Page 168 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

670 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

large numbers of conscripts began to take stands against conscription, ready to go to prison
if necessary, and the End Conscription Campaign was launched as a new channel of resis-
tance.

support for conscientious objectors
Between 1979 and 1982, some 15 conscientious objectors took the route of taking public
stands against military service, and indicated their preparedness to serve prison time – the
penalties were progressively increased through legislation to six years imprisonment. Most
of them were Christians of different denominations and based their objection on their faith or
although to varying degrees, and increasingly, they also took stands against apartheid. Small
Conscientious Objector Support Groups (COSGs) sprang up, mostly initially on a denomina-
tional basis, with the aim of giving pastoral support to the individuals involved, publicising
their cause, mobilising domestic and international support and pressurising the authorities.
although CoSaWR had no direct links with the CoSGs, it sought to gain international su-
pport for them and co-ordinated international campaigns in support of the most high-profile
(and most anti-apartheid) resisters such as Peter Moll, Richard Steele, Charles Yeats and later
David Bruce and Ivan Toms. Much of this support was raised from religious organisations,
both in South Africa and internationally, and some of it was quite extensive; involving for
example the distribution of tens of thousands of leaflets and the generation of petitions with
tens of thousands of signatories. Some imprisoned war resisters were also adopted as priso-
ners of conscience by Amnesty International.
These early individual stands were followed by collective stands: first a group of 23, then
143, then, by 1989, 771. After this the floodgates opened and a national register of cons-
cientious objectors was established, supported by an international one of exiles under the
auspices of Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (Rauch 1994: 9-12)

the end conscription campaign

The political crisis around apartheid deepened in the mid-1980s, both within South Africa
and in the wider region. a new insurrection, much deeper, more violent and more widespread
that of 1976, swept the country in 1984. The SADF was for the first time deployed in to-
wnships, fuelling resistance to conscription: many conscripts now felt that they were being
deployed in a civil war. At the same time, the domestic anti-apartheid movement was able
to open political space and the mass-based United Democratic Front (UDF), an alliance of
hundreds of community organisations, churches, trade unions, students groups and pressure
groups, was established and fairly openly aligned itself with the ANC.
In 1984, in response to the growing resistance to conscription and the civil war, the End
Conscription Campaign was formed, in part on the organisational basis of the COSGs, whi-
ch had established a national framework. This was a clever move: rather than arguing for
conscientious objection or war resistance, which was illegal, it would argue for an end to
conscription, which was merely requesting a change in the law, and would (it was hoped)
secure widespread support from those opposed to troop deployments in the townships and
increasing militarisation (CIIR 1989: 86). The ECC in fact set itself wider objectives than
ending conscription, including campaigning for peace and justice, and raising opposition to