Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 15. maj 2005 / Time Line May 15, 2005
Version 3.0
05/15/2005
International militærnægterdag.
Grundlagt i 1982 af europæiske
militærnægtere.
05/15/2005
Mors dag, forslået af den amerikanske kvindesags- og
borgerrettigheds-forkæmper Julia Ward Howe, efter den
amerikanske borgerkrigs rædsler.
05/15/2005
Statement to Military Judge
By Pablo Paredes
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
- http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051305J.shtml
Your Honor, and to all present,
I'd like to state first and foremost that it has never been my
intent or motivation to create a mockery of the Navy or it's
judicial system. I do not consider military members adversaries. I
consider myself in solidarity with all service members. It is this
feeling of solidarity that was at the root of my actions.
I don't pretend to be in a position to lecture anyone on what I
perceive as facts concerning our current political state of
affairs. I accept that it is very possible that my political
perspective on this war could be wrong. I don't think rational
people can ever engage in debate if neither is willing to accept
the possibility that their assertions, no matter how researched,
can be tainted with inaccuracy and falsehoods. I do believe that
accepting this, in no way takes away from one's confidence in their
convictions.
I am convinced that the current War on Iraq is illegal. I am also
convinced that the true causality for it lacked any high ground in
the topography of morality. I believe as a member of the armed
forces beyond having a duty to my chain of command and my
President, I have a higher duty to my conscience and to the supreme
Law of the land. Both of these higher duties dictate that I must
not participate in any way, hands on or indirect, in the current
Aggression that has been unleashed on Iraq.
In the past few months, I have been continually asked if I regret
my decision to refuse to board my ship and to do so publicly. I
have spent hour upon hour reflecting on my decision, and I can tell
you with every fiber of certitude that I posses, that I feel in my
heart I did the right thing. This does not mean I have no regrets.
I regret dearly exposing the families of Marines and Sailors to my
protest. While I do not feel my message was wrong, I know that
those families were facing a difficult moment. This moment was made
in some ways more difficult by my actions, and this pains me.
That day on the pier, I restrained myself from answering the calls
of coward and even some harsher variations of the same term. I did
so because I knew this wasn't the time to engage these families in
debate. I felt that I became, in many ways a forum in which to vent
their fears and sadness, and I did not want to turn that into a
combative situation, in which the families were distracted more by
our debate, than simply empowered by their ability to chastise my
actions. All that being said, I still feel my actions made some
people very unhappy, and made others feel that I was taking away
from their child's or their husbands' goodbye. I regret this.
I also regret the pain and stress I have caused those near and dear
to me.
I know that my lawyers feel it is ill-advised for me to say these
things, and I am aware of that. My lawyers have had a difficult
time with me. They also felt it was ill-advised for me to plea not
guilty. It is this I truly want to explain, both to them and to the
court. I realize I did not board the Bon Homme Richard on December
6th, and that I left after ship personnel and pier Master At Arms
refused to arrest me. Given these confessions, one may find it hard
to understand why would anyone admit to the action, but not plea
guilty to the crime. It is this question that has also been the
topic of much reflection for me.
I never deny my actions, nor do I run from there consequences, but
pleading guilty is more than admission of an action, it is also
acceptance that that action was wrong and illegal. These are two
things I do not accept. I feel, even with all the regrets and
difficulties that have come as a result of my actions, that they
were in fact, my duty as a human being and as a service member. I
feel in my mind and heart that this war is illegal and immoral. The
moral argument is one that courts have little room for, and has
been articulated in my CO application, it is an argument that
encompasses all wars as intolerable in my system of morals.
The Legal argument is quite relevant, although motions filled and
approved have discriminated against it to the point it was not
allowed into this trial. I have long now, been an ardent reader of
independent -- and in my opinion less-corrupted -- forms of media,
such as truthout.org, DemocracyNow, books from folks like Stephen
Zunes and Chalmers Johnson, articles from people like Noam Chomsky
and Naomi Klein. These folks are very educated in matters of
politics, and are not on the payroll of any major corporate news
programming, such as CNN or Fox News Network. They all do what they
do for reasons other than money, as they could earn much more if
they joined the corporate controlled ranks. I have come to trust
their research and value their convictions, in assisting to form my
own. They have all unanimously condemned this war as illegal, as
well as, made resources available for me to draw my own
conclusions. Resources like Kofi Annan's statements on how under
the UN charter the Iraq War is illegal, resources like Marjorie
Cohn's countless articles providing numerous sources and reasons
why the war is illegal under international as well as domestic
law.
I could speak on countless sources and their arguments as to the
illegality of the War on Iraq quite extensively, but again, I don't
presume to be in a position to lecture anyone here on law. I mean
only to provide insight on my actions on December 6th. I understood
before that date very well what the precedent was for service
members participating in illegal Wars. I read extensively on the
arguments and results of Nazi German Soldiers as well as Imperial
Japanese Soldiers in the Nuremburg and Tokyo trials, respectively.
In all I read, I came to an overwhelming conclusion supported by
countless examples: that any soldier who knowingly participates in
an illegal War can find no haven in the fact that they were
following orders, in the eyes of International Law.
Nazi aggression and Imperialist Japan are very charged moments of
history, and evoking them evokes many emotions and atrocities, so I
want to be very clear that I am in no way comparing our current
government to any of the historical counterparts, I am not
comparing the leaders or the acts of their militaries. I am only
citing the trials, because they are the best example of judicial
precedent for what a soldier/sailor is expected to do when faced
with the decision to participate or refuse to participate in what
he perceives is an illegal war.
I think we would all agree that a service member must not
participate in random unprovoked illegitimate violence, simply
because he is ordered to. What I submit to you is that I am
convinced that the current War is exactly that. So if there is
anything I could be guilty of, it is my beliefs. I am guilty of
believing this war is illegal. I am guilty of believing war in all
forms is immoral and useless, and I am guilty of believing that as
a service member I have a duty to refuse to participate in this War
because it is Illegal.
I do not expect the court to rule on the legality of this War, nor
do I expect the court to agree with me. I only wish to express my
reasons and convictions surrounding my actions. I acted on my
conscience. Whether right or wrong in my convictions, I will be at
peace knowing I followed my conscience.
The writer of the article excerpted below, Marjorie Cohn, is a
contributing editor to TruthOut, a professor at Thomas Jefferson
School of Law, executive vice president of the National Lawyers
Guild, and the US representative to the executive committee of the
American Association of Jurists.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051305X.shtml
Navy Judge Finds War Protest Reasonable
by Marjorie Cohn
Friday, May 13, 2005
"I think that the government has successfully proved that any
service member has reasonable cause to believe that the wars in
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq were illegal."
-- Lieutenant Commander Robert Klant, presiding at Pablo Paredes'
court-martial
In a stunning blow to the Bush administration, a Navy judge gave
Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes no jail time for refusing
orders to board the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard before
it left San Diego with 3,000 sailors and Marines bound for the
Persian Gulf on December 6th. Lt. Cmdr. Robert Klant found Pablo
guilty of missing his ship's movement by design, but dismissed the
charge of unauthorized absence. Although Pablo faced one year in
the brig, the judge sentenced him to two months' restriction and
three months of hard labor, and reduced his rank to seaman
recruit.
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