Worldwide Appeal

Mark Wilkerson has been imprisoned solely for his conscientious objection to participating in war.

Mark Wilkerson was sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment for refusing to go on a second tour of duty in Iraq in 2005, by a US court martial in February. He was also discharged from the army for bad conduct for going absent without leave (AWOL). AI considers Mark Wilkerson to be a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for his conscientious objection to participating in the war in Iraq.

When Mark Wilkerson was in Iraq from March 2003 to March 2004, he refused to return fire on a man who was shooting at him, because, he says, “there were so many people around him; I did not want to kill innocents.”

Returning to the USA in March 2004, he immediately applied for conscientious objector status. While this was being processed, he learned that his unit would be returning to Iraq in January 2005. In November 2004, his application was refused on the grounds that he did not present clear and convincing evidence that he was opposed to all wars. US army regulations stipulate that applicants for conscientious objector status must be opposed to war in any form.

He was told that an appeal could not be re-considered until his return from a second tour of duty in Iraq, more than a year later. At this point he decided he had no option but to go AWOL. He finally turned himself in to the military authorities in August 2006.

To help!!
Send appeals to:
The Honorable Peter Geren,
Acting Secretary of the Army
102 Army Pentagon
Room 3E588
Washington DC 20310-0102
USA
Fax: +1 703 697 0720
Salutation: Dear Secretary