12/03/2008

Associated Press

Peace activists want the City Council to declare Portland a sanctuary for soldiers absent without leave.

Under such a policy, police officers would ignore federal arrest warrants when they come across AWOL soldiers during traffic stops. Military police and federal agents, however, could still come to the city to find deserters.

Kelly Campbell, peace director of the American Friends Service Committee in Portland, said her group has collected 3,000 signatures in support of the proposal, but has yet to find one council member to champion it.

Activists such as Campbell say Portland would be a natural place for a sanctuary, given the city's formal opposition to the Iraq war and its withdrawal from the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force.

"As a city that's declared itself against the war, we should be supporting soldiers who don't want to go fight," Campbell told The Oregonian newspaper.

Berkeley, Calif., and Ithaca, N.Y., have approved similar policies, but Commissioner Randy Leonard said he can't support adding Portland to the list.

"I think it's a mistake to be in Iraq for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the president lied to us about the reasons for going to war," Leonard said. "But to call for anarchy in the ranks and declare Portland as a free zone would be illegal.

"I like doing things like electing a new president to change policies, which we have done."

The precise number of service members who are currently AWOL could not be obtained. But over the past decade, the U.S. Army has typically seen between 2,500 and 4,500 soldiers desert each year. Bill Galvin, counseling coordinator for the Center on Conscience and War in Washington, D.C., said the Marine Corps goes after its deserters more aggressively than other branches, but the military in general doesn't spend much time tracking them down.

"The main way they get folks is if they are busted for traffic violations," he said.

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com