CO UPDATE

Editorial

With co-update No 24, we are back on track with our release schedule, and we hope to keep it that way for a while now. However, we have to apologise to our readers of the Spanish edition, as informe-oc no 23 is still delayed, and we hope to make it available on our website soon.

In the run-up to Prisoners for Peace Day on 1 December (see below), we published our Prisoners for Peace issue of The Broken Rifle. Please request your copy from the WRI office, and support Prisoners for Peace.

Andreas Speck

Upcoming events

1 December - Prisoners for Peace Day: Focus on Russia

Prisoners for Peace Day 2006 highlights the situation in Russia, with the new NGO law threatening the work of independent NGOs and the war in Chechnya also leading to increased persecution in Russia itself. The Prisoners for Peace campaign pack will be available early November in English, Spanish, French, and German. Contact the WRI office for more information.

Witnessing Conscientious Objection from Turkey to the World: History and Breaking News.

Istanbul, 27-28 January 2007

A conference of academics, legal experts, and activists will take place at Istanbul Bilgi University in January, to support the right to conscientious objection in Turkey. The conference is organised by a conference committee, with support of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International Turkey, War Resisters' International and the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection. For more information, contact Ozgur Heval Cinar.

CO-Update

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New platform for conscientious objection launched in Turkey

On 21 October, 15 Turkish NGOs and political parties launched a new Conscientious Objection Platform to defend the human right to conscientious objection. Spokesman for the platform is Halil Savda, a conscientious objector whose trial for refusing to perform military service is still going on.

During the inaugural press conference at the office of the İnsan Hakları Derneği (Human Rights Association - IHD) in Istanbul, Halil Savda (pictured right) explained the aims of the new platform:

• The lifting of legislation that restricts anti-militarism and defines it as a punishable offence of "discouraging the people from military service". Inclusive of the abolishment of laws under which conscientious objectors can be prosecuted for "insistence of disobeying orders" and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, military criminal law articles 87 and 88.
• To be in solidarity with journalists and writers who have been prosecuted for articled on conscientious objection or militarism.
• To challenge military judiciary which the soldiers themselves do not deserve and to work towards a unified single judiciary with military justice being abolished.
• To support and attempt to unify under its own framework total objectors who also refuse substitute service.
• To be in solidarity with those who have refused to surrender for compulsory military service and consequently been expelled from Turkish citizenship. To work towards reinstating their rights.
• One of the primary targets of the platform, however, is to unify all efforts and activities in the fields of conscientious objection which, previously, were more spontaneous and disorganised.

According to media reports, the newly-formed platform does not only aim to work for legislative changes which would recognise the right to conscientious objection, but also aims to create a communication network between and for conscientious objectors.

The formation of the platform follows a decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in January, and a renewed debate about conscientious objection in Turkey. In September, the European Parliament voted in favour of the right to conscientious objection in Turkey, and "remind[ed] Turkey that the right to conscientious objection is recognized in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights".

However, on 10 October, the Sivas Military Court finally ruled in the case of conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan, and sentenced him to a total of 25 months in prison (co-alert, 17/10/06). Mehmet Tarhan's lawyer Suna Coskun immediately appealed against this sentence.

In addition, there are two more conscientious objection cases pending:

• The case of conscientious objector Mehmet Bal is still ongoing, with the next hearing scheduled for 8 March 2007.
• The case of conscientious objector Halil Savda, which had been overruled by the Military Appeals Court in Ankara. The next hearing is scheduled for 7 December 2006.

Cambodia introduces conscription

The National Assembly of Cambodia voted in October to introduce conscription in the country. According to the new law, young men aged between 18 and 30 will be liable to serve 18 months in the military. The law also carries a prison term of up to five years for men who refuse to join the military.

Since the signing of the 1993 Peace Accords there has, officially, been no conscription in Cambodia. However, there have been attempts to reintroduce conscription in the past. In April 1994 the government approved a draft law on military service, which was rejected by parliament in March 1996. The draft law provided for an 18 months' military service for all men between the ages of 18 and 35.

The reintroduction of conscription comes despite years of international efforts to reduce the size of the Cambodian armed forces. Officially, Cambodia's military stands at more than 112,000, but as many as 40,000 of those soldiers are either disabled or elderly - still a huge military for a country with a population of 13 million. Efforts to reduce the number of troops failed since 1998, and the military is still consuming a huge amount of Cambodia's budget.

However, the move contradicts earlier announcements about the reduction of the Cambodian military. Ke Kim Yan, commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, said in Phnom Penh on 9 October that Cambodia will slim the army by 40,000 members and finally hold it at 70,000 in total, as part of an overall military reform. Yan made the remarks while meeting with visiting Liang Guanglie, chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, at the military headquarters.

In Cambodia, every year, about 300,000 young men reach the age of 18, with about half of the population currently being under 18. Unemployment is a major problem, especially for young people, and opposition politicians accuse the government of using conscription to hide the country's unemployment problem.

It remains to be seen how recruitment will work in practice. It is highly likely that only a small percentage of those liable for military service will be conscripted.

More conscientious objectors in Chile resist new military recruitment law

On 10 October 2006 12 total objectors presented themselves to the public in the Chilean city of Linares. These twelve objectors were the first of a wave of presentation of total objectors in opposition to the new law on military service, which came into force at the beginning of this year. According to Article 29 of the new law on military service, recruitment is mainly voluntarily. However, if the recruitment quota cannot be filled by volunteers alone, then the remainder will be filled with conscripts. According to the programme of the Bachelet government, "obligatory military service is obsolete", and the Chilean military should be turned into an all-volunteer military within 5-10 years. During the transitional period, the government wants to introduce economical incentives to make military service more attractive (and attract more volunteers), and also wants to introduce regulations for conscientious objection including a substitute service. However, so far it seems with little success, as not many registered voluntarily.

According to the news service of the Chilean parliament, the defence commission started the discussion about how to implement the right to conscientious objection and a substitute service in October.

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)

• ISRAEL: Occupation refuser sent to prison Tue Oct 17
  
• TURKEY: Conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan sentenced to 25 months imprisonmentTue Oct 17