story-type: article

Back in the trenches?

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Within the same week, the UK conscientious objector Michael Lyons was detained for 7 months and a landmark ruling in favour of conscientious objection was made by the European Court of Human Rights.

Within the same week, the UK conscientious objector Michael Lyons was detained for 7 months and a landmark ruling in favour of conscientious objection was made by the European Court of Human Rights.

Derek Brett went to the Michael Lyons court-martial

Last Thursday will go down in the history books as a milestone in the history of conscientious objection. After sixty years, the European Court of Human Rights at last ruled unequivocally that the right of conscientious objection to military service is protected under the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

In the case of Bayatyan v Armenia, it found that the imprisonment of Vahan Bayatyan, a Jehovah’s Witness, for his refusal to perform military service at a time when no civilian alternative was available, was a violation of his freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Sadly, two days earlier in Portsmouth had been enacted a court-martial that might have taken place when conscientious objectors first came forward during the first world war. Michael Lyons was stripped of his rank as leading medical assistant and dismissed from the service with effect from the end of a seven-month ‘detention in a military correction establishment’ for ‘wilful disobedience of a lawful order’.… Read more

The big red cross

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Lillian Lyons, wife of imprisoned conscientious objector Michael Lyons, describes why he refused the “learning to kill” course.

Lillian Lyons, wife of imprisoned conscientious objector Michael Lyons, describes why he refused the “learning to kill” course.

It is important for both Michael and myself to let you know how much we appreciate your support whilst my husband is locked up in military prison. Every message, letter and show of face means the world to us and is really helping us to get through this crazy time in our lives.

I am sure most of you know why Michael has been punished by the royal navy so I won’t waste your time regurgitating the details of his case, the intimidating court martials or the legality of his defence. Instead I will tell you a bit about how Michael’s conscience led him to a incredibly unjust sentence.

Mike has served as a medic in the submarine service for nearly seven years. It sounds clichéd but he really did join up because he thought he could help people. In fact he saw an advert on TV of a navy medic jumping out of a helicopter giving humanitarian aid in an unnamed war zone. The medic wasn’t carrying any weapons, just a box with a big red cross on it.… Read more

Hey sergeant, leave them kids alone

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In July ForcesWatch launched the Military Out of Schools campaign. Speakers Oskar Castro, a US activist in countering military recruitment, and Ben Griffin, ex-forces and the founder of fledgling Veterans for Peace UK, discussed how young people are militarised and what can be done about it.

US counter-recruitment has developed over the last 10 years to many thousands of individuals and hundreds of organisations. The terms “truth and recruitment” or “alternatives to the military” are increasingly used and recently the National Network Opposing Militarization of Youth was formed to reflect a wider understanding of the problem as one of militarism permeating society and associating values and ideas to it which affect the choices young people make in their lives. As Oskar said, “militarism does not just show up in the classroom when the military recruiter comes, its shows up on your TV, in Hollywood, in your book, magazine, internet, football field.” Through these channels, young people are “turned on to the military in a non-critical way” which the recruiters utilise.

Ben illustrated the significant impact of his early experience of militarism “One of my first memories of my granddad was him bouncing me on his knee showing me his medals from WW2.… Read more

Report into military veterans in prison

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An inquiry into former armed service personnel in prison has found no evidence that having served for your country makes veterans more likely to end up in prison than civilians.

But the Howard League for Penal Reform report did find military veterans are twice as likely to become convicted sex offenders than members of the general public and that veterans are more likely to commit violent offences.

An inquiry into former armed service personnel in prison has found no evidence that having served for your country makes veterans more likely to end up in prison than civilians.

But the Howard League for Penal Reform report did find military veterans are twice as likely to become convicted sex offenders than members of the general public and that veterans are more likely to commit violent offences.

Sir John Nutting QC, chairman of the inquiry, said he had “no idea” why former servicemen went on to commit sex offences and called for further research to look into any causes.

“It ought to be remembered that servicemen, especially those who are likely to fight in the front line, have to be trained to be effective in the use of violence,” the report found.

“Inside the forces, this violence is controlled and regulated.… Read more

Britain’s own child soldiers

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A third of army recruits are under 18. Is it right to target the young and the underachieving poor?

What first attracted Michael Lyons to a career in the armed forces was an advertisement he spotted as a teenager, depicting the Royal Navy delivering humanitarian aid. Lyons, now 25, is beginning a seven-month term in military detention after being found guilty earlier this week of wilful disobedience of a lawful order. He was also demoted and dismissed from the navy, where he had served since 2005 as a medical assistant submariner.

After refusing rifle training because of moral objections to his deployment in Afghanistan, Lyons’s case was the first to be heard on grounds of conscientious objection in over a decade. Because his concerns were broadly political – stemming, he said, from the WikiLeaks revelations – rather than religious, there was minimal precedent for the decision. (There was, of course, a well-established tradition of conscientious objectors in the last two world wars, with thousands of British men, including my own Quaker grandfather, granted exemptions on condition of “alternative service”.)

Perhaps it was simply the case that Lyons, who enlisted at 19, grew up. He is not the first, nor will he be the last, young man to enter the forces with a naive or partial view of all this commitment entails and then suffer the consequences.

… Read more

“A coward and a malingerer”

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Megan Graham looks into modern day conscientious objection in the armed forces.

Megan Graham looks into modern day conscientious objection in the armed forces.

This time two years ago, Lance Corporal Joe Glenton delivered a letter to 10 Downing Street asking Gordon Brown to withdraw British troops from Afghanistan immediately. Glenton, from York, was facing a preliminary court martial for refusing to return to Afghanistan after a tour of duty there, going absent without leave from the Army for over two years and attending a number of anti-war rallies. He wrote that “the war in Afghanistan is not reducing the terrorist risk, far from improving Afghan lives it is bringing death and devastation to their country. Britain has no business there.” At the time, Glenton was the only known serving soldier in the Army to publicly express a moral objection to the presence of the British armed forces in Afghanistan.

Conscientious objection in the UK armed forces is a complex and little-known concept, and one which has attracted controversy in the past. As all involvement in the armed forces in this country is voluntary, many servicemen and women, as well as the general public, assume that conscientious objection must be a thing of the past, a bulwark against conscription for which a voluntary military system has no requirement.… Read more

From hero to zero

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Michael Clohessy returned from Iraq with a distinguished war record — and ended up in prison. Our jails are swollen with former soldiers. Why can’t they stay out of trouble?

Michael Clohessy returned from Iraq with a distinguished war record — and ended up in prison. Our jails are swollen with former soldiers. Why can’t they stay out of trouble? … Read more

Conscience and the military

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Armed forces chaplains play a crucial role in providing pastoral support to people who face danger and death on a daily basis. But chaplains’ independence is compromised by the fact that they are members of the forces themselves.

A retired army chaplain told me a story he knew about a wounded soldier in the Korean War. The soldier was told he had less than two hours to live, and someone sent for the nearest chaplain, a Baptist.

The chaplain talked with the wounded man about families and football, but the man said desperately, “Talk to me, padre, talk to me”. The chaplain continued to chat, before the soldier again said, “Talk to me, padre, talk to me”. Somewhat confused, the chaplain asked the soldier want he wanted to talk about. The man shouted “I’m dying, you bloody fool! You’re supposed to talk to me about God!”.

The anecdote illustrates one of the peculiarities of miltiary chaplaincy. Unlike most ministers, armed forces chaplains often serve people who face the danger of death on a daily basis, in a way unimaginable to most of us. Pastoral care is vital for members of the armed forces.

While admiring chaplains’ bravery and dedication, this should not stop us recognising the problems with the way military chaplaincy is structured.… Read more

Should the armed forces recruit 16-year-olds?

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Rachel Taylor, from the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, argues that it is time for British armed forces to join the rest of NATO and stop recruiting people as young as 16.

Until ten years ago it was standard practice for the UK to deploy under-18s into hostilities. They were on the frontline in the Balkans, the Gulf and the Falklands. However, since the coming into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict in 2002 (ratified by the UK in 2003) the routine deployment of under-18s has been prohibited in international law. The UK, like other states parties to the treaty, now takes measures to prevent the deployment of under-18s. Deployment of under-18s now appears archaic and abhorrent to the public and policy makers alike.… Read more

The Armed Forces: time for change

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The present recruitment age of sixteen is too young to enter full time military training. If you are not old enough to vote, buy a pint in a pub, to ride a motorbike or even to buy fireworks are you not also too young to join the army?

The punch of the automatic weapon into my shoulder was simultaneous with a shrill whistle of bullets, breaking the silence. It is the only time I have fired an automatic weapon with live ammunition. I was fifteen, a member of Blundell’s School, Combined Cadet Force, training at Lympstone Commando Centre in Devon. I felt much older than my years. We aimed at concentric circles on the bodies of black and white human shapes in front of a bank of sandbags. The bullets disappeared into them. I felt both a loss of innocence and an uncomfortable sense of physical power. It still informs my thoughts about under-eighteen-year-olds in the army today.

The present recruitment age of sixteen is too young to enter full time military training. If you are not old enough to vote, buy a pint in a pub, to ride a motorbike or even to buy fireworks are you not also too young to join the army?… Read more