Right to Refuse to Kill

Repression in (post)-revolutionary Egypt

On 7 March, a few weeks after the resignation of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, Maikel Nabil Sanad wrote this sentence in a detailed article on his blog [1]. In this article he analysed in detail the role of the Egyptian military during and after the revolution, and came to the conclusion that the people and the military never “were one hand” - as people said so often during the revolution.

An Egyptian military court sentenced pacifist blogger and conscientious objector Maikel Nabil Sanad on 10 April to three years' imprisonment on charges of "insulting the military". Maikel Nabil Sanad was arrested at his home by military police on 28 March 2011, The military court ordered his detention for 15 days, pending the investigation.

On 28 March 2011 Maikel Nabil Sanad, a blogger, pacifist, and conscientious objector, was arrested by military police at his home, on charges of “insulting the military”, “spreading false information”, and “obstructing public security”. Less than two weeks later – on 10 April 2011 – he was convicted by a military court and sentenced to three years' imprisonment.

The trial against Egyptian pacifist Maikel Nabil Sanad, who was arrested on 28 March 2011, and who appeared in front of the military court in Nasr City in Cairo on charges of "insulting the military by publishing false news about it" and "obstructing public security", came to a close on Sunday, 10 April 2011, with a sentence of three years' imprisonment. In an outrageous move by the military, family and friends waiting in front of the military court were told the trial was postponed, while in fact Maikel Nabil Sanad was being sentenced at the same time - alone.

Activists tortured and killed by the army, even after Mubarak’s resignation (A study supported with documents)
Does the Egyptian Army stand alongside the revolution?

On 11 February 2011, after the President’s stepping-down speech that was delivered by Omar Suliman (Vice-President of the Republic, and the former head of the Egyptian intelligence), many Egyptians rushed to declaring victory and the completion of the revolution….

I regret having to say the following, mostly because many of those who spoke out are my friends, but people have the right to know the truth.

Some people wanted to take advantage of the presence of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to get political positions by making deals with the Supreme Council. They knew that they could not achieve such positions through a regular democratic process. And some of them had connections with the secret service before the revolution, and supported the secret service by default (I don’t want to describe them as the Secret Service’s agents) and some others thought that the army was not a part of the July Military Regime! And people were therefore misled by the army declarations (Press Releases) and have accepted the army’s role in the transitional phase.

In the case of the detained Egyptian pacifist and conscientious objector Maikel Nabil Sanad, who is being tried on charged of "insulting the military by spreading false information" and "disturbing public security" [1], War Resisters' International has now sent an observer to Cairo, to attend the hearing at the military court on Sunday, 3 April 2011.

Please read the updates at /node/12593, /node/12563 and /node/12524

War Resisters' International, the international network of pacifist and antimilitarist organisations with more than 80 affiliates in more than 40 countries, is concerned about the arrest of Egyptian pacifist and conscientious objector Maikel Nabil Sanad.

War Resisters' International, an international network of pacifist and antimilitarist organisa­tions founded in 1921, and with more than 80 affiliated organisations in more than 40 coun­tries, expresses its support to conscientious objector Moon Myungjin and all other con­scientious objectors in the Republic of Korea.

War Resisters' International was founded based on the following declaration from 1921:
“War is a crime against humanity.
I am therefore determined not to support any kind of war, and to strive for the removal of all causes of war.”

The German Marshall Fund of the United States annually does a survey on important "transatlantic trends", which can make an interesting read. One of the questions asked is: "Please tell me to what extent do you agree with the following: Under some conditions, was is necessary to obtain justice." (Q29.2). The answers are quite revealing (see graphic below).

Report on a visit to Colombia in May/June 2010

Andreas
Speck, War Resisters' International's Right to Refuse to Kill
programme worker1, visited Colombia from 19 May until 12 June 2010. During his visit, he
spoke at two conferences on conscientious objection, and visited groups and individuals working on CO in Bogota, Sincelejo, Medellin, Cali, Villa Rica, and Barrancabermeja.

IN THE GRAND CHAMBER OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Application No.

Book launch, 23 April 2010, 7pm, Housmans Bookshop

War Resisters' International is proud to finally publish "Women Conscientious Objectors - An Anthology", edited by Ellen Elster and Majken Jul Sørensen, with a preface by Cynthia Enloe. As WRI's chair Howard Clark writes in his preface: "In several senses, an anthology such as this is long overdue. First in the sense of acknowledging this part of the relatively hidden history of antimilitarism. Second for War Resisters' International organisationally. Founded in 1921, WRI has for much of its history been male-dominated, despite the prominent role of women in various affiliates and with certain exceptions at the international level such as long-serving WRI General Secretary Grace Beaton. Since 1972 conscious efforts have been made to change this — first the introduction of inclusive language (s/he, etc), and then, beginning in 1976, the organisation of special women's gatherings, usually in conjunction with WRI's “elder sister” the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. The second gathering in Scotland served as a prelude to the resurgence of an international women's peace movement in the 1980s, and produced a forceful statement on Women as Total Resisters. The British women involved in these gatherings formed the Feminism and Nonviolence Study Group and WRI later co-published their book Piecing It Together (now online at http://wri-irg.org/pubs/Feminism_and_Nonviolence). Then in 1986 the WRI Women's Working Group was formed to take this work forward and to provide a welcoming entry point for women activists, while WRI's 1987 seminar on Refusing War Preparations: Non-cooperation and Conscientious Objection was a response to feminist prompting to look at 'the wider implications of conscientious objection'. That seminar reflected new interest in the Anti-War Plan presented to WRI in 1934 by Bart de Ligt, but it took a decidedly more feminist approach. Activities central to war refusal — war tax resistance, refusing war work and opposing cultural preparations for war — are all areas where women have been and remain at the forefront."