Refuseniks from around the world speak out
against murder, rape & other torture
Presentation and screening of the film produced by Payday followed by a discussion.
Casa delle culture via S. Crisogono, 45 (Trastevere)
July 6, 7pm
Speakers include:
Giorgio Riva - Payday, UK Ernesto Pallotta - Carabinieri per la pace Philip Rushton - author of the book "Riportiamoli a casa: Il dissenso militare nelle forze armate statunitensi" Paola Gasparoli - Un ponte per...
presented by U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice, Rome
(Film in English with Italian subtitles)
From the film:
James Fairweather, WWII veteran from Jamaica posted in Germany in 1946 “I saw the devastation that war caused and that women and children are the main victims. If we ‘fraternized with the enemy’ we risked military prison, but we gave them food anyway.”
Stephen Funk, US marine, six months in jail for refusing to fight in Iraq “I am not an advocate for gay inclusion in the military because I do not support military action.”
Shimri Tzameret, Israeli refusenik, won his right not to serve after two years in jail ”Already for years I know that I am not going to join the army. I know it with as much certainty as I know that I will never kick a homeless person lying on the sidewalk, never rape a woman, and when I will have a child - never abandon it.”
Harriet, refugee, escapee from the Ugandan army “I joined the army because it would give me the means to look after my children . . . but there was bullying, sexual harassment, rape and torture”.
Rev. Dorothy Mackey, STAAMP (Survivors Taking Action Against Military Personnel) “In my first five years in the US army I was raped three times, twice by military doctors during Ob-Gyn appointments.”
Alex Izett, Gulf War Syndrome survivor “I started my 40-day hunger strike to get a public inquiry in the UK – for recognition that veterans had been poisoned by their own country.”
Camilo Mejia, US Staff Sergeant, spent nine months in jail after refusing to return to Iraq “I'd rather go to prison for desertion than kill a child by mistake. Prison ends, but you never get over killing a kid.”
