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UK: RAF officer refuses to serve in unlawful war

01 September 2005

In October a serving RAF medical officer who has refused to fight in the war on Iraq was served with court martial papers and now faces jail for "refusing to obey a lawful command." Flight-Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a medical officer based at RAF Kinross in Morayshire, Scotland, has been decorated in previous operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, but decided that the war was manifestly unlawful and that it would be wrong for him to return. Speaking for Kendall-Smith, his lawyer, Justin Higheston-Roberts said:

When he first went to the Gulf in 2003, his awareness of the legal position was far less than it is now. He is now in no doubt that the war was illegal and that the government has spun its position on the evidence. He takes the view that this is something which is worth going to prison for.

Kendall-Smith's opinion on the legality of the war is supported by many international lawyers who have argued that there was no legal justification for invading Iraq as the US and Britain had failed to wait for the United Nations to pass a second resolution sanctioning military force. The recently retired law lord, Lord Stein, has declared it illegal and said that the government had "scraped the bottom of the barrel" to find a justification for it. He added that Saddam Hussein posed no threat to the UK or the US before the war. General Sir Michael Walker, the chief of defence staff, has conceded that army was having difficulty attracting new recruits "because people saw the armed forces as guilty by association with Tony Blair's decision to attack Iraq."

Kendall-Smith's court martial is expected to begin in March 2006.

Guardian 19.10.05; Sunday Times 22.10.05