The
Right to Refuse to Kill
The
Right to Refuse to Kill is the name of a group of people,
individuals and representatives from a wide variety of organisations,
from Pax Christi to the National Secular Society, from Amnesty
International to the Unitarian Peace Fellowship. On 15 May each
year, International Conscientious Objectors' Day, at midday, a
short, simple ceremony, planned by the RRK group, is held around a
rock of 400 million-year-old Cumbrian slate, in Tavistock
Square, central London.
The roughly hewn rock with inset plaque, commemorates the courage of
those who claimed, and suffered for, the right - not even yet
universally recognised - to refuse to kill. It further stands for
the demand that such refusal should not be the occasion for
recrimination, vilification, or other indirect punishment. Those
commemorated range from Israeli soldiers refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories,
to the World War One British absolutists who not only refused to
kill, but also refused to carry out any work which might release
another to fight.
The ceremony includes a minute's silence which follows the laying on
the Stone of some sixty white carnations, each bearing the name of a
CO representing a particular country; as the flower is being laid
brief details of the nature of that CO's experience are read
out.
The
History of RRK
I
am the niece of Joe Brett, a WW1 absolutist, at whose funeral Bill
McIlroy, then Secretary of the National Secular Society, said there
should be a commemoration in every town, as there is for those who
fought, for those who refused to fight. Courage has many
faces.
I made the original proposal for a commemorative stone, dedicated to
all COs, to my fellow Members of
the Greater London Council in 1985. The proposal was accepted
by the Council, whose abolition the following year nevertheless
prevented its early implementation.
Three years later, the Peace Pledge Union took up the proposal; and
in May 1993, a letter to the Guardian newspaper, signed, with
others, by the composer, Sir Michael Tippett, himself imprisoned as
an Objector, brought support from many. The
present monument, designed by Hugh
Court, sculptor Paul Wehrle, was unveiled
by Sir Michael on 15 May 1994.
We hope that, by so commemorating those who have practised the right
to refuse to kill in the past and in our own time, we may emphasise
alternative responses to conflict, and that more RRK groups will
encourage the same commemoration among the communities and nations
of the world, and so help to foster the cause of universal
peace. A commemorative stone was dedicated in Cardiff,
outside the Temple
of Peace, in
2005.
We know that it is not easy to get funding to set up a plaque, or a
stone, or whatever the commemorative object may be - indeed,
sometimes there may be hostility to the idea. We found that bringing
together representatives from several relevant groups was
useful. It may be easier to use something which has
significance, for whatever reason, in an area - a tree, fountain,
bench, maybe - at least, initially. And then, perhaps, to begin to
obtain funding to set up a plaque, stone, or whatever the
commemorative object may be.
Edna Mathieson
For further information, edna.mathieson1@btinternet.com
- tel. 020 7237 3731.
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