URGENT ADVISORY: Sacramento courthouse site of comments on Canada's decision re: Iraq War

URGENT NEWS ADVISORY
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Contact: Jan Fleming (916) 944-3191

ATTN: Daybook/News Desk


Canada Court to rule Thursday on ‘refugee’ status
of U.S. troops AWOL from Iraq now in Canada;
Expert will comment at Federal Courthouse

SACRAMENTO – A leading international war resister leading a fight to allow
hundreds of U.S. military
personnel to remain in Canada to avoid going to Iraq will hold a major news
conference here Thursday
morning – just minutes after the Supreme Court of Canada is due to decide
whether U.S. troops will
be able to apply for “refugee” status in Canada.

A news briefing to discuss the Canadian decision will be held at 9 a.m.
TODAY/THURSDAY outside the
Federal Courthouse (5th & I Streets). The Canadian justices will announce
their decision shortly
before the briefing.

Gerry Condon, director of Project Safe Haven and a former Vietnam War
resister, is in Sacramento
previewing a new film, “Breaking Ranks,” about the estimated 20,000 U.S.
service men and women who
have gone AWOL – many of whom served one tour in Iraq and refused to go back.

A couple hundred AWOL GI’s, from the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force, are
currently living in
Canada. Many served one tour in Iraq and then refused to go back again.
Instead, they and their
families have moved to Canada. With the support of many Canadians, they are
struggling to create a
home for themselves and a sanctuary for war resisters, said Condon.

Nearly fifty of the resisters have asked Canadian authorities to allow them
to remain in Canada as
political refugees. They strongly believe they are doing the right thing by
refusing to fight in an
illegal war. They look to UN refugee law, which states soldiers should be
considered refugees if
they face persecution for refusing to fight in wars “widely condemned by
the international community
as contrary to standards of human conduct.”

“They have not deserted their moral upbringings or the law. Quite to the
contrary. At considerable
personal risk and inconvenience, they have made a conscientious decision to
separate themselves from
an illegal and immoral war. They are our antiwar heroes. They very much
deserve our support. And
they very much need it.

Condon deserted from the U.S. Army in 1969 after refusing orders to
Vietnam. For six years, Condon
lived in Canada and Sweden, where he organized for amnesty for all war
resisters. As director of
Project Safe Haven, Condon travels throughout the U.S. and Canada to drum
up support for a new
generation of war resisters.
-30-