International Prisoners for Peace Day

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Tuesday November 30, 2004 20:06 by karen

solidarity with Conscientious objector Jussi Hermaja

There will be a Candlelit (overnight) vigil at the Finnish Embassy (Russell House, Stokes Place, St. Stephen´s Green) in Dublin from 11pm Wednesday the first of December, In solidarity with Conscientious objector Jussi Hermaja, who is a Finnish C.O. currently seeking political asylum in Belgium with the support of For Mother Earth and War Resisters International

1st December marks the international Prisoners for Peace Day, launched in 1956 by the War Resisters International.

Finland still practices a very extensive military conscription, and continues to imprison conscientious objectors (COs) who refuse to participate in the system. The number of COs who face a prison sentence up to 197 days due to their refusal to take part in the punitive and discriminative alternative service system is growing every year - now standing at about 70-80 annually. Young men have a choice between military and alternative service, but there are many problems with the system. The length of the alternative service (13 months) is clearly punitive compared to the military service (6 months), the conscripts mostly do not receive information about alternative service during the call-up, and the alternative service places often ignore their economic obligations towards the servant.
In Finnish law, there is no status for COs during crisis time. This means that people who never received military training might be obliged to serve in the army during a war.
Finland also practises discrimination on the bases of (non-) religious conviction: members of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religious group, are automatically released from national service due to their religious conscience, while COs of other beliefs or ethical ideals are sentenced to prison.

Finland has released a security document which includes the following: “Crisis management capability will be developed with regard to EU objectives, the NATO partnership for peace and Nordic crisis management cooperation. Specially designated troops from all services of the Defence Forces will be developed so that they can also be used for international crisis management tasks. At the same time a capability will be created to take part in operations that are more demanding than at present, which will require the development of more capable troops. The development and training of international rapid deployment forces will be based on national troop production. Participation in the rapid deployment forces is voluntary.
For this purpose, Finland is developing adequately trained and equipped troops who can be dispatched rapidly to a crisis area and are capable of undertaking demanding action. Finland is also participating actively in multinational military exercises. The Government undertakes to address the updating of the Act on Peace Support Operations.” The whole of this document can be read or downloaded at the Finnish embassy website:

http://formin.finland.fi/english/

More information about the situation of Finnish COs and the Prisoners for Peace day:

http://ww.wri-irg.org (War Resisters International)
http://www.hermaja.org (Case Hermaja -a campaign of For Mother Earth)
http://www.aseistakieltaytyjaliitto.fi (Union of Finnish COs)
http://www.hermaja.org
http://www.formin.fi/english
e-mail:
jussi@hermaja.org
Katri@motherearth.org
War Resisters International office@wri-irg.org,


People have a right to refuse to kill.
Take action on 1st December!