Support Serbian deserters

Milosevic warned ominously last night that there will be "no mercy for deserters" from the Serbian army. Already, deserters and draft evaders from this conscript army face up to 20 years imprisonment (art. 214, 217 and 226, Chapter 20, Federal Criminal Code, Offences against the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), as well as the inevitable persecution and intimidation. Despite this appalling fact, it is estimated that during the war with Croatia, approximately 50% of reservists refused to answer call-up papers, (in Belgrade, only 17% answered, a third of whom did so under force) and at least 200,000 fled abroad to avoid military service.

Unfortunately, little mercy awaits such deserters in the UK. Instead they may face lengthy imprisonment (aka detention) followed by dismissal of their claims to asylum. That anyone should be imprisoned for refusing to kill is perverse as well as scandalous. But in former Yugoslavia, as in NATO countries such as Turkey, Germany and Spain, those who refuse war or military service find themselves sentenced as if murderers. How can NATO governments hope to end aggression against Kosovo while it ignores the plight of those who refuse to wage war? How can it believe you can bomb your way to peace?

WRI DEMANDS ASYLUM FOR ALL THOSE WHO REFUSE TO WAGE WAR