CO UPDATE
The monthly email newsletter of War Resisters' International's The Right to Refuse to Kill programme || Index of past issues
Editorial
Welcome to the August issue of the co-update e-newsletter, and it is a bit early. This issue of co-update goes beyond the narrow definition of conscientious objection - it includes an important court decision regarding selective refusal of orders from Germany, and an unfortunately negative decision regarding war tax resistance from Britain. War Resisters' International itself practices war tax resistance, and will continue to do so after this court decision.
The War Resisters' International Council meeting, which took place in Seoul in South Korea from 30 June to 2 July, passed two resolutions related to conscientious objection:
- a statement on the situation regarding conscientious objection in Finland, and
- a statement on the situation of the imprisoned Turkish CO Mehmet Tarhan.
Both are available on the WRI website, and are not redistributed in this newsletter. Updated information on Mehmet Tarhan is available at http://wri-irg.org/co/turkcampaign-en.htm.
Andreas Speck
Upcoming events
Globalising Nonviolence, 23-27 July 2006, Germany
- Are you interested in both nonviolence and globalisation?
- Are you campaigning against war?
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The War Resisters' International conference Globalising Nonviolence will be a great opportunity to meet activists from all over the world, to get to know what makes them tick, and to see how you can help each make another world possible. Around the world, a movement of movements is converging. This movement seeks to counterpose the perspective and values of people's power to those of global financial institutions, transnational corporations or governments. This is a movement of globalisation from below.
WRI believes that this movement of movements has a major role to play in this globalisation from below. Hence the theme of our upcoming international conference - Globalising Nonviolence.
Conference discussions will:
- Analyse the contemporary situation of economic, cultural and political globalisation. How are capitalist globalisation and militarism related?
- Develop strategies for nonviolent resistance towards the unjust aspects of globalisation. How do we create nonviolent social change?
- Bring together people from the globalisation critical movement and WRI's network of pacifists and anti-militarists for mutual exchange of ideas on nonviolent opportunities for resistance.
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More information at www.globalisingnonviolence.org
CO-Update
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Germany: German soldier wins right to refuse supporting Iraq war
Federal Adminstrative Court upholds freedom of conscience for professional soldier
A major of the German army who refused to take part in the development of a piece of software was acquitted by the Federal Administrative Court of Germany on 21 June 2005. He had claimed that it would be impossible to guarantee that this software would not be used in the war in Iraq (in which Germany does not take part). In April 2004 major Florian Pfaff, who works in the Armed Forces Administration of the German military, refused to continue to work on the development of military software, as ordered to by his superior. He said that for reasons of conscience he cannot follow any order which could turn into a support for the war on Iraq. His superior was unable to exclude the possibility that the work on the software could amount to a support of German military activity in Iraq - a war, which he views as being in contradiction to internal law.
In connection with this the major also criticised that the members of the German Armed Forces are stationed in Kuwait, that German soldiers participate in AWACS flights, guard US bases in Germany, and that Germany grants landing and overflight rights to the US forces fighting in Iraq - all this he views as support to the war in Iraq, which would be prohibited by the German constitution and by international law.
The military tribunal degraded him from major to captain. Major Pfaff appealed against the decision, as did the military prosecutor.
Now, the Federal Administrative Court ruled that Major Pfaff did not act against military law. Although he did not refuse to serve in the military by applying for conscientious objector status, he still enjoyed freedom of conscience, said the judges.
Source: Bundersverwaltungsgericht Az 2 WD 12.04 - judgement from 21 June 2005
Conscientious objection in Bulgaria - a survey
At a seminar in Plovdiv in Bulgaria, organised by Youth Society for Peace and Development on the Balkans (YSPDB) on behalf of EBCO, YSPDB presented a survey on the situation regarding conscientious objection in Bulgaria. The survey had been done in 2004, and the total sample was 1265 interviewees. Here we present some of the results:
1. Do you know about the possibility to substitute military service with an alternative service, according to Bulgarian legislation and European standards?
| Answer | % of respondents |
| No | 44.7 |
| Yes | 36.2 |
| Subtotal | 80.9 |
| No response | 19.1 |
| Total | 100.0 |
2. Would you substitute your military service with an alternative service?
| Answer | % of respondents |
| No | 31.1 |
| Yes | 30.4 |
| Subtotal | 61.4 |
| No response | 38.6 |
| Total | 100.0 |
Why would you not substitute your military service?
| Answer | % of respondents |
| Military service is the civil duty of every Bulgarian citizen | 44.2 |
| I will acquire special kills and knowledge during military service | 20.5 |
| I will grow up and become a man | 18.8 |
| My family and friends are against it | 5.9 |
| Other | 16.5 |
How long should the alternative service be?
| Answer | % of respondents |
| As long as military service | 21.6 |
| Twice as long as military service | 17.6 |
| Other | 15.4 |
| Subtotal | 54.6 |
| No response | 45.4 |
| Total | 100.0 |
The survey clearly showed a lack of knowledge about the situation regarding the right to conscientious objection in Bulgaria. This is emphasized also by the low number of objectors: According to official data, only 66 applications for conscientious objection had been made in 2003/2004, of which 60 had been accepted. 23 conscientious objectors were serving their alternative service at 11 service places.
Source: Conscientious objection as a tool for a European Consciousness. Youth Society for Peace and Development on the Balkans. Presentation at the seminar of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 17-19 June 2005.
See also: Refusing to bear arms country report on Bulgaria at http://wri-irg.org/co/rtba/bulgaria.htm.
Britain: Defeat for "Peace Tax Seven"
The Guardian reported on 25 July on the judicial review of the "Peace Tax Seven" to guarantee the right to conscientious objection against military taxation:
'A group of conscientious objectors today lost a high court bid to stop their taxes being put toward military spending.
The "peace tax seven", backed by more than 50 supporters, asked Mr Justice Collins, sitting in London, for permission to seek a judicial review of a continuing government refusal to allow them to opt out.
But the judge dismissed their application and ruled their case was "bound to fail" in the domestic courts.
He said the case would have to be heard by the European court of human rights in Strasbourg.
The seven wanted to seek court orders forcing the Treasury to establish a special fund or account so that their money could be spent only on peaceful purposes.
Michael Fordham, appearing for the seven, argued that the Treasury's continuing refusal to set up such an account violated their rights under article 9 of the European convention on human rights, which protects the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Rejecting the argument, the judge agreed with Treasury lawyers, who said the European commission of human rights in Strasbourg had already decided the issue against conscientious objectors in cases heard in the 1980s.
The judge said: "I am persuaded that if this matter is to be reconsidered it must be reconsidered by Strasbourg."
But first the legal process had to be exhausted in the domestic courts, and the speediest way to achieve this was for him to refuse the seven leave to seek judicial review.
He added: "I am sure that if I granted leave, in the end this case would be bound to fail."'
Source: The Guardian, 25 July 2005, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1535820,00.html
See also: http://www.peacetaxseven.com/legal.html
Germany: Unemployed as actors in military exercises?
On 27 June, German Minister of Defence Peter Struck came up with a new proposal to fight unemployment, and to "outsource" certain military needs: unemployed can be used as actors in military exercises. He made the suggestion when visiting a German military training base, observing a military exercise: the searching of Kosovars at a checkpoint. In such exercises, up to 400 soldiers of the German military are needed to play "civilians" - a role, for which no military training is needed, and which could easily be filled out by some of the 4.75 million unemployed in Germany. While the idea lead to quite some protest, it does not even seem to be new. At the military barracks of Hammelburg in Bavaria, it is already practice that the German military asks a temporary employement agency to provide actors for military exercises.
This raises the issue of freedom of conscience for unemployed: would unemployment benefit be stopped, if an unemployed would refuse to take up the role of a civilian in a military exercise for reasons of conscience?
Sources: Sozialverband VdK Deutschland, http://www.vdk.de/de8967
Berliner Zeitung, 29 June 2005, http://www.berlinonline.de/.bin/mark.cgi/berliner-zeitung/politik/461633.html?keywords=Bundeswehr
CO-UPDATE: the monthly email newsletter of War Resisters' International's The Right to Refuse to Kill programme || Index of past issues