WINTER SOLDIER HEARINGS

@ CROSSROADS WOMEN’S CENTRE

On Saturday night, 15 March, following the anti-war demonstration that day, 50 activists were transfixed by a live showing of Winter Soldier: Eyewitness accounts of the Iraq & Afghanistan occupations, at the Crossroads Women’s Centre in Kentish Town, London.

The four-day Winter Soldier hearings in Washington DC, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) were attended by hundreds of US veterans and beamed by satellite, internet and radio around the world.  Witness after witness testified about the terrible destruction caused by the wars and occupations on civilians and soldiers. 

In Europe, public viewings took place in Athens, Berlin and Rome.  The audience in London watched harrowing testimonies about the abuse, humiliation and murder of Iraqi people.  Videos and slides backed up the veterans’ stories and conveyed testimonies of the civilian population.  Anger and frustration about the racist propaganda soldiers had been fed to make them fight coupled with a powerful sense that this hearing could be a turning point in the movement to stop war.  For many veterans, who often had to fight back tears recalling the horrors which they had witnessed and sometimes been the perpetrators of, it was a step towards dispelling the nightmare their lives have been turned into.

Kay Cherry, Global Women’s Strike and Michael Kalmanovitz, Payday men’s network introduced the evening. Ms Cherry reminded the audience that 80% of casualties of war are women and children, that women were the ones that had to care for those destroyed by war and that these hearings exposed the rarely reported rape suffered by women including inside the military.  Mr Kalmanovitz spoke of their international work with conscientious objectors and other refuseniks and quoted from Lt. Ehren Watada, the first US officer to refuse to serve in Iraq, who said “all it takes is for soldiers to lay down their arms”!

A highlight of the evening was a live report from inside the Winter Soldier hearings by Eric Gjertsen from Payday in the US.  He observed that the soldiers who had refused illegal and immoral orders seemed better able to recover from the horrors they had experienced.   

During the evening there was the warm tribute to Ben Griffin, who was in the audience.  The former SAS sergeant resigned from the army refusing to “carry out American foreign policy”.  He recently blew the whistle on British involvement in “extraordinary rendition”, delivering prisoners to be tortured, and is now appealing against a Ministry of Defence gagging order.

The next day the final panel of the Winter Soldier hearings closed with an impassioned appeal for the civilian and military movements to inspire and reinforce each other.  They spelled out IVAW’s demands: 1. immediate withdrawal from Iraq; 2. full benefits for veterans on their return home; 3. reparations for Iraqi people.

For more information:  www.refusingtokill.net    www.globalwomenstrike.net