May 28, 2009
Background: the view from Germany
Berlin, May 26, 2009. Early in June, President Barack Obama will sign into law the
supplemental funding of 92 billion U.S. dollars for the wars in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan that was approved by the U.S. Congress last week.
Then he will depart for a speaking tour and meetings with heads of state in
Egypt and in Europe.
On June 5th, he will be coming to visit us here in Germany,
making stops at the concentration camp at Buchenwald, at Weimar, and at
Dresden, a site also of massive bombings of civilians during World War II. This
will be Obama's third visit to Germany in less than a year, and it seems likely
that he will once again, as in the previous two visits, make a pitch for more
German support for the ongoing "war against terror," particularly in
Afghanistan. Though Obama is popular here, the German government has for the
most part stonewalled his requests for further direct German involvement in
these wars.
The well-known German ambivalence towards the U.S.
"war against terror" is now being further tested by a U.S. soldier's
application for asylum in Germany. Andre Shepherd, who was stationed in
Germany, refuses to deploy to Iraq. Many U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe who
refused service in or support of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan have been
tried in U.S. military courts in Europe and imprisoned in the U.S. military's
correctional facility at Mannheim; the most well known are Blake Lemoine (2005)
and Agustin Aguayo (2006-2007).
But
Shepherd is so far the first to turn to the
German government for help: last November he filed a formal application
to the German government for asylum. For the moment his case is
entirely outside of U.S.
jurisdiction.
Shepherd argues that there are strong reasons arising from
Germany's history for Germany to grant him asylum: the Nuremberg Principles and
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany that has provisions written
in the spirit of Nuremberg. In 2005 the highest German administrative court
upheld a German military officer's right to refuse orders in 2003 to provide
software that might have been used by the U.S. for logistics during the
invasion of Iraq.
Shepherd's case is of significance in part because of
the strategic importance of the bases in Germany for the U.S. wars in the
Middle East. Outside of Iraq and Afghanistan,
the U.S. has far more bases in Germany than in any other country; ca. 68,000
U.S. troops are stationed at U.S. bases throughout southern Germany.
Approximately 80% of the soldiers and supplies to the war zones are routed
through Germany, which also hosts the Pentagon's commands for Africa (AFRICOM)
and for Europe and the former Soviet Union (EUCOM).
As
a sovereign nation, Germany could at any time restrict use of the U.S.
bases, as Turkey, also a NATO member, did in 2003. The German
government refused to provide its own troops for the Iraq war, which
did not have a UN mandate. But the German government interpreted the
NATO treaties as allowing the U.S. to use the U.S. bases in Germany for
the invasion of Iraq.
According
to a 2005 survey conducted by the German military
(Bundeswehr), 68% of the Germans polled oppose the use of war to solve
any
international conflict; in contrast ca. 90% of U.S. citizens support
the use of
war. Per numerous surveys, a majority of Germans oppose German
participation in the war in
Afghanistan. In the campaigns leading up to the parliamentary election
in September, it is likely that at least one parliamentary party will
call for the closing of all foreign military bases on German soil.
Andre Shepherd, 32, grew up in Ohio, where he
attended college. Like President Obama, he is an African-American. In 2003,
when unemployed, he joined the U.S. Army. He was trained as an Apache
helicopter mechanic and was stationed in Germany at the U.S. Army's
Ansbach-Katterbach base. From there he was deployed in 2004 to Iraq for six
months. In 2007, back in Germany, he received orders to return to Iraq. In
April 2007, he went absent without leave (AWOL) and lived underground in
Germany. He formally applied for asylum in Germany on November 26, 2008. His
application references a directive of the European Union under which soldiers
must be granted asylum in the E.U. if they have reason to fear persecution in
their home countries for refusing to participate in crimes or actions that
violate international law. Shepherd is
currently living in an asylum facility in western Germany together
with other asylum applicants, primarily from Iraq and Afghanistan;
the facility and a small living stipend are provided by the
German government pending the outcome of his case.
This interview was previously published in the national German daily newspaper junge Welt on May 23, 2009, the 60th anniversary of the German Constitution.
Since the "war on terror" began, there have been
many U.S. soldiers who have spoken out and many who have refused to serve. But
you are the first so far to apply for asylum in Germany. What are the grounds
on which your application is based?
Well, it's very simple: In the war of aggression against
the Iraqi people, the United States violated not only domestic law, but
international law as well. The U.S. government has deceived not only the American
public, but also the international community, the Iraqi community, as well as
the military community. And the atrocities that have been committed there these
past six years are great breaches of the Geneva Conventions. My applying for
asylum is based on the grounds that international law has been broken and that
I do not want to be forced to fight in an illegal war.
In your asylum application, you mention the
Principles of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which were
incorporated in the UN Charter. In Nuremberg, the chief U.S. prosecutor, Robert
H. Jackson, stated: "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an
international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from
other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the
whole." In opening the trial on behalf of the United States, he stated
that "while this law is first applied against German aggressors, this law
includes and if it is to serve a useful purpose it must condemn aggression by
any other nations, including those which sit here now in judgment." What
does Nuremberg mean to you?
The Nuremberg statutes are the foundation of many U.S.
soldiers' refusal of the Iraq war, and to some extent of the Afghanistan war.
The United States with its Allies after World War II crafted these laws stating
that even though you've gotten orders to commit crimes against humanity, you
don't have to follow them, because every person has their own conscience. That
was more than 60 years ago. Today the U.S. government seems to be under the
impression that those rules do not apply to it. In invading Iraq, they did not
wait for a UN mandate, they didn't let the inspectors do their job, and they
made up stories about who's a real threat. This totally violated everything
stated in the Nuremberg statutes. The U.S. Constitution states that the U.S. is
bound to our international treaties, for example with the UN. When we ignore
the UN, we are violating the U.S. Constitution, which every U.S. soldier is
sworn to uphold. And the U.S. must also respect our own very strict laws
against war crimes and torture. Since the Obama administration refuses to
investigate and prosecute the previous administration, it's clear to me that
the Obama administration is an accomplice to the previous administration's
crimes. They're setting a very dangerous precedent for the future of the world,
something I don't want to see. The German people are well aware of the history;
it is here that the Nuremberg tenets were first set down. Now we have to find a
way to restore those tenets, to actually respect the Nuremberg tenets as well
as the Geneva Conventions. Germany needs to tell the U.S., "Look, you guys
helped create these laws, and now you guys should abide by your own rules. "
When you were stationed in Ansbach-Katterbach,
were you aware of the German citizens' campaign to prevent the U.S. from
enlarging the base there?
Yes, there were protests outside of the Katterbach base.
Being inside, we understood that the German people weren't against us as
soldiers. They were just protesting against Germany's further involvement in
U.S. imperialism. So the relationship between us Americans and the Germans
working on the base was actually still good. We were of course not allowed to join
the protests. I am sure the U.S. military assumed that 50% of the GIs would
have been out there protesting. Alot of the
soldiers understand what is going on - to the point that we realize that we are
just a mercenary army for a few rich people. But a significant number of GIs,
about 60%, have families, so it's very difficult for them to go AWOL or make
massive resistance.
As part of their protest, the citizens of Ansbach
and Katterbach circulated a petition citing Article 26 of the German
Constitution, pronounced 60 years ago on May 23rd, 1949, in the Basic Law of
the Federal Republic of Germany. Article 26 states that the preparation of
aggressive war from German soil is unconstitutional and a criminal offense. In
Kaiserslautern and in Ramstein, where there are also U.S. bases, there were
also petitions circulated citing this Article. These German believe that the
U.S. is violating the German Constitution by preparing aggressive war from
German soil. Were the GIs aware of this provision of the German Constitution?
We received almost no information about the German
Constitution at all. This seems strange to me, because if we're supposedly in
Germany to defend German democracy, shouldn't we know something about it? The
fact is that wherever U.S. soldiers are sent, they are taught almost nothing
about the people, the culture, the beliefs and laws in the countries we are
occupying. When I was in Iraq, they didn't teach us any Arabic. In Ansbach,
they do offer an optional German course, but we work long hours speaking
English all day, so most GIs don't learn much German. Now that I have been
living among Germans for the past eighteen months, I have learned that very
many of them are very much against using war to solve international problems or
to aggress against people. This comes from what they've learned from their own
history. Article 26 of the German Constitution was written in the spirit of the
Nuremberg statutes, which state that launching an aggressive war is the most
serious crime. The U.S. and the Western Allies approved and authorized the
German Constitution. How can the U.S. say we are here in Germany to defend
democracy when we are ignoring and violating not only the Nuremberg statutes
and the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution, but also the German
Constitution?
What is your understanding of why Germany is
allowing the U.S. to conduct these wars from German soil?
Honestly, I cannot answer that: you could look at it
from the political side; you could look at it from the economic side. Or maybe
Germany just has a hands-off approach: "You guys are paying the gas, you guys
are paying us for the rental space, so you guys just do your thing, and we're
not going to do anything about it."
So in filing this application for asylum, it's not
just about finding a place to live or something like that: you're trying to
raise a larger historical and political principle?
Yes, that's correct, because it is my sincere belief
that the United States has gone too far. In Iraq alone 1.3 million people have
died so far, and that includes American soldiers as well. We've attacked
several countries over the past eight or nine years: Afghanistan, Syria,
Pakistan, Iraq, and some places in the Sudan. All over the world, we're just
destroying property and killing people, all based on lies. And I feel like that
I have to do everything I can to help put an end to this. I feel guilty enough
for having taken a part in this war for almost five years. I want to be able to
atone for that.
Why didn't you go through the U.S. legal system
and apply to the Army for conscientious objector status?
When I asked my NCO (officer) about applying as a CO
(conscientious objector), he told me that you have to be against fighting in
all wars of every form. And that doesn't work for me, because of course if
you're being overrun by a foreign invader, you would have to fight back.
According to U.S. Army regulations, this means you are not a conscientious
objector. I also learned of the case of Agustin Aguayo and saw how the military
treated him. He was based Schweinfurt, Germany, not far from where I was in
Ansbach. He tried to go through the military procedures to be recognized as a
conscientious objector, and he refused to load his weapon. Twice he turned
himself in to the U.S. authorities and said, "Look, I'm a CO, and I can't do
this." But the military wanted to force him to go back and fight anyway.
Ultimately they put him in jail in Mannheim. This showed me that I could not
expect any help from within the military, and I decided to fight for my rights
from the outside.
Can you think of any moment when you suddenly
realized, "What I'm doing here is wrong?"
I can't pick only one moment, because this was a process
that went on for years. Falludja was one. Looking at the aftermath of that
battle, especially what the Marines, and the Air Force, and the Apache
helicopters did to that city -- the devastation caused by these machines and
the air war, also in Basra and in many other Iraqi cities -- I realized that if
it weren't for my work and the work of the other mechanics, those Apaches
wouldn't have gotten very far. We were constantly working, 12 hours a day, 6
days a week, to make sure this sophisticated equipment continued to fly,
especially in the hard conditions in Iraq with all the sand storms and the
temperature changes from 140 degrees in the day to 60 at night. Had we, the
mechanics of these aircraft, not done our jobs and refused from the beginning
to take part in this war, a lot of those people would still be alive, and a lot
of the infrastructure in Iraq would still be functioning.
And then there was when one of the Iraqi guys working
for the U.S. Army on our sandbags told me how he didn't understand why we were
destroying their city, destroying their infrastructure, arresting people. And
I'm just standing there like "what?!" I can't believe this stuff is happening,
because I thought the military is supposed to be fighting for the rights of
people. They're not supposed to torture. They're the ones who are supposed to
get rid of the torturers and to stop the rapists and to help people to have a
better life. And when I heard what we're really doing - it just turns your
whole world upside down!
And then there are the 937 lies of George W. Bush to the
American people: you just feel like a fool, because we signed up to do X, but
we wound up doing Y and Z and who knows what else. We killed people; some of
our people got killed. An entire country, two countries, are completely
destroyed. I keep wondering: what was this all for?
Ask anybody, why are we in Iraq? And you hear several
theories: Israel, oil, strategic purposes for Iran, whatever, but no one really
has the answer. Same thing in Afghanistan: the NATO mission only went to
Afghanistan because of U.S. insistence. We have to force the U.S. to clarify
what the actual objective in Afghanistan is. Are they there to help out the
drug dealers cultivating heroin, or for the Unical pipeline, or are they there
just to have a forward base to go into China or Russia? Why are we there?
Do you think President Obama is going to change
any of this?
No. Obama has the backing of the international
corporations. And the people who gave him the most money are the ones whose
interests are going to be served first. And it's quite obvious. He won't go
after the prior administration for the war crimes; he won't pull out of Iraq.
He's leaving 50,000 soldiers to conduct combat missions in Iraq. That means the
war is continuing. He wants to escalate the war in Afghanistan. He wants to
keep pushing for AFRICOM, the U.S. command for Africa based in Stuttgart, and
he's pushing for the missile shield to try to encircle Russia and Iran. These
things show me that Barack Obama is not going to change anything. And Obama is
only one guy. He still has to deal with the entire Congress, the court system,
the Pentagon. The military has been around for over 220 some years, and they're
not going to change overnight just because there's a new Commander-in-Chief.
They're still arresting people who refuse to fight. They're still putting them in
jail, giving them dishonorable discharges, and some are facing possible felony
convictions. But Obama has yet to speak of the growing number of soldiers
refusing to fight for him - well, first Bush, and now him. So I don't see
President Obama granting anyone clemency until the entire "war on terror" is
finished, and Afghanistan and Iraq are part of the same war.
How is your asylum application progressing?
We had a hearing on the 4th of February with
my attorney, Dr. Reinhard Marx, and myself at the Federal Office of Migration
and Immigration. Dr. Marx was recommended to me by Amnesty International. I
believe that we presented our case very well, and we're waiting to see what the
decision is. If the Office of Migration and Immigration were to deny my request
for asylum, then I would bring my case to court in Germany. Because of the
political sensitivity of this case, and because this is a precedent-setting
case, it could take a lot of time.
Many U.S. soldiers who have fled the military are
living underground in the U.S. and dozens more are likely in Europe. In Canada,
many of them have applied for asylum, but since last summer they are being
deported and then imprisoned in the U.S. What if Germany rejects your asylum
application?
Then I'm facing a U.S. military court martial and jail
time. I'm not saying I would go back to the U.S. willingly; I would still try
to find another way to build a life somewhere.
What if you are granted asylum in Germany?
The day I am legally allowed to go to the German
Employment Office, I will probably camp outside so I can be the first one in
there, because being 32 years old and healthy, I feel I should be able to make
my own way. I'm taking classes to learn German, and I'm trying to get into the
University of Karlsruhe so that I can study computer science. I want to get the
Bachelor's or even the Master's so that I can eventually start my own business.
My ultimate dream job would be to work with German and Japanese companies,
which are the foremost leaders in information technology, to develop artificial
intelligence.
If Germany granted you asylum, would large numbers
of GIs who are stationed here start walking off the bases?
I would see maybe like 100 or 200, but I don't see
30,000 soldiers applying for asylum in Germany. It's no easy thing, because
you're basically saying goodbye to your country, perhaps for the rest of your
life. That's a really big step. You have to say goodbye to your family. You've
got to learn a new language and try to fit into the culture. You've got to deal
with homesickness. It is a very important personal step that a lot of soldiers
would find difficult.
But you are taking all these difficulties upon
yourself. Why do you feel called to do this?
Because I was sick of watching the United States degenerate
into something I can't even recognize anymore. The America that I grew up in
isn't there anymore. Between Clinton, Bush, and now Obama, the U.S. is sliding
from the constitutional republic that it was to where now the corporations are
just taking all the fruits of the American people's labor; the country's really
poor, we've got endless war everywhere. 60 years from now people will be saying
that we were the country that destroyed half the Middle East for nothing.
They're building up a civilian corps that'll spy and turn in everybody, you
know, like a modern day Stasi. These things are very disturbing. This is a
country that I don't want to live in or raise my future children in. America's
going down the exact same path as the Roman Empire, and it's really sad, having
grown up there, to watch the destruction slowly happen before your eyes.
Sometimes you feel, no matter what you do, it's going to happen anyway. There
have been many people before who have been sounding the alarm bells, many peace
organizations. And I want to help, put my hand in and try to stop it as well.
And this is something that's been building up over time, because I'm totally
hurt. I feel cheated. I feel lied to. You know, I helped murder people in Iraq
for nothing. These are things I'm not proud of whatsoever, and I want to be
able to turn this around and bring the people ultimately responsible for this
to justice. Because had I known back then what I know now, I never would have
signed up in the first place.
What can people do to help you?
Help raise awareness internationally, because this is
not just about me. It's about the other soldiers as well. We're all in this
together. And especially it's about the Iraqi people, the Afghan people, the
dead soldiers, just everyone. Organizations people can contact are Military
Counseling Network (MCN) or Connection e.V., Tubingen Progressive Americans,
Munich American Peace Committee, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and it's good
to contact with DFG-VK in Germany - they're a national organization. Right now
we're collecting letters to give to the German government to show the support
of the German people. The German government also needs to know that Americans
and people from other countries support my request for asylum. This is an
international problem, and I believe in an international solution.
To support Andre Shepherd, contact:
girights-germany@dfg-vk.de
or see www.connection-ev.de
***
Elsa Rassbach is U.S. citizen, filmmaker and
journalist who often lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She co-founded
American Voices Abroad Military Project, an initiative to support GIs who
resist in Europe, and she is active in DFG-VK (the German affiliate of War Resisters
International, WRI) as well as in Code Pink and the International Committee of
United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). Her award-winning film, "The Killing
Floor," set in the Chicago Stockyards, will be re-released this year.
Translation into German by Eva Bruckner-Tuckwiller.
Both photos: Credit: Connection e.V.
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Background: the view from Germany
Berlin, May 26, 2009. Early in June, President Barack Obama will sign into law the
supplemental funding of 92 billion U.S. dollars for the wars in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan that was approved by the U.S. Congress last week.
Then he will depart for a speaking tour and meetings with heads of state in
Egypt and in Europe.
On June 5th, he will be coming to visit us here in Germany,
making stops at the concentration camp at Buchenwald, at Weimar, and at
Dresden, a site also of massive bombings of civilians during World War II. This
will be Obama's third visit to Germany in less than a year, and it seems likely
that he will once again, as in the previous two visits, make a pitch for more
German support for the ongoing "war against terror," particularly in
Afghanistan. Though Obama is popular here, the German government has for the
most part stonewalled his requests for further direct German involvement in
these wars.
The well-known German ambivalence towards the U.S.
"war against terror" is now being further tested by a U.S. soldier's
application for asylum in Germany. Andre Shepherd, who was stationed in
Germany, refuses to deploy to Iraq. Many U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe who
refused service in or support of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan have been
tried in U.S. military courts in Europe and imprisoned in the U.S. military's
correctional facility at Mannheim; the most well known are Blake Lemoine (2005)
and Agustin Aguayo (2006-2007).
But
Shepherd is so far the first to turn to the
German government for help: last November he filed a formal application
to the German government for asylum. For the moment his case is
entirely outside of U.S.
jurisdiction.
Shepherd argues that there are strong reasons arising from
Germany's history for Germany to grant him asylum: the Nuremberg Principles and
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany that has provisions written
in the spirit of Nuremberg. In 2005 the highest German administrative court
upheld a German military officer's right to refuse orders in 2003 to provide
software that might have been used by the U.S. for logistics during the
invasion of Iraq.
Shepherd's case is of significance in part because of
the strategic importance of the bases in Germany for the U.S. wars in the
Middle East. Outside of Iraq and Afghanistan,
the U.S. has far more bases in Germany than in any other country; ca. 68,000
U.S. troops are stationed at U.S. bases throughout southern Germany.
Approximately 80% of the soldiers and supplies to the war zones are routed
through Germany, which also hosts the Pentagon's commands for Africa (AFRICOM)
and for Europe and the former Soviet Union (EUCOM).
As
a sovereign nation, Germany could at any time restrict use of the U.S.
bases, as Turkey, also a NATO member, did in 2003. The German
government refused to provide its own troops for the Iraq war, which
did not have a UN mandate. But the German government interpreted the
NATO treaties as allowing the U.S. to use the U.S. bases in Germany for
the invasion of Iraq.
According
to a 2005 survey conducted by the German military
(Bundeswehr), 68% of the Germans polled oppose the use of war to solve
any
international conflict; in contrast ca. 90% of U.S. citizens support
the use of
war. Per numerous surveys, a majority of Germans oppose German
participation in the war in
Afghanistan. In the campaigns leading up to the parliamentary election
in September, it is likely that at least one parliamentary party will
call for the closing of all foreign military bases on German soil.
Andre Shepherd, 32, grew up in Ohio, where he
attended college. Like President Obama, he is an African-American. In 2003,
when unemployed, he joined the U.S. Army. He was trained as an Apache
helicopter mechanic and was stationed in Germany at the U.S. Army's
Ansbach-Katterbach base. From there he was deployed in 2004 to Iraq for six
months. In 2007, back in Germany, he received orders to return to Iraq. In
April 2007, he went absent without leave (AWOL) and lived underground in
Germany. He formally applied for asylum in Germany on November 26, 2008. His
application references a directive of the European Union under which soldiers
must be granted asylum in the E.U. if they have reason to fear persecution in
their home countries for refusing to participate in crimes or actions that
violate international law. Shepherd is
currently living in an asylum facility in western Germany together
with other asylum applicants, primarily from Iraq and Afghanistan;
the facility and a small living stipend are provided by the
German government pending the outcome of his case.
This interview was previously published in the national German daily newspaper junge Welt on May 23, 2009, the 60th anniversary of the German Constitution.
Since the "war on terror" began, there have been
many U.S. soldiers who have spoken out and many who have refused to serve. But
you are the first so far to apply for asylum in Germany. What are the grounds
on which your application is based?
Well, it's very simple: In the war of aggression against
the Iraqi people, the United States violated not only domestic law, but
international law as well. The U.S. government has deceived not only the American
public, but also the international community, the Iraqi community, as well as
the military community. And the atrocities that have been committed there these
past six years are great breaches of the Geneva Conventions. My applying for
asylum is based on the grounds that international law has been broken and that
I do not want to be forced to fight in an illegal war.
In your asylum application, you mention the
Principles of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which were
incorporated in the UN Charter. In Nuremberg, the chief U.S. prosecutor, Robert
H. Jackson, stated: "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an
international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from
other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the
whole." In opening the trial on behalf of the United States, he stated
that "while this law is first applied against German aggressors, this law
includes and if it is to serve a useful purpose it must condemn aggression by
any other nations, including those which sit here now in judgment." What
does Nuremberg mean to you?
The Nuremberg statutes are the foundation of many U.S.
soldiers' refusal of the Iraq war, and to some extent of the Afghanistan war.
The United States with its Allies after World War II crafted these laws stating
that even though you've gotten orders to commit crimes against humanity, you
don't have to follow them, because every person has their own conscience. That
was more than 60 years ago. Today the U.S. government seems to be under the
impression that those rules do not apply to it. In invading Iraq, they did not
wait for a UN mandate, they didn't let the inspectors do their job, and they
made up stories about who's a real threat. This totally violated everything
stated in the Nuremberg statutes. The U.S. Constitution states that the U.S. is
bound to our international treaties, for example with the UN. When we ignore
the UN, we are violating the U.S. Constitution, which every U.S. soldier is
sworn to uphold. And the U.S. must also respect our own very strict laws
against war crimes and torture. Since the Obama administration refuses to
investigate and prosecute the previous administration, it's clear to me that
the Obama administration is an accomplice to the previous administration's
crimes. They're setting a very dangerous precedent for the future of the world,
something I don't want to see. The German people are well aware of the history;
it is here that the Nuremberg tenets were first set down. Now we have to find a
way to restore those tenets, to actually respect the Nuremberg tenets as well
as the Geneva Conventions. Germany needs to tell the U.S., "Look, you guys
helped create these laws, and now you guys should abide by your own rules. "
When you were stationed in Ansbach-Katterbach,
were you aware of the German citizens' campaign to prevent the U.S. from
enlarging the base there?
Yes, there were protests outside of the Katterbach base.
Being inside, we understood that the German people weren't against us as
soldiers. They were just protesting against Germany's further involvement in
U.S. imperialism. So the relationship between us Americans and the Germans
working on the base was actually still good. We were of course not allowed to join
the protests. I am sure the U.S. military assumed that 50% of the GIs would
have been out there protesting. Alot of the
soldiers understand what is going on - to the point that we realize that we are
just a mercenary army for a few rich people. But a significant number of GIs,
about 60%, have families, so it's very difficult for them to go AWOL or make
massive resistance.
As part of their protest, the citizens of Ansbach
and Katterbach circulated a petition citing Article 26 of the German
Constitution, pronounced 60 years ago on May 23rd, 1949, in the Basic Law of
the Federal Republic of Germany. Article 26 states that the preparation of
aggressive war from German soil is unconstitutional and a criminal offense. In
Kaiserslautern and in Ramstein, where there are also U.S. bases, there were
also petitions circulated citing this Article. These German believe that the
U.S. is violating the German Constitution by preparing aggressive war from
German soil. Were the GIs aware of this provision of the German Constitution?
We received almost no information about the German
Constitution at all. This seems strange to me, because if we're supposedly in
Germany to defend German democracy, shouldn't we know something about it? The
fact is that wherever U.S. soldiers are sent, they are taught almost nothing
about the people, the culture, the beliefs and laws in the countries we are
occupying. When I was in Iraq, they didn't teach us any Arabic. In Ansbach,
they do offer an optional German course, but we work long hours speaking
English all day, so most GIs don't learn much German. Now that I have been
living among Germans for the past eighteen months, I have learned that very
many of them are very much against using war to solve international problems or
to aggress against people. This comes from what they've learned from their own
history. Article 26 of the German Constitution was written in the spirit of the
Nuremberg statutes, which state that launching an aggressive war is the most
serious crime. The U.S. and the Western Allies approved and authorized the
German Constitution. How can the U.S. say we are here in Germany to defend
democracy when we are ignoring and violating not only the Nuremberg statutes
and the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution, but also the German
Constitution?
What is your understanding of why Germany is
allowing the U.S. to conduct these wars from German soil?
Honestly, I cannot answer that: you could look at it
from the political side; you could look at it from the economic side. Or maybe
Germany just has a hands-off approach: "You guys are paying the gas, you guys
are paying us for the rental space, so you guys just do your thing, and we're
not going to do anything about it."
So in filing this application for asylum, it's not
just about finding a place to live or something like that: you're trying to
raise a larger historical and political principle?
Yes, that's correct, because it is my sincere belief
that the United States has gone too far. In Iraq alone 1.3 million people have
died so far, and that includes American soldiers as well. We've attacked
several countries over the past eight or nine years: Afghanistan, Syria,
Pakistan, Iraq, and some places in the Sudan. All over the world, we're just
destroying property and killing people, all based on lies. And I feel like that
I have to do everything I can to help put an end to this. I feel guilty enough
for having taken a part in this war for almost five years. I want to be able to
atone for that.
Why didn't you go through the U.S. legal system
and apply to the Army for conscientious objector status?
When I asked my NCO (officer) about applying as a CO
(conscientious objector), he told me that you have to be against fighting in
all wars of every form. And that doesn't work for me, because of course if
you're being overrun by a foreign invader, you would have to fight back.
According to U.S. Army regulations, this means you are not a conscientious
objector. I also learned of the case of Agustin Aguayo and saw how the military
treated him. He was based Schweinfurt, Germany, not far from where I was in
Ansbach. He tried to go through the military procedures to be recognized as a
conscientious objector, and he refused to load his weapon. Twice he turned
himself in to the U.S. authorities and said, "Look, I'm a CO, and I can't do
this." But the military wanted to force him to go back and fight anyway.
Ultimately they put him in jail in Mannheim. This showed me that I could not
expect any help from within the military, and I decided to fight for my rights
from the outside.
Can you think of any moment when you suddenly
realized, "What I'm doing here is wrong?"
I can't pick only one moment, because this was a process
that went on for years. Falludja was one. Looking at the aftermath of that
battle, especially what the Marines, and the Air Force, and the Apache
helicopters did to that city -- the devastation caused by these machines and
the air war, also in Basra and in many other Iraqi cities -- I realized that if
it weren't for my work and the work of the other mechanics, those Apaches
wouldn't have gotten very far. We were constantly working, 12 hours a day, 6
days a week, to make sure this sophisticated equipment continued to fly,
especially in the hard conditions in Iraq with all the sand storms and the
temperature changes from 140 degrees in the day to 60 at night. Had we, the
mechanics of these aircraft, not done our jobs and refused from the beginning
to take part in this war, a lot of those people would still be alive, and a lot
of the infrastructure in Iraq would still be functioning.
And then there was when one of the Iraqi guys working
for the U.S. Army on our sandbags told me how he didn't understand why we were
destroying their city, destroying their infrastructure, arresting people. And
I'm just standing there like "what?!" I can't believe this stuff is happening,
because I thought the military is supposed to be fighting for the rights of
people. They're not supposed to torture. They're the ones who are supposed to
get rid of the torturers and to stop the rapists and to help people to have a
better life. And when I heard what we're really doing - it just turns your
whole world upside down!
And then there are the 937 lies of George W. Bush to the
American people: you just feel like a fool, because we signed up to do X, but
we wound up doing Y and Z and who knows what else. We killed people; some of
our people got killed. An entire country, two countries, are completely
destroyed. I keep wondering: what was this all for?
Ask anybody, why are we in Iraq? And you hear several
theories: Israel, oil, strategic purposes for Iran, whatever, but no one really
has the answer. Same thing in Afghanistan: the NATO mission only went to
Afghanistan because of U.S. insistence. We have to force the U.S. to clarify
what the actual objective in Afghanistan is. Are they there to help out the
drug dealers cultivating heroin, or for the Unical pipeline, or are they there
just to have a forward base to go into China or Russia? Why are we there?
Do you think President Obama is going to change
any of this?
No. Obama has the backing of the international
corporations. And the people who gave him the most money are the ones whose
interests are going to be served first. And it's quite obvious. He won't go
after the prior administration for the war crimes; he won't pull out of Iraq.
He's leaving 50,000 soldiers to conduct combat missions in Iraq. That means the
war is continuing. He wants to escalate the war in Afghanistan. He wants to
keep pushing for AFRICOM, the U.S. command for Africa based in Stuttgart, and
he's pushing for the missile shield to try to encircle Russia and Iran. These
things show me that Barack Obama is not going to change anything. And Obama is
only one guy. He still has to deal with the entire Congress, the court system,
the Pentagon. The military has been around for over 220 some years, and they're
not going to change overnight just because there's a new Commander-in-Chief.
They're still arresting people who refuse to fight. They're still putting them in
jail, giving them dishonorable discharges, and some are facing possible felony
convictions. But Obama has yet to speak of the growing number of soldiers
refusing to fight for him - well, first Bush, and now him. So I don't see
President Obama granting anyone clemency until the entire "war on terror" is
finished, and Afghanistan and Iraq are part of the same war.
How is your asylum application progressing?
We had a hearing on the 4th of February with
my attorney, Dr. Reinhard Marx, and myself at the Federal Office of Migration
and Immigration. Dr. Marx was recommended to me by Amnesty International. I
believe that we presented our case very well, and we're waiting to see what the
decision is. If the Office of Migration and Immigration were to deny my request
for asylum, then I would bring my case to court in Germany. Because of the
political sensitivity of this case, and because this is a precedent-setting
case, it could take a lot of time.
Many U.S. soldiers who have fled the military are
living underground in the U.S. and dozens more are likely in Europe. In Canada,
many of them have applied for asylum, but since last summer they are being
deported and then imprisoned in the U.S. What if Germany rejects your asylum
application?
Then I'm facing a U.S. military court martial and jail
time. I'm not saying I would go back to the U.S. willingly; I would still try
to find another way to build a life somewhere.
What if you are granted asylum in Germany?
The day I am legally allowed to go to the German
Employment Office, I will probably camp outside so I can be the first one in
there, because being 32 years old and healthy, I feel I should be able to make
my own way. I'm taking classes to learn German, and I'm trying to get into the
University of Karlsruhe so that I can study computer science. I want to get the
Bachelor's or even the Master's so that I can eventually start my own business.
My ultimate dream job would be to work with German and Japanese companies,
which are the foremost leaders in information technology, to develop artificial
intelligence.
If Germany granted you asylum, would large numbers
of GIs who are stationed here start walking off the bases?
I would see maybe like 100 or 200, but I don't see
30,000 soldiers applying for asylum in Germany. It's no easy thing, because
you're basically saying goodbye to your country, perhaps for the rest of your
life. That's a really big step. You have to say goodbye to your family. You've
got to learn a new language and try to fit into the culture. You've got to deal
with homesickness. It is a very important personal step that a lot of soldiers
would find difficult.
But you are taking all these difficulties upon
yourself. Why do you feel called to do this?
Because I was sick of watching the United States degenerate
into something I can't even recognize anymore. The America that I grew up in
isn't there anymore. Between Clinton, Bush, and now Obama, the U.S. is sliding
from the constitutional republic that it was to where now the corporations are
just taking all the fruits of the American people's labor; the country's really
poor, we've got endless war everywhere. 60 years from now people will be saying
that we were the country that destroyed half the Middle East for nothing.
They're building up a civilian corps that'll spy and turn in everybody, you
know, like a modern day Stasi. These things are very disturbing. This is a
country that I don't want to live in or raise my future children in. America's
going down the exact same path as the Roman Empire, and it's really sad, having
grown up there, to watch the destruction slowly happen before your eyes.
Sometimes you feel, no matter what you do, it's going to happen anyway. There
have been many people before who have been sounding the alarm bells, many peace
organizations. And I want to help, put my hand in and try to stop it as well.
And this is something that's been building up over time, because I'm totally
hurt. I feel cheated. I feel lied to. You know, I helped murder people in Iraq
for nothing. These are things I'm not proud of whatsoever, and I want to be
able to turn this around and bring the people ultimately responsible for this
to justice. Because had I known back then what I know now, I never would have
signed up in the first place.
What can people do to help you?
Help raise awareness internationally, because this is
not just about me. It's about the other soldiers as well. We're all in this
together. And especially it's about the Iraqi people, the Afghan people, the
dead soldiers, just everyone. Organizations people can contact are Military
Counseling Network (MCN) or Connection e.V., Tubingen Progressive Americans,
Munich American Peace Committee, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and it's good
to contact with DFG-VK in Germany - they're a national organization. Right now
we're collecting letters to give to the German government to show the support
of the German people. The German government also needs to know that Americans
and people from other countries support my request for asylum. This is an
international problem, and I believe in an international solution.
To support Andre Shepherd, contact:
girights-germany@dfg-vk.de
or see www.connection-ev.de
***
Elsa Rassbach is U.S. citizen, filmmaker and
journalist who often lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She co-founded
American Voices Abroad Military Project, an initiative to support GIs who
resist in Europe, and she is active in DFG-VK (the German affiliate of War Resisters
International, WRI) as well as in Code Pink and the International Committee of
United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). Her award-winning film, "The Killing
Floor," set in the Chicago Stockyards, will be re-released this year.
Translation into German by Eva Bruckner-Tuckwiller.
Both photos: Credit: Connection e.V.
Background: the view from Germany
Berlin, May 26, 2009. Early in June, President Barack Obama will sign into law the
supplemental funding of 92 billion U.S. dollars for the wars in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan that was approved by the U.S. Congress last week.
Then he will depart for a speaking tour and meetings with heads of state in
Egypt and in Europe.
On June 5th, he will be coming to visit us here in Germany,
making stops at the concentration camp at Buchenwald, at Weimar, and at
Dresden, a site also of massive bombings of civilians during World War II. This
will be Obama's third visit to Germany in less than a year, and it seems likely
that he will once again, as in the previous two visits, make a pitch for more
German support for the ongoing "war against terror," particularly in
Afghanistan. Though Obama is popular here, the German government has for the
most part stonewalled his requests for further direct German involvement in
these wars.
The well-known German ambivalence towards the U.S.
"war against terror" is now being further tested by a U.S. soldier's
application for asylum in Germany. Andre Shepherd, who was stationed in
Germany, refuses to deploy to Iraq. Many U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe who
refused service in or support of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan have been
tried in U.S. military courts in Europe and imprisoned in the U.S. military's
correctional facility at Mannheim; the most well known are Blake Lemoine (2005)
and Agustin Aguayo (2006-2007).
But
Shepherd is so far the first to turn to the
German government for help: last November he filed a formal application
to the German government for asylum. For the moment his case is
entirely outside of U.S.
jurisdiction.
Shepherd argues that there are strong reasons arising from
Germany's history for Germany to grant him asylum: the Nuremberg Principles and
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany that has provisions written
in the spirit of Nuremberg. In 2005 the highest German administrative court
upheld a German military officer's right to refuse orders in 2003 to provide
software that might have been used by the U.S. for logistics during the
invasion of Iraq.
Shepherd's case is of significance in part because of
the strategic importance of the bases in Germany for the U.S. wars in the
Middle East. Outside of Iraq and Afghanistan,
the U.S. has far more bases in Germany than in any other country; ca. 68,000
U.S. troops are stationed at U.S. bases throughout southern Germany.
Approximately 80% of the soldiers and supplies to the war zones are routed
through Germany, which also hosts the Pentagon's commands for Africa (AFRICOM)
and for Europe and the former Soviet Union (EUCOM).
As
a sovereign nation, Germany could at any time restrict use of the U.S.
bases, as Turkey, also a NATO member, did in 2003. The German
government refused to provide its own troops for the Iraq war, which
did not have a UN mandate. But the German government interpreted the
NATO treaties as allowing the U.S. to use the U.S. bases in Germany for
the invasion of Iraq.
According
to a 2005 survey conducted by the German military
(Bundeswehr), 68% of the Germans polled oppose the use of war to solve
any
international conflict; in contrast ca. 90% of U.S. citizens support
the use of
war. Per numerous surveys, a majority of Germans oppose German
participation in the war in
Afghanistan. In the campaigns leading up to the parliamentary election
in September, it is likely that at least one parliamentary party will
call for the closing of all foreign military bases on German soil.
Andre Shepherd, 32, grew up in Ohio, where he
attended college. Like President Obama, he is an African-American. In 2003,
when unemployed, he joined the U.S. Army. He was trained as an Apache
helicopter mechanic and was stationed in Germany at the U.S. Army's
Ansbach-Katterbach base. From there he was deployed in 2004 to Iraq for six
months. In 2007, back in Germany, he received orders to return to Iraq. In
April 2007, he went absent without leave (AWOL) and lived underground in
Germany. He formally applied for asylum in Germany on November 26, 2008. His
application references a directive of the European Union under which soldiers
must be granted asylum in the E.U. if they have reason to fear persecution in
their home countries for refusing to participate in crimes or actions that
violate international law. Shepherd is
currently living in an asylum facility in western Germany together
with other asylum applicants, primarily from Iraq and Afghanistan;
the facility and a small living stipend are provided by the
German government pending the outcome of his case.
This interview was previously published in the national German daily newspaper junge Welt on May 23, 2009, the 60th anniversary of the German Constitution.
Since the "war on terror" began, there have been
many U.S. soldiers who have spoken out and many who have refused to serve. But
you are the first so far to apply for asylum in Germany. What are the grounds
on which your application is based?
Well, it's very simple: In the war of aggression against
the Iraqi people, the United States violated not only domestic law, but
international law as well. The U.S. government has deceived not only the American
public, but also the international community, the Iraqi community, as well as
the military community. And the atrocities that have been committed there these
past six years are great breaches of the Geneva Conventions. My applying for
asylum is based on the grounds that international law has been broken and that
I do not want to be forced to fight in an illegal war.
In your asylum application, you mention the
Principles of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which were
incorporated in the UN Charter. In Nuremberg, the chief U.S. prosecutor, Robert
H. Jackson, stated: "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an
international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from
other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the
whole." In opening the trial on behalf of the United States, he stated
that "while this law is first applied against German aggressors, this law
includes and if it is to serve a useful purpose it must condemn aggression by
any other nations, including those which sit here now in judgment." What
does Nuremberg mean to you?
The Nuremberg statutes are the foundation of many U.S.
soldiers' refusal of the Iraq war, and to some extent of the Afghanistan war.
The United States with its Allies after World War II crafted these laws stating
that even though you've gotten orders to commit crimes against humanity, you
don't have to follow them, because every person has their own conscience. That
was more than 60 years ago. Today the U.S. government seems to be under the
impression that those rules do not apply to it. In invading Iraq, they did not
wait for a UN mandate, they didn't let the inspectors do their job, and they
made up stories about who's a real threat. This totally violated everything
stated in the Nuremberg statutes. The U.S. Constitution states that the U.S. is
bound to our international treaties, for example with the UN. When we ignore
the UN, we are violating the U.S. Constitution, which every U.S. soldier is
sworn to uphold. And the U.S. must also respect our own very strict laws
against war crimes and torture. Since the Obama administration refuses to
investigate and prosecute the previous administration, it's clear to me that
the Obama administration is an accomplice to the previous administration's
crimes. They're setting a very dangerous precedent for the future of the world,
something I don't want to see. The German people are well aware of the history;
it is here that the Nuremberg tenets were first set down. Now we have to find a
way to restore those tenets, to actually respect the Nuremberg tenets as well
as the Geneva Conventions. Germany needs to tell the U.S., "Look, you guys
helped create these laws, and now you guys should abide by your own rules. "
When you were stationed in Ansbach-Katterbach,
were you aware of the German citizens' campaign to prevent the U.S. from
enlarging the base there?
Yes, there were protests outside of the Katterbach base.
Being inside, we understood that the German people weren't against us as
soldiers. They were just protesting against Germany's further involvement in
U.S. imperialism. So the relationship between us Americans and the Germans
working on the base was actually still good. We were of course not allowed to join
the protests. I am sure the U.S. military assumed that 50% of the GIs would
have been out there protesting. Alot of the
soldiers understand what is going on - to the point that we realize that we are
just a mercenary army for a few rich people. But a significant number of GIs,
about 60%, have families, so it's very difficult for them to go AWOL or make
massive resistance.
As part of their protest, the citizens of Ansbach
and Katterbach circulated a petition citing Article 26 of the German
Constitution, pronounced 60 years ago on May 23rd, 1949, in the Basic Law of
the Federal Republic of Germany. Article 26 states that the preparation of
aggressive war from German soil is unconstitutional and a criminal offense. In
Kaiserslautern and in Ramstein, where there are also U.S. bases, there were
also petitions circulated citing this Article. These German believe that the
U.S. is violating the German Constitution by preparing aggressive war from
German soil. Were the GIs aware of this provision of the German Constitution?
We received almost no information about the German
Constitution at all. This seems strange to me, because if we're supposedly in
Germany to defend German democracy, shouldn't we know something about it? The
fact is that wherever U.S. soldiers are sent, they are taught almost nothing
about the people, the culture, the beliefs and laws in the countries we are
occupying. When I was in Iraq, they didn't teach us any Arabic. In Ansbach,
they do offer an optional German course, but we work long hours speaking
English all day, so most GIs don't learn much German. Now that I have been
living among Germans for the past eighteen months, I have learned that very
many of them are very much against using war to solve international problems or
to aggress against people. This comes from what they've learned from their own
history. Article 26 of the German Constitution was written in the spirit of the
Nuremberg statutes, which state that launching an aggressive war is the most
serious crime. The U.S. and the Western Allies approved and authorized the
German Constitution. How can the U.S. say we are here in Germany to defend
democracy when we are ignoring and violating not only the Nuremberg statutes
and the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution, but also the German
Constitution?
What is your understanding of why Germany is
allowing the U.S. to conduct these wars from German soil?
Honestly, I cannot answer that: you could look at it
from the political side; you could look at it from the economic side. Or maybe
Germany just has a hands-off approach: "You guys are paying the gas, you guys
are paying us for the rental space, so you guys just do your thing, and we're
not going to do anything about it."
So in filing this application for asylum, it's not
just about finding a place to live or something like that: you're trying to
raise a larger historical and political principle?
Yes, that's correct, because it is my sincere belief
that the United States has gone too far. In Iraq alone 1.3 million people have
died so far, and that includes American soldiers as well. We've attacked
several countries over the past eight or nine years: Afghanistan, Syria,
Pakistan, Iraq, and some places in the Sudan. All over the world, we're just
destroying property and killing people, all based on lies. And I feel like that
I have to do everything I can to help put an end to this. I feel guilty enough
for having taken a part in this war for almost five years. I want to be able to
atone for that.
Why didn't you go through the U.S. legal system
and apply to the Army for conscientious objector status?
When I asked my NCO (officer) about applying as a CO
(conscientious objector), he told me that you have to be against fighting in
all wars of every form. And that doesn't work for me, because of course if
you're being overrun by a foreign invader, you would have to fight back.
According to U.S. Army regulations, this means you are not a conscientious
objector. I also learned of the case of Agustin Aguayo and saw how the military
treated him. He was based Schweinfurt, Germany, not far from where I was in
Ansbach. He tried to go through the military procedures to be recognized as a
conscientious objector, and he refused to load his weapon. Twice he turned
himself in to the U.S. authorities and said, "Look, I'm a CO, and I can't do
this." But the military wanted to force him to go back and fight anyway.
Ultimately they put him in jail in Mannheim. This showed me that I could not
expect any help from within the military, and I decided to fight for my rights
from the outside.
Can you think of any moment when you suddenly
realized, "What I'm doing here is wrong?"
I can't pick only one moment, because this was a process
that went on for years. Falludja was one. Looking at the aftermath of that
battle, especially what the Marines, and the Air Force, and the Apache
helicopters did to that city -- the devastation caused by these machines and
the air war, also in Basra and in many other Iraqi cities -- I realized that if
it weren't for my work and the work of the other mechanics, those Apaches
wouldn't have gotten very far. We were constantly working, 12 hours a day, 6
days a week, to make sure this sophisticated equipment continued to fly,
especially in the hard conditions in Iraq with all the sand storms and the
temperature changes from 140 degrees in the day to 60 at night. Had we, the
mechanics of these aircraft, not done our jobs and refused from the beginning
to take part in this war, a lot of those people would still be alive, and a lot
of the infrastructure in Iraq would still be functioning.
And then there was when one of the Iraqi guys working
for the U.S. Army on our sandbags told me how he didn't understand why we were
destroying their city, destroying their infrastructure, arresting people. And
I'm just standing there like "what?!" I can't believe this stuff is happening,
because I thought the military is supposed to be fighting for the rights of
people. They're not supposed to torture. They're the ones who are supposed to
get rid of the torturers and to stop the rapists and to help people to have a
better life. And when I heard what we're really doing - it just turns your
whole world upside down!
And then there are the 937 lies of George W. Bush to the
American people: you just feel like a fool, because we signed up to do X, but
we wound up doing Y and Z and who knows what else. We killed people; some of
our people got killed. An entire country, two countries, are completely
destroyed. I keep wondering: what was this all for?
Ask anybody, why are we in Iraq? And you hear several
theories: Israel, oil, strategic purposes for Iran, whatever, but no one really
has the answer. Same thing in Afghanistan: the NATO mission only went to
Afghanistan because of U.S. insistence. We have to force the U.S. to clarify
what the actual objective in Afghanistan is. Are they there to help out the
drug dealers cultivating heroin, or for the Unical pipeline, or are they there
just to have a forward base to go into China or Russia? Why are we there?
Do you think President Obama is going to change
any of this?
No. Obama has the backing of the international
corporations. And the people who gave him the most money are the ones whose
interests are going to be served first. And it's quite obvious. He won't go
after the prior administration for the war crimes; he won't pull out of Iraq.
He's leaving 50,000 soldiers to conduct combat missions in Iraq. That means the
war is continuing. He wants to escalate the war in Afghanistan. He wants to
keep pushing for AFRICOM, the U.S. command for Africa based in Stuttgart, and
he's pushing for the missile shield to try to encircle Russia and Iran. These
things show me that Barack Obama is not going to change anything. And Obama is
only one guy. He still has to deal with the entire Congress, the court system,
the Pentagon. The military has been around for over 220 some years, and they're
not going to change overnight just because there's a new Commander-in-Chief.
They're still arresting people who refuse to fight. They're still putting them in
jail, giving them dishonorable discharges, and some are facing possible felony
convictions. But Obama has yet to speak of the growing number of soldiers
refusing to fight for him - well, first Bush, and now him. So I don't see
President Obama granting anyone clemency until the entire "war on terror" is
finished, and Afghanistan and Iraq are part of the same war.
How is your asylum application progressing?
We had a hearing on the 4th of February with
my attorney, Dr. Reinhard Marx, and myself at the Federal Office of Migration
and Immigration. Dr. Marx was recommended to me by Amnesty International. I
believe that we presented our case very well, and we're waiting to see what the
decision is. If the Office of Migration and Immigration were to deny my request
for asylum, then I would bring my case to court in Germany. Because of the
political sensitivity of this case, and because this is a precedent-setting
case, it could take a lot of time.
Many U.S. soldiers who have fled the military are
living underground in the U.S. and dozens more are likely in Europe. In Canada,
many of them have applied for asylum, but since last summer they are being
deported and then imprisoned in the U.S. What if Germany rejects your asylum
application?
Then I'm facing a U.S. military court martial and jail
time. I'm not saying I would go back to the U.S. willingly; I would still try
to find another way to build a life somewhere.
What if you are granted asylum in Germany?
The day I am legally allowed to go to the German
Employment Office, I will probably camp outside so I can be the first one in
there, because being 32 years old and healthy, I feel I should be able to make
my own way. I'm taking classes to learn German, and I'm trying to get into the
University of Karlsruhe so that I can study computer science. I want to get the
Bachelor's or even the Master's so that I can eventually start my own business.
My ultimate dream job would be to work with German and Japanese companies,
which are the foremost leaders in information technology, to develop artificial
intelligence.
If Germany granted you asylum, would large numbers
of GIs who are stationed here start walking off the bases?
I would see maybe like 100 or 200, but I don't see
30,000 soldiers applying for asylum in Germany. It's no easy thing, because
you're basically saying goodbye to your country, perhaps for the rest of your
life. That's a really big step. You have to say goodbye to your family. You've
got to learn a new language and try to fit into the culture. You've got to deal
with homesickness. It is a very important personal step that a lot of soldiers
would find difficult.
But you are taking all these difficulties upon
yourself. Why do you feel called to do this?
Because I was sick of watching the United States degenerate
into something I can't even recognize anymore. The America that I grew up in
isn't there anymore. Between Clinton, Bush, and now Obama, the U.S. is sliding
from the constitutional republic that it was to where now the corporations are
just taking all the fruits of the American people's labor; the country's really
poor, we've got endless war everywhere. 60 years from now people will be saying
that we were the country that destroyed half the Middle East for nothing.
They're building up a civilian corps that'll spy and turn in everybody, you
know, like a modern day Stasi. These things are very disturbing. This is a
country that I don't want to live in or raise my future children in. America's
going down the exact same path as the Roman Empire, and it's really sad, having
grown up there, to watch the destruction slowly happen before your eyes.
Sometimes you feel, no matter what you do, it's going to happen anyway. There
have been many people before who have been sounding the alarm bells, many peace
organizations. And I want to help, put my hand in and try to stop it as well.
And this is something that's been building up over time, because I'm totally
hurt. I feel cheated. I feel lied to. You know, I helped murder people in Iraq
for nothing. These are things I'm not proud of whatsoever, and I want to be
able to turn this around and bring the people ultimately responsible for this
to justice. Because had I known back then what I know now, I never would have
signed up in the first place.
What can people do to help you?
Help raise awareness internationally, because this is
not just about me. It's about the other soldiers as well. We're all in this
together. And especially it's about the Iraqi people, the Afghan people, the
dead soldiers, just everyone. Organizations people can contact are Military
Counseling Network (MCN) or Connection e.V., Tubingen Progressive Americans,
Munich American Peace Committee, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and it's good
to contact with DFG-VK in Germany - they're a national organization. Right now
we're collecting letters to give to the German government to show the support
of the German people. The German government also needs to know that Americans
and people from other countries support my request for asylum. This is an
international problem, and I believe in an international solution.
To support Andre Shepherd, contact:
girights-germany@dfg-vk.de
or see www.connection-ev.de
***
Elsa Rassbach is U.S. citizen, filmmaker and
journalist who often lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She co-founded
American Voices Abroad Military Project, an initiative to support GIs who
resist in Europe, and she is active in DFG-VK (the German affiliate of War Resisters
International, WRI) as well as in Code Pink and the International Committee of
United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). Her award-winning film, "The Killing
Floor," set in the Chicago Stockyards, will be re-released this year.
Translation into German by Eva Bruckner-Tuckwiller.
Both photos: Credit: Connection e.V.
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