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Dear member and supporter of War Resisters' International,
Welcome to our Prisoners for Peace Day appeal, this year with a focus on the situation in Eritrea.
1 December: Prisoners for Peace Day
Every year for 1 December - International Prisoners for Peace Day - War Resisters' International compiles a list of people imprisoned for conscientious objection or nonviolent action for peace.
This year, the focus will be on Eritrea, a country destroyed by war and an authoritarian regime, and where the only option for conscientious objectors - men and women - is to flee the country.
Please order the campaign pack (available early in November) in English, Spanish, French or German.
More information on Eritrea at
Turkish conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan is on hunger strike for more than 32 days today, and War Resisters' International is very concerned about his health, and long-term health consequences this hunger strike might have. We therefore urge you to make your protest heard with the Turkish authorities, to fulfill Mehmet Tarhan's demands, so that he, and his friend Ali, can end their hunger strike.
1 December Prisoners for Peace Day
Every year for 1 December - International Prisoners for Peace Day - War Resisters' International compiles a list of people imprisoned for conscientious objection or nonviolent action for peace.
This year, the focus will be on Eritrea, a country destroyed by war and an authoritarian regime, and where the only option for conscientious objectors - men and women - is to flee the country.
Please order the campaign pack (available early in November) in English, Spanish, French or German.
1 December - Prisoners for Peace Day
This year's focus: conscientious objection in Finland
The special edition of WRI's The Broken Rifle, incorporating the annual Prisoners for Peace Honour Roll, is available online in English, German, French, and Spanish. Please contact the WRI Office if you require print copies, or feel free to download the material from our website, and make your own copies.
After the rulings of the Korean Supreme Court and Constitutional court earlier this year, the Korean courts are now picking up on trials against conscientious objectors. More than 750 conscientious objectors are in prison on Prisoners for Peace Day. Besides Jehovah's Witnesses and 7th Day Adventists, also the number of pacifist conscientious objectors is on the rise. On 15 November, seven pacifist COs were in prison.
O Taeyang (30), a pacifist and buddhist.
Imprisonment of conscientious objectors in Finland
The focus of Prisoners for Peace Day 2004 is the imprisonment of conscientious objectors in Finland. Finland, a member state of the European Union, continues to imprison conscientious objectors who refuse to perform a substitute service which is punitive in length.
The Broken Rifle is the newsletter of War Resisters' International, and is published in English, Spanish, French and German. This is issue 64, November 2004.
This issue of The Broken Rifle was produced by Andreas Speck. Special thanks go to Kaj Raninen and Simo Hellsten from Finland, to Amnesty International and Forum 18 News Service, who provided the information used in this issue.
If you want extra copies of this issue of The Broken Rifle, please contact the WRI office, or download it from our website.
Several groups and organisations work to support conscientious objectors in Finland
Aseistakieltäytyiäliitto
Union of Conscientious Objectors, Peace Station, Veturitori, 00520 Helsinki, Finland
tel +358 9 140427; fax 147297
email akl@aseistakieltaytyjaliitto.fi
www.aseistakieltaytyjaliitto.fi/
In October 2004, War Resisters' International released a report to the United Nation Human Rights Committee, titled "Imprisonment of Conscientious Objectors in Finland". WRI's main concerns are:
In July 2001, Jussi Hermaja was sentenced by a Finnish court for total objection - nothing special, just one of about 70 cases per year. However, unlike most other conscientious objection, Jussi Hermaja did not report to prison, but fled to Belgium in October 2001, and applied for asylum. This was the beginning of a very special asylum case.
How the list works
- First are prisoners' names (in bold), followed by their sentence, then their place of imprisonment and, finally the reason for their detention
- Information about countries where prisoners have had their sentences suspended, or where sentences have been served or completed during the year are in italics.
Armenia
Although Armenia passed a law on conscientious objection during the year, the country continues to imprison conscientious objectors.