Editorial

Dear readers of CO-Update.

This issue of CO-Update starts not with a new announcement of a country abolishing or suspending conscription, but rather with the opposite: the military regime of Burma is introducing conscription. The consequences will be dire - the predictions go from more corruption to get exempted to more youth fleeing the country to avoid serving in the military. It's probably not necessary to highlight that Burma does not recognise the right to conscientious objection.
This is followed by a story on the persecution of antimilitarists in Turkey - not just conscientious objectors face imprisonment, but any form of criticism of the Turkish army can lead to prosecution and imprisonment.

We close this issue with a comment piece on a queer antimilitarist perspective on the repeal of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' in the US, which is not strictly speaking on conscientious objection, but is relevant, as it relates to the future recruitment of queer people - and future work to counter this, and to support gay conscientious objectors (such as Mehmet Tarhan from Turkey, or Stephen Funk from the US, or Idan Halili from Israel).

To continue to do this work War Resisters' International depends on your donations. We therefore kindly ask you to donate to WRI online at wri-irg.org/en/donate-en.htm.

Andreas Speck