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After ten years Javier Gárate, WRI's first ever Nonviolence Programme worker, is leaving WRI. When Javier started, there was little else than an old computer and WRI’s track record in nonviolence trainings to help him bring together this programme. He has done so very successfully – numerous international trainings for activists, trainings of trainers and two issues of the Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns stand for Javier’s achievements in those ten years. Plus of course three "quadriennials", in Germany, India and South Africa, which Javier together with his co-workers played a crucial role in preparing and conducting successfully.

Javier is moving to Belgium, but will continue to participate in some of WRI's regional networks. So we have reasons to hope that this good-bye is also a "see you soon again". We thank Javier very much for his untiring work, his friendliness, his kindness, his dedication, his humour and his keen commitment. WRI has gained so much from your time in the office, and we hope WRI has given you a lot, too. Javier – vaarwel, adiós, all the best and au revoir!

More than seven years ago Dominique Saillard came back from what she calls her 'WRI exile'. As many of you know, Domi had been on the staff of WRI for several years in the nineties, forming a dream team with Howard. When Howard became chair in 2006, WRI didn't have a treasurer. So as one of his first tasks as Chair he said "I know the perfect person to ask to be treasurer - it is Domi! I just need to convince her..." At the time we didn't know how successful Howard's persuasion of Domi would be, but he regularly reported that he was making more and more progress in getting WRI a treasurer.

In recent years, Turkey has repeatedly abused the rights of protesters with the weaponised use of tear gas at demonstrations. But despite human rights concerns, South Korea has authorised a huge shipment of tear gas to Turkey. On 10 February, Ban Tear Gas Initiative (Turkey), Campaign Against Arms Trade (UK), War Resisters' International and World Without War (South Korea) carried out actions in Seoul, Istanbul and London to stop the shipment!

War Profiteers' News, No 45, February 2015

By Chris Cole

On January 5 I was part of a small group of four people that entered RAF Waddington, the home of UK drone warfare, to protest the growing use of armed drones. British RAF pilots began operating armed US Predator drones in Iraq just over ten years ago before the UK acquired its own Reaper drones in 2007 for use in Afghanistan. Since then UK pilots have launched hundreds of drone strikes in Afghanistan before returning to Iraq, in November 2014, to begin launching strikes there once again. Along with the US and Israel, the UK is a key proponent of the idea of remote ‘risk free’ warfare.

Campaigners in Colombia have been boosted by a new ruling from the Constitutional Court. Yesterday, in a case brought by two conscientious objectors (COs) who had been forcibly recruited into the military, the Court ordered the National Recruitment Office to: resolve applications for CO within 15 days; to publish a booklet that notifies youth of their grounds for exemption, deferral, and their right to CO; and to end the practices of arbitrary detention, including batidas (recruitment raids, usually in public spaces). This right to claim conscientious objection includes once they have already entered the barracks. They have also asked the Army to report, within six months, on the implementation of these orders. If fully adopted, the changes would mark a huge change for young people in Colombia, and especially COs.

In Finland, WRI's affiliate AKL (Union of Conscientious Objectors) are petitioning the government to end conscription and the imprisonment of COs. Please add your name to it here.

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There will be many changes in the WRI office this year. Firstly, we say goodbye to Javier Gárate after ten years working in the office. There will be a chance to say goodbye and thank you to Javier next month! Taking over from Javier as WRI's Nonviolence Programme Worker in mid-February will be Andrew Dey.

Also for the first time, thanks to support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, we are able to appoint a part-time staff person dedicated to the Countering the Militarisation of Youth Programme, which up until now has been part of the Right to Refuse to Kill Programme. Semih Sapmaz will be starting 2 days/week in the WRI office from February. We will be fundraising to ensure this role continues beyond the one year we have already funded.

WRI is fundraising for the translation into Spanish of the new edition of the Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns.

Crowdfunding link https://goteo.org/project/campanas-noviolentas/?lang=en.

In 2009, War Resisters' International released the 'Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns'; a toolbox of ideas and resources to support activists to run more effective campaigns. The full first edition is available online here: www.wri-irg.org/pubs/NonviolenceHandbook. The original was translated into over ten languages, including Spanish, German, Tigrinya (spoken in Eritrea), Nepalese, Turkish, and Arabic, and has been used by activists all over the world - for example, the Spanish version of the handbook was used widely by the 15-M movement in Spain.

The Limousin group of Union Pacifiste, a member of the French section of War Resisters' International, learn with huge pain of the attack against our old friends of Charlie Hebdo, which killed twelve people, including the well known cartoonists and journalists Cabu, Wolinski, Charb, Tignous and Bernard Maris. The souls of these pacifists expressed themselves through pencil and pen, struggling and denouncing all kinds of recruitment by religious, societal or economic fanaticisms. Weapons ended their lives.

When spirit, heart, intelligence and humour leave the human being, it is violence that enters the scene. This violence is, of course, found in assassins, but it is also found in this militarized society, which manufactures war here for export over the whole world, in order to protect, hypocritically, the interests of French arms dealers, under the guise of patriotic values.

The Broken Rifle No 101, December 2014

Javier Gárate

Solidarity is a big word, which tries to bring out the best in us. It means that we should not only care about ourselves, but also for others, and be willing to take a stand for them. For War Resisters' International, solidarity and specifically international solidarity are at the core of our values and activities. As an international, we put emphasis on the need to support each other in our struggles against war and injustice. That is why we say that we are a network of mutual support: support that helps to amplify the voices of dissent. But what impact can solidarity and mutual support have in times of crises? What are the limitations of solidarity? In this issue of The Broken Rifle we look at some current violent conflicts, and the role of international solidarity - or the lack of it - such as in the case of Ukraine and Gaza.

Christine Schweitzer

In the wake of the NATO summit in Wales in early September, the United States forged a new “Coalition of the Willing” to conduct aerial operations against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria. Almost 60 states heeded the Americans’ call. Some, like the US, Britain, Australia and France, are conducting bombing raids; others, like Germany, are supporting operations by training the Peshmerga or supplying them with arms.