Words From
Camilo
Prisoners of Conscience: Peace
Doesn't Come Easily
Just about a year a go
I was tried by a special Court-martial at Fort Stewart,
Georgia. The charge: desertion with the intent to
avoid hazardous duty. My case received a lot of attention
from the media, mainly because I was the first Iraq
veteran to have been to combat, returned on a two-week
furlough, and publicly refused to return to Iraq while
denouncing the war as illegal, and who then surrendered
himself to military authorities. For the first time
since the invasion of Iraq the military had to deal
with the delicate issue of public dissent within the
ranks.
The command at Fort Stewart restricted me to the base,
and never allowed me to leave even to confer with
my attorneys, and requests to travel with them to
Florida, and to meet with them off the base, all to
help them prepare a better case, were all denied.
I was housed in a barracks building with about ten
rooms, yet I was the only one there. Between my surrender
and the Court-martial, reporters were told they could
interview me off base, while I was told I could give
interviews, but was prohibited from leaving the fort.
On the day of my trial, access to the base was restricted
to military personnel, my attorneys, and a few family
members. Everyone else was directed to gate number
three, but the signs leading to that gate were taken
down during the three days of my trial. The entire
block of the courthouse was barricaded, and there
were civilian and military police officers patrolling
the area, and they had trained dogs sniffing the area.
Reporters were contained in a media center about a
mile away from the courthouse, and everyone's computers,
cameras, recording devices, and cell phones were confiscated
prior to entering the courtroom.
All of our pretrial motions were struck down, and
many key witnesses and crucial pieces of evidence
were not allowed in the case. Violations of army regulations
by my unit, and violations of international law and
the supreme law of the land by the military, were
readily ignored, and the prosecution was allowed to
bring the entire case down to the question of whether
I got on a plane or not, thus receiving an easy, undeserved
victory.
Before the end of the trial, members of my unit had
already been to my barracks room. When my relatives
got to my quarters to claim my belongings, immediately
after the sentencing, the room had been swept clean.
But the raiders forgot to take the lock they cut in
order to get to my wall-locker. My mother later used
that lock in a press conference to show the military
had packed my things even before they could know I
was going away. An officer then quickly approached
my mother to kindly escort her to where my possessions
had been taken.
But not even a year after being sent to a confinement
facility in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where I spent nine
months of a twelve-month sentence, I found myself
in San Diego's 32nd Street Naval Station, where Petty
Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes was being tried by
a special Court-martial. The charges: Unauthorized
Absence and Missing Movement.
His case, like mine, received much attention, not
because of the nature of his charges, but because
on December 6th of last year, Pablo publicly denounced
the war as criminal and illegal while refusing to
board his ship, the USS Bonhomme Richard, before it
left for the war in Iraq.
The military judge found Pablo guilty of Missing Movement
but not guilty of Unauthorized Absence, and even though
the sentence included two months of hard labor and
three months of restriction within the base, Pablo
received no jail time, and no punitive discharge from
the Navy. The same day of Pablo's Court-martial, a
military judge from Fort Stewart, found that Army
Sergeant Kevin Benderman, another public war resistor,
had been sent to trial by a biased hearing officer,
and temporarily dropped the general Court-martial
against him, a type of trial that could have sent
him to jail for up to five years. Another investigation,
to be conducted on May 26, will determine by what
type of Court-martial Kevin is tried.
These findings represent important accomplishments
for the antiwar movement, as they seem to indicate
that military authorities are handling public dissent
within the ranks with a bit more caution, as more
members of the military are speaking out against the
occupation. It would be interesting to see if these
are isolated cases, or if the military is indeed making
an effort to uphold the law.
Service men and women should know that expert testimony
at my trial as well as at Pablo's trial, was that
the invasion and occupation of Iraq are illegal under
international, domestic, and military law. At my trial,
professor Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois,
testified that the Iraqi invasion and its aftermath
is a crime against humanity, and a violation of Army
Field Manual 27-10, which incorporates the Geneva
Conventions. At Pablo's trial, Professor Marjorie
Cohn from San Diego's Thomas Jefferson School of Law,
testified that the war in Iraq violates the United
Nations Charter, which authorizes the use of force
only in self defense, or with the Security Council's
approval. She also noted that according to the Nuremberg
Principle and the Army Field Manual, disobeying an
unlawful order is a duty, and claiming to be following
superior orders constitutes no legal defense in the
commission of war crimes. Interestingly, neither at
my trial nor at Pablo's, did the prosecution ever
put on evidence to counter the defense international
law expert testimony.
America is going through a historical transformation,
from disguised to almost openly admitted (and defended)
imperialism. In a time when peaceful protesters are
being put in cages, or free speech zones, in a time
when international law is being ignored or circumvented
in order to conduct and justify torture, in a time
when schools are being forced to make their students'
files available to the war machine, in a time when
the fear and pain of the nation are being used to
fabricate support for a criminal war of imperial domination,
it becomes imperative that members of the armed forces
act upon their principles.
An empire cannot survive without an imperial military,
a military whose members do not question the orders
of their superiors, a military whose members who choose
to refuse, do so quietly to save their skins, a military
whose members rather die and kill against their moral
judgments than question the authority of their command.
It is too easy to just tell service men and women
to follow their conscience, whatever that means; this
advice puts the burden back on their shoulders and
brings no sacrifice to the adviser. But peace does
not come easily, so I tell all members of the military
that whenever faced with an order, and everything
in their mind and soul, and each and every cell in
their bodies screams at them to refuse and resist,
then by God do so. Jail will mean nothing when breaking
the law' became their duty to humanity.
Pablo's trial not only marked an important step towards
resistance, but it also brought doubt to the minds
of many sailors who were present during his Court-martial.
They may not yet agree with the antiwar movement,
some probably never will, but for the first time many
of them witnessed an open debate about the immorality
of the Iraq invasion and occupation. Perhaps for a
moment doubt brought a sense of humanity back into
their hardened system of military values. This would
not have been possible had Pablo not put his physical
freedom on the line. His sacrifice was small compared
to the sacrifice of the over 100,000 Iraqi dead, but
perhaps it is the unity of small sacrifices, like
Pablo's, that can bring about major changes into the
heart of our nation.
We probably should stop fearing so much for our personal
safety and start looking more closely at the sacrifice
of others, perhaps we will be inspired and empowered
to put more of ourselves on the line for the benefit
of those who are really suffering. The light of others
should not blind the path to our own resistance. Perhaps
a good place to find our own light will be the trial
of war resister Sgt. Kevin Benderman. Maybe I'll see
you there, maybe we can shine together.
To find out more
information about Kevin Benderman's Court-martial,
or to contribute to his defense, please visit: www.bendermandefense.org
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