[news] U.S. soldier seeks Canadian refugee status

[ron]

TORONTO - A U.S. soldier who is absent without leave is seeking refugee 
status in Canada as a conscientious objector.

Jeremy Hinzman, who faces prosecution in the U.S., left the 82nd 
Airborne Division in North Carolina last month and fled to Toronto with 
his wife and baby.

Hinzman told the Fayetteville Observer in a phone interview that he had 
"a romantic vision" of the army when he joined three years ago.

He said the structure of army life, complete with subsidized housing, 
groceries and money for education, appealed to him.

     * FROM DISCLOSURE: AWOL in America

But at the start of basic training, he became disillusioned and 
horrified by chanting about killing during marches, shooting at targets 
without faces and the dehumanization of the enemy.

Hinzman applied as a conscientious objector, saying he wanted to fulfil 
his service obligation but not fight in combat.

His application was rejected while he was in Afghanistan.

Hinzman said he and his wife decided to flee to Toronto before he could 
be shipped off to Iraq.

Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board said none of the 268 American 
applicants for refugee status last year were accepted.

Sgt. Pam Smith, a spokesperson for the 82nd Airborne based at Fort 
Bragg, N.C., said Hinzman could be arrested in the U.S., and would be 
put on a national database.

But she said the army won't search him out.

"We don't have time to go and track down people who go [absent without 
leave]," she said. "We're fighting a war."

Written by CBC News Online staff