CO UPDATE

Editorial

Welcome to CO Update e-newsletter No 13. This issue has several reports from Latin America, where the right to conscientious objection is rarely recognised. The movements in Chile, in Colombia, and elsewhere in Latin America need international support to improve the situation in their countries, and it seems that especially Colombia will need our attention - the detention of two youths by the military on 8 August is a reminder that the situation of COs has not been solved.

War Resisters' International is now preparing for 1 December 2005, International Prisoners for Peace Day, which will focus on the situation in Eritrea. We covered the appalling conditions there in recent issues of CO Update e-newsletter, and in March, WRI published a special documentation on CO in Eritrea. Please make your own plans to mark Prisoners for Peace Day, and let us know.

War Resisters' International is proud to publish Devi Prasad's new book War is a Crime against Humanity. The Story of War Resisters' International. We will mark the publication with a public launch at Housmans Bookshop in London on 21 October 2005. For more information, please contact the WRI Office.

Upcoming events

Globalising Nonviolence, 23-27 July 2006, Germany

• Are you interested in both nonviolence and globalisation?
• Are you campaigning against war?
• Are you involved in nonviolent direct action or curious to learn more?

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.
• Strengthen networks and create new links between activists from all over the world.

More information at www.globalisingnonviolence.org

Job opening at WRI

War Resisters' International is looking for a new Finance and Administration Worker (2.5 days a week).

A commitment to pacifsm, and experience in dealing with finances and databases are essential. Other languages and awareness of the international nonviolence movement are desirable. The job is based in London (Kings Cross).

Salary: £19.392 per year (pro-rata)

Deadline for applications: 10 October 2005

Start date: November 2005

Application pack from: War Resisters' International, 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DX, Britain, email info@wri-irg.org

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Chile: New military service law, but no right to conscientious objection

In August 2005 the Chilean parliament passed a new recruitment law, after almost five years of discussion. However, the parliament failed to include any regulation for the right to conscientious objection in this new law.

The new law, which will come into force in 2007, introduces several changes. According to the law, registration for military service will be automatical. In January, the Civil Registry will pass on the data of all men who completed their 18th year to the military. If by the end of the year recruitment of volunteers is not sufficient, draws will determine who will be called up for military service. However, the expection is that there will be enough volunteers. Consequently, the new law includes more incentives for volunteers.

The new law does not change the position of conscientious objectors. There is no right to conscientious objection. Although there are no conscientious objectors in prison in Chile, they are in a "legal limbo", unsure whether they will be called up and possibly punished for refusal, or not.

In a separate development, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights rejected a petition of three Chilean conscientious objectors in March 2005. In its detailed decision, the Inter-American Comission follows a very conservative reading of international standards regarding the right to conscientious objection, and comes to the conclusion that "in summary (...) international human rights jurisprudence recognizes the status of conscientious objectors in countries that provide for such status in their national laws.  In countries that do not provide for conscientious objector status, the international human rights bodies find that there has been no violation of the right to freedom of thought, conscience or religion."

And: "The Commission is of the view that the failure of the Chilean State to recognize “conscientious objector” status in its domestic law, and the failure to recognize  Cristian Daniel Sahli Vera, Claudio Salvador Fabrizzio Basso Miranda and Javier Andres Garate Neidhardt as “conscientious objectors” to compulsory military service, does not constitute an interference with their right to freedom of conscience.  The Commission is of the view that the American Convention does not prohibit obligatory military service and that Article 6(3)(b) of the Convention specifically contemplates military service in countries in which conscientious objectors are not recognized.  Consequently, the Commission finds no violation by the Chilean State of Article 12 of the American Convention to the detriment of the petitioners in this case."

The outcome of the two Korean cases filed with the Human Rights Committee, and of the case of Osman Murat Ülke at the European Court of Human Rights, will therefore be important for Chile too.

Sources:

• Raúl Gutiérrez V.: La conciencia pisoteada, 15 August 2005, http://www.granvalparaiso.cl/politicos/mdefensa/ffaa/conciencia.htm
• Email Oscar Huenchunao, 17 August 2005, 23 August 2005
• Report No 43/05, Case 12.219, Merits, March 10, 2005 http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2005eng/Chile.12219eng.htm

Colombia: Two conscientious objectors briefly detained by military

Two Colombian youth were briefly detained by the military on 8 August. Gustavo Monroy and Alfredo Cáceres were detained because they did not carry a document exempting them from military service. Both were released later, but the incident pointed to the lack of recognition of the right to conscientious objection in Colombia (see below). Following this incident, Gustavo Monray declared his conscientious objection in a letter to the Colombian Ministry of Defence on 11 August 2005.

Art. 18 of the 1991 Constitution states that "(...) freedom of conscience is guaranteed. No one will be obliged to act against their conscience." While the right to conscientious objection is not explicitly granted in article 18, conscientious objection to military service was one of the concepts discussed in the formulation of this article. However, legislative efforts to provide guarantees for COs have not prospered.

In 1995, Luis Gabriel Caldas Leon, a Colombian CO, was court martialled and condemned as a deserter, even though he had never actually been enlisted. He had informed the military authorities in January 1994 that he was a CO and was willing to perform substitute service in environmental works. On 10 June 1995 he was seized by the police and sent to prison. He was released on 28 November 1995 after serving six months. He was told he would be re-arrested if he did not report to an army induction centre within six days of release. He, his family and his girlfriend have been receiving death threats from mysterious sources, believed to be right-wing paramilitary gangs. He went to the court to declare his conscientious objections and to explain why he could not perform military service. The Metropolitan Police ordered him to report within six days. They issued a new warrant against him, so he fled from Bogotá. His family was immediately warned that they must disclose where he was hiding. The Public Prosecutor started an investigation against his mother. His case was raised with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights by the Mennonite Church and the CO-group (Colectivo de Objetores de Conciencia) in Bogotá, asking the Commission to declare that in this case Colombia is infringing art. 12 of the American Convention on Human Rights. His case is still pending.

The case of Gustavo Monroy points to the urgent need of legal clarity regarding the right to conscientious objection in Colombia.

Sources:

Email Red Juvenil de Medellin, 24 August 2005; several other emails from Red Juvenil

War Resisters' International: Refusing to bear arms, Country report Colombia, 1998, http://wri-irg.org/co/rtba/colombia.htm

Serbia & Montenegro: Ministry of Defence presents draft law on military service / backlash for right to CO?

The Ministry of Defence of the Federal Republic of Serbia and Montenegro presented a new draft law to regulate military service and the substitute service for conscientious objectors. In principal, it will allow for four different ways to fulfill ones conscription duties:

• serving six month in normal military service
• serving six month in military service without arms
• serving for 13 months in a substitute service in civilian institutions
• paying a certain amount (the media reports differ from 1,000-5,000 Euros), and to do one month of military training.

Igor Seke comments:

1. As you can see they will shorten the military service to six months, as the military lacks soldiers (about 55% choose to do substitute service). They believe that the main reason why conscripts turn COs is the length of the military service (at the moment it is nine months). However, the main reasons are poor conditions of life in the barracks, several mysterious deaths of conscript soldiers in the last twelve months, automatically declared by the army as “suicides”, and that turned not to be suicides according to independent civilian investigations. A major change happened in the way that parents of the dead soldiers act towards the army. Most of them publicly say that they do not believe in the official versions of their childrens' deaths and demand an independent investigation. A recent investigation about the killing of two soldiers in barracks in central Belgrade showed that they were killed by a third person, although the military prosecutor and the commander of the barracks (who was a person that with his unit “defended” Milosevic on the night he was arrested) spent hours and hours on TV explaining that the two soldiers killed one another. Generally, people in Serbia now see the army as a dangerous place where their sons can get killed by someone from the inside. Also, the corruption in the army cannot be hidden anymore. The recent affair was about the head generals being given enormous luxury apartments for ridiculous price.
2. Six months military service without arms is not going to be what military service without arms was before substitute service was introduced. With this option they want to achieve two things: to get young experts to work for the army for six months in some institute (engineering and things like that). And they want to fill the barracks with soldiers (with or without arms) so that the structure of the units is preserved, and this would give then a reason not to fire the commanding officers (we talk about hundreds or even thousands) who literally have no one to command to.
3. They want to keep 13 month substitute service for COs outside of the military system. They believe that this misbalance (6:13 months) will make many choose military service, as at the moment there are 55% COs (or better to say people who choose substitute service). However, I believe that this will have very little effect, as instead of increasing the number of those who decide to do military service it will increase the number of total objectors and draft evaders. 
4. The last possibility will be available only for those conscripts living abroad, and who have got a permission of the Ministry of Defence to live abroad. This is completely senseless as most of the people living abroad do not have this permission, so basically the problem cannot be solved in this way, even if the recruits in exile would agree to it, which is not the case. The Army said that this model has been applied in Turkey with success. This model is also based on the “total defence” doctrine, which means that everyone has to participate in the “defence” of the country. For this reason besides paying off the military service, the recruits would have to do a one month long military training that could even be done in phases! So, if someone takes two weeks holidays and goes to Serbia, instead with his family he would spend it in the barracks, and the same thing again the following year, and then the third year he could spend the holiday with this family and friends. Among the group of the recruits gathered around the www.dijaspora-vojna-obaveza.info portal, there are just a few recruits who are willing to buy off their military service, but there is not even one who would agree to enter the barracks even for one second! For this reason, a letter has been sent to the Serbian government, explaining our views and asking them not to adopt such a rigid law that would create more problems than solutions. We still remain with our three main demands:
   • an amnesty law
   • reducing the conscription age limit to 27 years
   • a simple and clear legislation about recruits living abroad, that would facilitate the application procedures, obtaining permissions, etc.

Boris Tadic, President of Serbia and Aleksandar Cotric, Minister of Diaspora, announced on several occasions that they are willing to support an amnesty law, but it seems there is no government body ready to prepare and put this law into the parliamentary procedure.  On June 13th we received a letter from the cabinet of Svetozar Marovic, president of Serbia and Montenegro, titled “to info@dijsapora-vojna-obaveza.info” in which colonel Zvonimir Pesic informed us that the President’s cabinet is doing whatever it can to meet our three demands. The Minister of Foreign Affairs stated in B92 radio that “in his opinion the simplest solution would be just to exempt these recruits from military service”. Still, it is clear that the army has a significant influence in all political decision in Serbia, and that they are the ones stopping the amnesty law. In Montenegro the situation is completely different, as less than 40% of recruits take the call up papers, and about 30% of that number choose substitute service. This disobedience has a strong political background, and it is connected to the independent movement. The army is looking for a way to incorporate more recruits from Montenegro, but so far they didn’t have much luck.

Source: Email Igor Seke, 19 August 2005

War is a Crime against Humanity:

The Story of The War Resisters' International
New book by Devi Prasad out on 21 October 2005

The War Resisters' International was formed in reaction to the senseless slaughter of World War I with a mission not only to oppose all war but also to strive to eradicate its causes. This ambitious programme introduced a new and political dimension to the existing moral and religious basis of pacifism. It attracted some of the best pacifist thinkers and activists from around the world - George Lansbury, Bertrand Russell, Bayard Rustin, Martin Niemoeller, Danilo Dolci, and Mahatma Gandhi. The contributions of such figures and the sacrifice and heroism of the thousands who refused to cooperate with their government's war apparatus are chronicled for the first time in this long awaited book.

This book starts with a survey of the historical roots of pacifism in the presence of nonviolence within most world-religions. It goes on to describe the spread of pacifism via European non-conformist religious movements and its adoption by Tolstoi who was the first pacifist to urge action not just against the symptoms of violence but against its causes too: primary social and economic injustice. The major part of the book deals with the history of the War Resisters' International itself - including its formation and rapid spread; its response to Italian action in Abyssinia and the Spanish Civil War; the many challenges posed by World War II; the schism with Albert Einstein; compulsory military service; the Cold War and the nuclear threat; the anti-war movement in the 60s and 70s; and specific nonviolent direct actions such as those in response to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Bangladesh war and US draft resistance during the Vietnam war.

Devi Prasad studied at Shantiniketan, Tagore's University, worked as a teacher and artist in Sevagram, Gandhi's ashram, from the 1940s until 1962. From 1962-1972 he was General Secretary of the WRI.

During his time at the WRI significant changes took place. While still concentrating on the work for conscientious objection it widened its scope of work to nonviolence training and nonviolent action against armaments and war. One of the highlights of this development was the presentation of the Manifesto for Nonviolent Revolution at the Triennial Conference of 1972, which then was a real challenge to many people in the WRI.

Devi Prasad took a leading role in widening WRI's work towards nonviolence social change for a world without war.

Devi Prasad: War is a crime against humanity: The story of War Resisters' International
ISBN 0-903517-20-5. 560 pages, 67 photos
Publication date: 21 October 2005

Advance orders (before 20 October 2005): £18.00 plus postage (then £28.00 plus postage). Order online at the WRI webshop.