Payday

A network of men working with
the Global Women’s Strike

PO Box 11795, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19101, US.   Tel: (215) 848 1120 Fax: (215) 848 1130
PO Box 287 London NW6 5QU England Tel: 020 7209 4751  Fax 020 7209 4761 
Email payday@paydaynet.org     Web www.refusingtokill.net

The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Prime Minister of Canada

Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0A2
Hon. Judy Sgro
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Room 239, Confederation Bldg
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0A6

30 November 2004

Re. Jeremy Hinzman, US conscientious objector seeking asylum in Canada, whose Immigration and Refugee Board hearing begins Dec 6.

We write in support of Mr. Jeremy Hinzman, and call on the Immigration and Refugee Board to grant him refugee status. We join with almost 8000 people around the world who, as of today, have signed an international petition to demand the Canadian government give sanctuary to war resisters such as Mr. Hinzman (see www.petitiononline.com/resister/petition.html). Mr. Hinzman, who deserted the US Army and fled to Toronto with his wife and young child, faces certain persecution from the US military – including the threat of long imprisonment– if forced to return (also, the death penalty still applies in the US for this “offence”).  His desertion is justified under international law, established in the Nuremberg Tribunals, which holds that it is the duty of a soldier, and indeed of all of us, to refuse illegal orders. Praise and support, not punishment, are called for.  Handing him over to US authorities would be an outrage.

It is the Bush administration which has acted illegally, violating many international laws, including the Nuremberg principles which define as a crime against humanity the "planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression … in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances." The US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere are war crimes, and soldiers such as Mr. Hinzman who served in Afghanistan and who has spoken out about what he experienced there and during his military indoctrination, are crucial witnesses and must be protected – not sent back into the hands of murderers.

As you must know, Mr. Hinzman has taken every measure available to him within the bounds of US military law to stay true to his conscience, including by seeking conscientious objector (CO) status. The US Army  claimed they had lost his first CO application.  He reapplied and was shipped off to Afghanistan, where finally he was given a hearing, but denied CO status on the grounds that he did not agree he would never defend himself if attacked.

Legal Action for Women, which has a long history of fighting for the rights of asylum seekers in England, has found that many asylum seekers who flee the persecution and decimation of war are also fleeing military conscription. Mr. Hinzman is no different in this respect. It is long past time to recognize that even without a universal draft the US military conscripts the majority of its soldiers by promising money, college education, healthcare, etc., which otherwise are out of reach.

Mr. Hinzman also speaks for the many thousands of US soldiers now forced to stay in the military beyond their contracts and, despite physical disability and ill-health, doing back-to-back tours of duty. They are being denied time off even for family emergencies in order to keep up military operations that have now been exposed as including murder, rape and other torture and brutality, including of non-combatants, even children. Mr. Hinzman has made it easier for soldiers now in Iraq to speak out, as they surely must after the massacre and destruction in Fallujah, the horrible dimensions of which are slowly becoming known: over a thousand  civilians killed, many more wounded, cluster bombs and chemical weapons dropped on populated areas, doctors forced out of hospitals at gunpoint, mosques invaded and worshippers killed, Red Crescent and Red Cross emergency medical aid refused, and an entire city without water, food, or electricity for weeks.

Over 100,000 Iraqi people and over 1000 “Coalition” soldiers have lost their lives so far. In this war, as in the first Gulf war, civilians and soldiers alike have suffered and will suffer from “Gulf War Syndrome”, as vaccinations, depleted uranium and other pollutants are once again massively used. Veterans have protested against these conditions and many whose health and peace of mind have been wrecked are living testimonies of the horrors created by modern war.

Iraqi women have told us how the war and occupation of Iraq have subjected women and children in particular to the most horrendous living conditions, including lack of protection against sexual and other violence. Food, water, medical care, electricity, phone service and other public services destroyed by the war and prior US sanctions, are still not accessible not only in Fallujah but to the great majority of the people of Iraq. Other soldiers and their family members have also spoken against the US-led occupation. US Army Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia, who was sentenced in May to a year in prison for refusing to return to Iraq, said “I have witnessed the suffering of a people whose country is in ruins and who are further humiliated by the raids, patrols, curfews of an occupying army.”

Many millions of people, including in Canada and the US, have demonstrated their total opposition to what they see as a war waged by the US government against not only the Iraqi people, but also the rest of the world, including most of us in the US who have to pay for the US military – half the world’s trillion dollar annual military budget – through cutbacks in welfare, schools, healthcare and other community services.

During the Vietnam War, more than 50,000 draft-age Americans made their way to Canada, refusing to participate in an immoral war. Earlier this year, in the case of Russian conscript Andrey Krotov, the English court of appeal ruled that refugee status could be available to a conscript who refused to serve when the service would require him to violate basic rules of human conduct as defined by international law. These are important precedents that need to be considered in assessing the refugee claim of Mr. Hinzman. 

If you deny Mr. Hinzman refugee status and thus force him to return to the United States, you will be helping silence a powerful voice in the movement to reverse these killing priorities. Iin granting asylum and thus recognizing Mr. Hinzman’s right to refuse to take part in genocide, you materially support the immense contribution such soldiers are making, valuing that over any sanction the US government may impose. In other words, you value stopping the US war over letting yourself be coerced into going along with it. In this you will be in agreement with the great majority of Canadians and the people of the world.

Sincerely,  

Eric Gjertsen Payday/US, Ben Martin Payday/UK 

PAYDAY is an international anti-war and anti-racist network of men working with the Global Women’s Strike.

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