[antiwar-van] For Imm Rls: Antiwar protest marks soldier's death / anniversary of CDN troop deployment announcement

[shannon]

Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO)
www.mawovancouver.org | info at mawovancouver.org 
Phone: 604-322-1764 | Fax: 604-322-1763

NEWS ITEM: For Immediate Release
July 10th 2006

Media Contact: 
Nita Palmer, MAWO Acting Secretary: 604-780-7604

--------------------------------------------- 
CANADIAN SOLDIER KILLED IN SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN
FIREFIGHT ON EVE OF ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF TROOP
DEPLOYMENT ANNOUNCEMENT – 
VANCOUVER ANTIWAR PROTEST DEMANDS: “BRING THE TROOPS
HOME NOW!”

Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) picket
action against Canada’s occupation of Afghanistan:

THURSDAY JULY 13TH
12:30PM – 1:30PM
CANADA FORCES RECRUITMENT CENTRE
(1070 W. Georgia St, Downtown Vancouver)
----------------------------------------------- 

On Sunday July 9th, Cpl. Anthony Boneca was the 18th
member of the Canadian military to die in Canada’s
occupation of Afghanistan. Boneca’s death in a
“fierce” firefight comes on the eve of the one year
anniversary of General Rick Hillier’s July 14th 2005
announcement of the deployment of 2,000 Canadian
troops to Southern Afghanistan. 

On Thursday July 13th Mobilization Against War and
Occupation (MAWO) will be organizing a protest in
response to Boneca’s death, and to declare that the
deployment of 2,000 Canadian troops to Afghanistan has
brought nothing but death, suffering, and destruction
for the people of Afghanistan. 

MAWO’s Acting Secretary, Nita Palmer, explained,
“Anthony Boneca himself would have supported the
demand to bring the troops home from Afghanistan.
Before he died, he told his family that the work of
the Canadian military was ‘not what you see on TV.’ He
was demoralized with the occupation and even
considered claiming to be suicidal to get out of
Afghanistan.”

Both Boneca’s uncle and the father of his fiancé-to-be
made statements to the media calling for an end to
Canada’s occupation of Afghanistan in the wake of
Boneca’s death. His uncle, William Babe, said, "I
don't think he believed totally in what he was doing
because I think he saw things he didn't expect to see
and didn't want to see and probably did things he
didn't want to do."

Cpl. Anthony Boneca was killed as part of “Operation
Mountain Thrust”, a ‘search and destroy’ operation
launched under Canadian command in mid-June designed
to extend occupation forces’ control over all of
Southern Afghanistan. According to Major Bill
Fletcher, the Officer Commanding for Charlie Company,
Boneca died in what was "probably the largest scale
co-ordinated battle group maneuver" in southern
Afghanistan thus far.

The firefight that Boneca was killed in has become a
familiar scene for the Canadian occupying forces.

Nita Palmer continued, “Canada is at war against the
Afghan people for control over Afghanistan. This war
has not ‘liberated’ the people of Afghanistan as both
Stephen Harper and George Bush have promised.
Unfortunately for the Afghan people, General Hillier
was right when he made his war mongering statement one
year ago; the job of the Canadian Forces, and all the
occupation forces, is to kill people.”

Since Hillier’s announcement of the deployment of
2,000 Canadian troops to Kandahar Afghanistan, MAWO
has organized consistent picket actions in front of
the Canadian Forces Recruitment Centre in Downtown
Vancouver. As a sign of the widespread sentiment
amongst people in Canada against the occupation of
Afghanistan, MAWO has collected over 10Thousand
signatures on a petition calling for an end to the
occupation – to BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW! 

-30-


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