[Peace-discuss] U.S. soldier applies for refugee status in Canada

[Randall Cotton]

[This might establish a precedent for soldiers who object to serving in
Iraq - RC]

US soldier on frontline in battle for refugee status

Family moved to Canada after private refused to fight in 'dehumanising' Iraq
war

Jonathan Franklin
Saturday February 21, 2004
The Guardian

US army private Jeremy Hinzman fought in Afghanistan and considers himself a
patriot. But when his unit was ordered to Iraq, he refused to go and
embarked on a radical journey that could make legal history.

Private first class Hinzman left the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment,
taking his wife and son to Canada. Officially, he is awol (absent without
leave), and, instead of fighting insurgents, he is battling the US military
in the Canadian courts.

This month Pte Hinzman, 25, filed legal papers to become the first US
soldier objecting to the Iraq war to be granted refugee status in Canada.
His case is expected to be a test of new Canadian immigration laws and the
country's traditional role of accepting refugees from the US military.

An estimated 250 Americans every year seek refugee status in Canada, the
vast majority making mental health claims, according to Jeffrey House, a
Toronto criminal defence lawyer who represents Pte Hinzman.

"This is the first time a soldier from the Iraq war is seeking protection.
He does not want to fight in Iraq and he will do any lawful thing to stay in
Canada."
If he returns to the US, Pte Hinzman could be prosecuted as a deserter,
according to Sergeant Pam Smith, a spokes woman for the 82nd Airborne. "We
don't have time to go and track down people who go awol," she told the
Associated Press. "We're fighting a war."

On the telephone from Toronto, Pte Hinzman said: "I signed up to defend my
country, not carry out acts of aggression."

He hopes other soldiers will refuse to serve in Iraq and come to Canada: "I
think I am the first, but I encourage others to do the same. I do not want
to sound seditious, but there is strength in numbers."

Pte Hinzman told the Fayetteville Observer that he had liked the subsidised
housing and groceries offered by the army and the promises of money for
college. "It seemed like a good financial decision," he said. "I had a
romantic vision of what the army was."

>From the start of basic training, he was upset by the continuous chanting
about blood and killing, and what he called the dehumanisation of the enemy.
"It's like watching some kind of scary movie, except I was in it," he said.

"People would just walk around saying things like 'I want to kill
somebody'."

Human rights lawyers and religious counsellors in the US predict that the
case is the start of a huge wave of protests and legal moves by military
personnel and their families.

Volunteers at the GI Rights Hotline, a legal aid centre for soldiers, are
receiving about 3,500 calls a month from military personnel looking to leave
the armed forces.

With a growing number of dead and wounded, the Pentagon is struggling to
maintain troop levels in Iraq. Nearly 40% of those now deployed are national
guard or reserve troops. "These guys are not going to re-enlist, that is for
sure," said Giorgio DeShaun Ra'Shadd, a lawyer in Centennial, Colorado, who
represents several military families. "Soldiers are fighting to get out of
the service."

In late January the Pentagon cancelled retirement dates for an estimated
40,000 soldiers. This unilateral move postpones soldiers' return to civilian
life.
Military families erupted in protest at the decision and immediately
launched websites and demonstrations.

"Can the US president with the signature of a pen indenture tens of
thousands of US citizens? That is the question we are now investigating,"
said Luke Hiken, a lawyer in San Francisco. "This is a tremendous
militarisation of civilian families. Soldiers are now being asked to stay
for two more years. This takes civilian families and turns them into
military families."

Based on his work with US military personnel in Germany, Mr Hiken estimates
that there are "thousands" of soldiers who want to escape from Iraq. "When
they brought them home for vacation in the US, about 15%-20% simply never
went back. They stayed with their families."

Pte Hinzman said his family was part of his reason for going awol.

"I vowed to myself, to my wife and son, that I would not go to Iraq. To me
it was a war fought on false pretenses. Dr Blix [the former chief UN weapons
inspector] went time and time again [to Iraq] and he said there are no
weapons of mass destruction.

"They are exploiting the events of September 11, based on greed and our need
for oil."