greek government cannot turn a blind eye to the problem any more," they stressed.

The right to refuse to perform military service is a legitimate exercise of the fundamental right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, enshrined in international human rights treaties to which Greece is a State Party, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.

"Greece cannot continue convicting people for exercising their human right to conscientious objection. We urge the Greek government to take action to stop immediately the prosecutions of all conscientious objectors, recover their civil and political rights and bring the provisions for conscientious objection in line with European and internationally recognized standards and recommendations (of the United Nations, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) as well as in line with the recommendations of the Greek Ombudsman and the Greek National Commission for Human Rights," Amnesty International, European Bureau for Conscientious Objectors and War Resisters' International stated.

Just recently, in March 2005, the United Nations Human Rights Committee called on Greece to improve the situation of conscientious objectors noting that: "The Committee is concerned that the length of alternative service for conscientious objectors is much longer than military service, and that the assessment of applications for such service is solely under the control of the Ministry of Defence. The State party should ensure that the length of service alternative to military service does not have a punitive character, and should consider placing the assessment of applications for conscientious objector status under the control of civilian authorities."

However, as recently as May 2005, four more conscientious objectors were sentenced to suspended imprisonment of six to 24 months while one of them remained imprisoned for 11 days awaiting his trial. They have all appealed against their verdicts and are awaiting their appeal hearings.

On 10 May conscientious objector Makedonas Alexandridis was given a suspended sentence of six months for disobedience by the Military Court of Ioannina. Alexandridis had served his military service in the Russian army. Later, he became a Jehovah's Witness, so when the Greek army called him to report for military service he asked to serve alternative civilian service instead. However, the right to conscientious objection is not recognised under Greek Law 2510/1997 for those who have already served in armed forces.
On 17 May conscientious objector Andreas Anastasiou was given a suspended sentence of six months for insubordination and disobedience by the Military Court of Larissa. Anastasiou had served his military service in the Greek army, but later became a Jehovah’s Witness, so when he was called up for reservist military service he refused to report on religious grounds.
On 18 May conscientious objector Nikos Baltoukas was sentenced to a suspended 15-month prison term for insubordination by the Military Court of Xanthi. Baltoukas had served his military service in the Greek army but when he was called up for reservist military service he refused to report on grounds of conscience.
On 23 May conscientious objector Georgios Koutsomanolakis was sentenced to a suspended 24-month prison term for insubordination by the Military Court of Athens. Koutsomanolakis was charged with insubordination in 1979, at a time when there was no alternative civilian service in Greece, because as a Jehovah’s Witness he refused to serve military service on religious grounds. He fled Greece and was granted political asylum in Germany, where he has been living since then. He was arrested and detained on 12 May 2005 on the Greek island of Rhodes during a visit to his parents and on 16 May he was transferred to Korydallos prison, Athens, where he remained imprisoned until his trial.

In addition, conscientious objectors Lazaros Petromelidis and Giorgos Monastiriotis have both been repeatedly sentenced by Military Courts to heavy prison sentences for their conscientious objection.

Lazaros Petromelidis, President of the Association of Greek Conscientious Objectors, objected to military service on grounds of conscience in 1992 and has been repeatedly prosecuted and convicted since then. He refused to do the alternative service he was offered in 1998, as it was of an extremely punitive duration -- in his case, seven and a half times longer than the military service he would otherwise have had to perform -- and he got his conscientious objector status revoked. Since then, he has been regularly receiving call-up papers to serve in the military and has been repeatedly charged with insubordination because of his refusal, as a conscientious objector, to do military service. He was previously imprisoned in May 1998, April 1999 and September 2002. In June 2003 the Appeal Military Court of Athens sentenced him to 20 months' imprisonment suspended for three years for insubordination. With his most recent sentence in absentia to 30 months' imprisonment for insubordination in December 2004 by the Naval Court of Piraeus, the previous suspension of the sentence was lifted, meaning that he will have to serve a total prison sentence of 50 months as soon as he is arrested. The repeated prosecutions and convictions of Petromelidis contravene his right to conscientious objection since the alternative civilian service that he is called to perform should not be discriminatory or punitive in nature and length.
Giorgos Monastiriotis, who had joined the Greek Navy on a five-year contract, refused, citing conscientious reasons, to follow his unit in May 2003 when the frigate "Navarino" on which he was serving was sent to the Persian Gulf. He is the first Greek professional soldier known to refuse to participate in the recent war in Iraq on the basis of his conscientious objection and to declare his resignation from the Navy for this reason. In his public refusal in May 2003, he stated that: "I refuse on grounds of conscience to participate in or contribute by any means to the relentless massacre of the Iraqi people... My refusal is also a minimal act of solidarity with the Iraqi people as well as to the peaceful sentiments of the Greek people." In September 2004 he was arrested and sentenced to 40 months' imprisonment for desertion by the Naval Court of Piraeus. He was taken immediately to prison in Corinth where he remained imprisoned for 22 days until his temporary release pending his appeal hearing. In January 2005 he was sentenced again by the Naval Court of Piraeus to 5 months' imprisonment for desertion which was suspended pending appeal. He appealed and was released until his appeal trial. Monastiriotis' convictions are in violation of his right to change his beliefs and develop a conscientious objection after joining the armed forces.

In addition, both Lazaros Petromelidis and Giorgos Monastiriotis are regularly called up to military service, and every time they refuse to serve in the army a new prosecution is brought against them on grounds of insubordination and desertion respectively. This violates Article 14 paragraph 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that: "No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has been finally convicted or acquitted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of each country."

Chile: Protests against military service following the death of conscripts

Santiago, 24 May 2005 Following the death of up to 45 conscripts in a snowstorm in the Chilean Andes on 18 May, opposition to military service in Chile is growing. The soldiers - most of them 18- or 19-year-old-conscripts - were ordered into a training march during a blizzard described as the worst snowstorm in 30 years in the mountains 350 miles south of the capital. While the Chilean military tries to limit the damage done to its public image - the commanders of the regiment of the soldiers and the chief of the company that was caught in what has been described as a "snow tsunami" face charges of manslaughter, mistreatment of subordinates and failure to fulfill military duties - antimilitarist groups and NGOs demanded an end to compulsory military service.

The reformist NGO coalition Red Chilena de Objeción de Conciencia (ROC) called for an end to obligatory military service, and organised a demonstration in Santiago on 24 May 2005 (see picture on the right). The antimilitarist groups also joined forces, and called for a demonstration in Santiago on 28 May 2005, but the police prevented the demonstration from taking place. Oscar Huenchunao, member of the WRI Executive and of the Chilean section Ni Casco Ni Uniforme reports on the developments: "Both Ni Casco Ni Uniforme and Rompiendo Filas were asked by the media and the public about our opinions. We started a campaign of activities asking for the end of conscription, a civil investigation of the tragedy of Antuco, and the full recognition of the right of conscientius objection. With other organisations, we formed a coalition, called Plataforma Amplia por el Fin del Servicio Militar.

Santiago, 28 May 2005 We started meetings in order to establish and define the character of this coalition, our goals (end of conscription and CO recognition) and our means (civil desobedience, NVDA, etc). We have prepared a demo for this saturday, May 28, at a very central spot in Santiago (Plaza Italia).

Unfortunately, the political environment is very tense in these days. Because of several students demonstrations and rallies, that sometimes have ended in confrontations with the police, it's very hard to get authorisation for public actions, especially in the center of Santiago. This morning, Plaza Italia and it's surrounding area was flooded by police officers, some of them in full riot gear. Riot police buses were there, as well as regular patrol and water cannon trucks.

Since several minutes before the beginning of the demo, police started harassing young people on the area, asking for their ID cards and checking their bags. If no ID was shown, they take the person into custody. Other were detained for having propaganda or banners in their bags. Some other were detained outside the police bus while we were discussing with the cops and asking them what was the reason for the detentions. A woman who yelled at some officers because of their behaviour was also arrested.

Inside the police bus, several Ni Casco Ni Uniforme members said they were beaten up and threatened -they were already mistreated when forcefully boarded on the bus. All detainees were released after an hour. Some of them were charged with "Public disturbance".

The Plataforma is planning legal actions because of this outrageous attitude from the police. We consider our freedom of expresion rights violated. There's going to be a Press Conference tomorrow, and further public actions to denounce this.

We ask for solidarity to chilean COs and for actions of protest outside Chilean embassies worldwide, demanding the end of conscription, a civilian investigation of the tragedy of Antuco (currently done by Military justice) and the full recognition of Conscientious Objection."

In a separate development, the joint commission of the two chambers of the Chilean parliament approved a proposal for some form of conscientious objection - COs can get exemption on the grounds that conscientious objection will be considered as a mental condition. From War Resisters' International's point of view, to define conscientious objection as a mental condition cannot be seen as an acceptable solution, and would certainly not be in line with any international standards. The new proposal will still need to be approved in the Chilean Senate, which rejected an earlier proposal to introduce a very limited form of conscientious objection (see CO-Update No 8, April 2005).

Sources: Chilean troops perish in snowstorm. Mail&Guardian online, 22 May 2005; Chile Soldiers' Commanders Risk Prison, The Guardian, 26 May 2005, Email Oscar Huenchunao, 28 May 2005; Elarea.com, 23 May 2005

Israel: High Court refuses to accept Yonathan Ben-Artzi as conscientious objector

After several years of legal batte, the legal case of Israeli conscientious objector finally came to an end today, with the Israeli High Court rejecting Yonathan Ben-Artzi's petition to be recognised as a conscientious objector. After several months in and out of military prison, and a trial that laster for almost one year, Yonathan Ben-Artzi was found guilty of refusing to enlist, but was not sent to prison again so far (see WRI's report "Conscience on Trial", February 2004). However, he has been sentenced to two months imprisonment plus a fine of NIS 2,000. The appeal is still pending. Even after this trial, the Conscience Committee of the Israeli military refused to accept Yonathan Ben-Artzi as a pacifist. However, the IDF finally exempted him as unsuitable for military service. Yonathan Ben-Artzi had petitioned the High Court to get the reason for his exemption changed to conscientious objection.

Although the High Court rejected the petition, it recommended to the IDF to send Ben-Artzi a letter explaining that the fact that the exemption is based on him being unsuitable does not contest the fact that he is a pacifist.

Source: High Court refuses to call IDF refusenik a 'conscientious objector', Haaretz, 1 June 2005

Recent co-alerts

In the previous month, the WRI office issued the following co-alerts:
(a full archive of co-alerts is available at wri-irg.org/news/alerts)

CO-UPDATE: the monthly email newsletter of War Resisters' International's The Right to Refuse to Kill programme || Index of past issues

CO UPDATE