Broken Rifle symbol

CO UPDATE

Produced in cooperation with the Myrtle Solomon Memorial Trust
No 15 / November 2005

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

Editorial

Turkish conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan is on hunger strike for more than 32 days today, and War Resisters' International is very concerned about his health, and long-term health consequences this hunger strike might have. We therefore urge you to make your protest heard with the Turkish authorities, to fulfill Mehmet Tarhan's demands, so that he, and his friend Ali, can end their hunger strike. Please keep in touch with updates on WRI's Turkey campaign page.

War Resisters' International also already released the campaign pack for this year's Prisoners for Peace Day, with a special focus on Eritrea. Please order your campaign pack, or download it from our website. And let us know what you plan for 1 December - Prisoners for Peace Day.

Andreas Speck

Upcoming events

1 December
Prisoners for Peace Day

Every year for 1 December - International Prisoners for Peace Day - War Resisters' International compiles a list of people imprisoned for conscientious objection or nonviolent action for peace.

This year, the focus will be on Eritrea, a country destroyed by war and an authoritarian regime, and where the only option for conscientious objectors - men and women - is to flee the country.

Please order the campaign pack (available early in November) in English, Spanish, French or German.

More information on Eritrea at http://wri-irg.org/news/2005/
eritrea-en.htm

Globalising Nonviolence, 23-27 July 2006, Germany

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:

More information at www.globalisingnonviolence.org

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

Subscribe/
Unsubscribe

To subscribe, you can go to the website of this list, or send an email.
To unsubscribe, send an email to co-update-unsubscribe
@lists.wri-irg.org.

Donate to WRI!

War Resisters' International depends on your donations to be able to carry out its work. Donate to WRI online now at wri-irg.org/en/donate-en.htm.

Turkey: Conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan on hunger strike for more than 32 days

Mehmet TarhanTurkish conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan is fast approaching the completion of the fifth week of his hunger strike (see CO-Update No 14, October 2005). Mehmet Tarhan began this second hunger strike after a new incident of maltreatment and abuse. According to reports received by the WRI office, on 30 September, at about 3pm, Mehmet Tarhan was told by non-commissioned military prison officer Hilmi Savluk, who was accompanied by 3-4 guards, that they were to cut Mehmet's hair. It took 7-8 people to restrain Mehmet and to cut his hair and beard against his will, using force. As a result, Mehmet Tarhan is suffering from pain in his face, both hands, in his left arm and left foot, and has bruises on arms and legs. He is unable to turn his neck because of pain in his neck and face. In protest against this treatment, Mehmet Tarhan again went on hunger strike.

Mehmet Tarhan was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment on 10 August 2005, on two charges of "insubordination in front of his unit". He received a sentence of two years imprisonment for each of the charges. He had been arrest in Izmir on 8 April 2005.

Tarhan had been on hunger strike from 25 May to 21 June 2005, to protest against maltreatment and the authorities inability to protect him in prison. He ended his hunger strike after 28 days, after the prison authorities accepted his demands (see TK14724-220605). Tarhan had been briefly released from military prison following a trial session on 9 June 2005 (see TK14724-220605), but had been brought back to his military unit, where he was again given a military order, which he refused. This lead to the second charge, and a second trial on 12 July, where the decision was taken to join the two cases, which resulted in the sentence on 10 August 2005.

Supporters of Mehmet Tarhan now fear for his health, and urgent interventions are needed. War Resisters' International therefore requests protest letters, faxes, and emails to the Turkish authorities, as a matter of urgency.

General Staff of the Turkish Military: Fax +90-312-4250813
Presidency of the Turkish Republic: Fax +90-312-4271330, email cumhurbaskanligi@tccb.gov.tr
A protest email to the Turkish President Ahmet Nezdet Secer can be sent at wri-irg.org/co/alerts/20051003a.html

Sivas Military Prison
5. Piyade Egitim Tugayi
Askeri Cezaevi
Temeltepe - Sivas
Turkey
Fax +90-346-2253915

Sources: Emails from Turkish antimilitarists

Bosnia to end conscription on 1 January 2006

Antimilitarists in Bosnia and Hercegovina recently were suprised by an unexpected victory: conscription in the country will formally end on 1 January 2006, and in practice conscription has already ended. The end of conscription is part of a bigger defence reform in the country, passed by parliament on 5 October. The reform includes the reduction of the size of the Armed Forces to about 10,000, the abolishment of separate Defence Ministries for the two entities ("the Federation" and Republika Srpska), and in general will move the Bosnian military closer to NATO standards. It has therefore been welcomed by US and UK government and military authorities. It is expected that Bosnia will soon join NATO's "Partnership for Peace". Already now, Bosnia and Hercegovia is part of the US lead "Coalition of the Willing" in Iraq. On 10 June 2005 the country deployed a contingent of 36 troops to Iraq. The unit is Explosiive Ordnance Disposal unit was to be subordinated to a US Marine Engineer unit in the Fallujah area. Bosnian contingent are set to rotate to Iraq for a period of six-months each.

Bosnia recently saw the spread of conscientious objection, with more than 3,000 conscientious objectors up to now, mainly in the Croat-Bosnian federation, and less in the Republika Srpksa. With the end of conscription, any regulation for substitute service for conscientious objectors will also come to an end.

Sources: Email Prigovor BiH, 3 October 2005

Romania follows suit - conscription to be abolished on 1 January 2007

Romania is the next country in South-East Europe to follow the trend to end conscription. In Romania too this is part of a project to modernise the military, and has little to do with disarmament. According to a report by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), Bucharest has agreed to transform its army from a Wassaw Pact mammoth into a lean, mobile force that is compatible with NATO's needs. Romania joined NATO in 2004, and also has troops in Iraq as part of the Coalition of the Willing. As of July 2005, the country had 863 troops in Iraq. The country also took part in military "peace" missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Although the size of the Armed Forces shrunk from 235,000 in 1994 to less than 100,000 now and is expected to shrink further to 75,000 by the end of next year, this cannot be said of the military budget. Defence spending has risen to 2.4 per cent of GDP per year (around 1 billion US dollars) for the last five years, even more than NATO's unofficial minimum level of 2.0 per cent.

Source: Institute for War & Peace Reporting: Balkan Crisis Report No 577, 30 September 2005

China: Armed Forces to start recruiting

According to a report by Xinhua, the Chinese Armed Forces are due to start their winter recruitment on 1 November 2005, according to an order jointly issued by the State Council and the Central Military Commission.

It urges governments and military recruitment departments at different levels to take it as a serious political task and ensure a completion of the recruitment.

Those who are qualified to be recruited by the Army include rural youth with the least educational background of junior middle and urban youngsters with a schooling of high school or even higher. "It is essential to recruit as many high school graduates from the countryside as possible," it says.

The age group for male candidates ranges from 18 to 20 years, while for women, it spans between 18 and 19, according to the document.

Meanwhile, high school graduates aged 17 years could also be accepted upon their own will, the order says.

Theoretically, all citizens of the People's Republic of China have the duty of performing military service, according to Article 3 of the Military Service Law of 1984. In practice, military service with the People's Liberation Army is voluntary; all 18-year-old males have to register themselves with the government authorities, in a way similar to the Selective Service System of the United States. The main exception to this system applies to potential university students, who are required to undergo military training before their courses commence, according to chapter VIII of the military service law.

Source: CRI Online, 31 October 2005, Armed Forces to Start Recruiting

War is a Crime against Humanity:

The Story of The War Resisters' International
New book by Devi Prasad out now

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
Orders: £28.00 plus postage. Order online at the WRI webshop.

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