Colin Brown’s report (“New law could hand out life sentences for Iraq deserters”, 20 May) had some inaccuracies.  Last week’s cross-party parliamentary briefing about the Armed Forces Bill was public, not private.  Remarks about this law aiming to repress the movement in the military should have been attributed to Payday which organised the event -- our website www.refusingtokill.net carries extensive information about the Bill. 

The Bill received its third reading in the Commons on 22 May.  Clause 8 of the Bill, which states that soldiers who go absent without leave (AWOL) and intend to refuse to take part in a “military occupation of a foreign country or territory” can be imprisoned for life, was passed 442 in favour and 19 against.

Of all the MPs we alerted, John McDonnell (Labour), and Angus MacNeil (SNP) were the two MPs who took Clause 8 as the serious threat it is.  In yesterday’s debate, Mr McDonnell characterised Clause 8 as “inhuman and barbaric”.

Also inhuman and barbaric is the continuing recruitment of children as young as 16, for whom conditions of service are a kind of slavery; soldiers are still tried by a three-officer jury in a court martial rather than by a non-military jury; and it is still illegal for two or more soldiers to together make any complaint – from lack of body armour to abuse within Deepcut barracks — far behind most EU countries’ legislation on the military.

But those in the military, military families and all who want to ensure that refusing to kill is not criminalised have another avenue for action.  Yesterday Tom Watson, the newly appointed Under Secretary of State for Defence was given a rough ride during the unexpected two-and-a-half-hour-long debate about Clause 8.  This dissent in the Commons is a lever to put vital pressure on the Lords: they can insist that the Armed Forces Bill, like all legislation, upholds the Nuremberg Principles, and we must go into battle to tell them so.

Sincerely,

Michael Kalmanovitz,

Payday www.refusingtokill.net