Published Wednesday
October 13, 2004Resisters of war again flee to Canada
THE WASHINGTON POST
TORONTO - Jeremy Hinzman enlisted in the U.S. Army and did a tour in Afghanistan. Then came orders to go to Iraq. He neatly piled his Army gear in his living room at Fort Bragg, N.C., and fled to Canada with his wife and baby.
"No matter how much I wanted to, I could not convince myself that killing someone was ever right," Hinzman, 25, said in an interview here.
Spec. Hinzman is a deserter, one of at least four who have followed the path of Vietnam War resisters a generation ago to seek refuge in Canada. Here, many from that time - former peaceniks who are now pillars of the community - have embraced the new deserters.
The government, though, is less welcoming. Despite Canada's opposition to the Iraq war, it also is opposing the deserters' refugee applications, saying the soldiers are not persecuted. It is resisting the argument that the Iraq war is illegal.
The deserters provoke anger in the United States among people who see a duty shirked.
"There's no draft. These people volunteered for the military," said Jerry Newberry, a spokesman of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in St. Louis.
Hinzman accepts the criticisms. He replies that his objections evolved after he enlisted. Well before he was ordered to Iraq, he applied for noncombatant duty. Had that been granted, he said, he would have served his obligation, even in Iraq, as a medic or a cook.
"If I was in a situation where bullets were whizzing by, I'd be fine with that," he said. "I'm not saying I wouldn't be scared, but I would have soldiered on - as long as I wasn't pulling a trigger."
Hinzman spends his days reading and taking care of Liam, his 21/2-year-old son, in the family's basement apartment in Toronto. His wife, Nga Nguyen, a biologist and social worker, was barely 3 when her family fled from Laos after the Vietnam War.
They are in legal limbo while Hinzman's case works its way through the Immigration and Refugee Board. They hope to get work permits and find jobs.
Hinzman makes occasional speeches along with two other U.S. deserters who have gone public. A fourth deserter remains out of sight, according to Jeffrey House, their attorney.
House, 57, said he felt a chill of recognition when Hinzman first came to his office. Thirty-four years earlier, House crossed the border rather than obey a draft notice during the Vietnam War.
Estimates of how many American draft evaders came to Canada in those times range from 30,000 to 90,000. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invited them, in 1969 declaring Canada "a refuge from militarism."
In 1977, President Carter pardoned them and allowed deserters to apply for resolution of their cases. Many of the Americans went home. Others stayed in Canada. Today they include judges, professors, politicians, a popular radio host.
Some Canadians have taken up the new deserters' cause. A promoter organized a concert to raise funds for them.
Hinzman, who was raised in Rapid City, S.D., enlisted in the Army in January 2001 because, he said, it seemed an honorable vocation with college benefits.
"The Army did give me focus and structure in my life," he said. "When I enlisted, I figured I would be deployed. I thought if I was called up to do it, I could do it. But I was ignorant, probably stupidly, of an ingrained inhibition to killing another human being."
He said he was repelled by the chants of "Kill! Kill!" in basic training and was more drawn to his readings of Buddhism.
In 2002, he applied for conscientious-objector status. While serving with his unit in Afghanistan as a dishwasher and cook, his application was denied.
Back home, in late 2003, he was told his unit was going to Iraq.
"It is an illegal war," he said. "I wasn't going to kill or be killed to subsidize gas for someone to drive their SUVs."
Last New Year's Day, he helped install scopes on Army tanks. The next night, he and his family left for Canada.
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