Resister in sanctuary of Canadian church
By Bob Meola, Courage to
Resist. July 8, 2012
War Resister Rodney Watson (photo right) wishes he could be with his
parents and other family and friends in his home town of Kansas City, Missouri.
He’d like to see his wife and four year old son more than just on weekends in
Vancouver, B.C. too. He’d also like to take his young family home to the United
States and have his wife and his son meet his parents. But he can’t. Rodney has
been living in the sanctuary of United Church in Vancouver since September 18,
2009. He eats and sleeps there and still cannot leave the Church without the
risk of being deported back to the United States and to a military brig. After a
tour of Iraq, in which he witnessed the senseless brutality of the war and the
same racism toward the Iraqi people by U.S. enlisted soldiers and American
contractors that he knew so well from experiencing it as an African-American,
growing up in the United States, Rodney was stop-lossed.
Army Spc. Rodney Watson joined the Army in 2004 under a three year
contract. In 2005, he was deployed to Iraq. He signed up to be a cook and
instead was made to search vehicles and Iraqi civilians for explosives,
contraband and weapons before they entered the base. In 2006, when his tour of
duty there was over, he was informed that his contractual obligation to serve in
the Army was being extended , without his consent, and he would not be
discharged from military service at the agreed upon time. Rodney was a victim of
the Army Stop Loss program. Rather than continue to serve in the Army and face
re-deployment to Iraq in a war he knew was illegal and immoral, Rodney deserted
and took refuge in Canada.
Presently, Rodney finds himself in a legal limbo that has meant no change
in his case for quite a while. His lawyer will soon be re-submitting an
application for him to be granted asylum on Humanitarian and Compassionate
Grounds so that he can stay in Canada and be able to resume being a father to
his four year old son and a husband on a daily basis. Because Rodney is confined
to the church, he only sees his wife and his son on weekends.
Rodney recently told me, “Any conscientious objector to the Iraq war should
not be punished because our leader, George Bush, himself went AWOL. No Iraq war
Veteran should be punished for waking up and going AWOL after George W. Bush
went AWOL from the National Guard and then later led us into a war based on lies
about weapons of mass destruction. He should be locked up and not any of us
awakened veterans from that Iraq war. The war criminals are free while I’m
sitting in sanctuary in a church not able to go out in public. Thousands more
[war resisters] are underground in the states who had disagreement with that
war. It doesn’t make any sense to be punished for your conscience. I’m not a
pacifist but the Iraq war was an unnecessary aggression and it was for natural
resources and based on lies.
“If there is anything I can say to my fellow troops who are waking up to
the lies and corporate greed and corruption, it is that I salute you and real
change is not made by silence. I salute you for standing up and speaking
out."
Read the entire article here.
Join us in helping Rodney with his monthly food and phone expenses. Please donate via our friends War Resisters Support Campaign-Vancouver BC-at vancouverwarresisters.org with a one-time or monthly PayPal contribution.
