Support
Freedom of Conscience
British
Soldiers Refuse to Fight
Indo-Asian News
Service
LONDON, 31 March 2003
— Two British servicemen have been sent home from
the Middle East after refusing to fight in the war
against Iraq, The Sunday Times reported. They said they
would refuse to fight because of the civilian casualties
being caused by the US-British attack. They face possible
court martial and up to two years in jail for disobeying
orders. The two British soldiers are from 16 Air Assault
Brigade, a frontline unit, which has been engaged in
heavy fighting in southern Iraq. Their lawyer says they
were ordered to return to the brigade’s barracks in
Colchester, Essex, after raising their objections earlier
this month. The cases were confirmed this weekend by
Justin Hugheston-Roberts, a solicitor advocate who chairs
Forces Law, a nationwide group of 22 law firms that acts
for service personnel and their families. “These
cases are being handled by a very experienced
lawyer,” he said. Gilbert Blades, a Lincoln-based
lawyer, said the Ministry of Defense was trying to hush
up the cases because it feared a public relations
disaster.
.ISRAELI CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS IN
SCHOOL AND AFTER
Conscientious Objection as a visible and powerfully
symbolic form of resistance has reached a critical stage.
Never before in Israel have there been so many young
objectors, men and women openly declaring their refusal
to enlist on grounds of conscience. Never before have so
many citizens committed to a campaign to publicly and
actively support them. Never before have so many of the
young men among the CO's been sentenced to indefinitely
repeated prison terms. Never before has there been such a
concentrated legal struggle for freedom of conscience in
Israel, in effect placing the state and the military on
trial.
In recent months, some 320 high school seniors, girls and
boys, signed a public letter declaring their refusal to
serve in the Israeli army. In response, the military is
raising the stakes. While young women can obtain
exemptions on grounds of conscience, young men such as
pacifist Jonathan Ben-Artzi, one of the signatories of
the High School Seniors' Letter ("Shministim"),
is currently being court martialed after seven
consecutive prison terms imposed in disciplinary
procedures. Yoni now faces the daunting possibility of a
three-year sentence.
The struggle against this blatant breach of freedom of
conscience has led to an appeal to Israel's High Court of
Justice, challenging repeated disciplinary sentences for
the single 'offense' of refusing to serve in the army on
conscientious grounds. The Association for Civil-Rights
in Israel (ACRI) represented by Adv. Avner Pinchuk,
appealed on behalf of Dror Beuml, another
"Shministim" letter signatory, after he served
an accumulated term of 168 days. Concurrently, the
military summoned Dror to a court martial, also summoning
two more"Shministim" letter signatories, Haggai
Matar and
Matan Kaminer, after each had served several consecutive
prison terms. Haggai and Matan, who refuse to serve in an
occupying force, first appeared before the court martial
on February 26, 2003.
Jonathan, Haggai, and Matan are now being in held in
so-called open detention at 3 different military bases,
pending decisions on their cases. The fact that they are
no longer in military prisons reflects a first
significant achievement of their respective lawyers, Adv.
Michael Sphard and Adv. Dov Khenin. Dror was submitted to
re-screening by a military committee appointed to
recommend conscientious exemptions and awaits their
verdict at home.
The latest update is that Shimri Tzameret joined
Jonathan, Haggai, and Matan. He have been arrested until
his trial. Dov Khenin will represent him.
Additional objectors will require legal support very
soon, among them Rabia Saad, a Palestinian Druze
Conscientious Objector, possibly facing an exceptionally
long prison term of the kind often imposed on Druze CO's.
More objectors have already been sentenced to repeated
terms, among them, Noam Bahat, Hillel Goral, Adam Maor,
Shachar Ben-Har, Kon. Tos., Sh, Br. and others. According
to Military Attorney General, Menachem Finkelstein, all
will soon face full court martials. Among the imprisoned
objectors, some are being held in difficult conditions.
Visits by lawyers are vital to monitor their treatment.
The conscription dates of yet more objectors are coming
up, romising to further extend this vicious cycle
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