Canada deports Iraq war resister Rivera back to US

Kimberly Rivera, who lived in Canada for five years with her husband and four children, was issued a deportation order last month and given until September 20 to leave Canada.

The War Resisters Support Campaign (WRSC) said that Ms Rivera presented herself at the US border on Thursday and was arrested and taken into military custody.

Ms Rivera, a US army private, served in Iraq in 2006.

She became disillusioned with the war and crossed into Canada in February 2007 after she was ordered to serve another tour.

She then applied for refugee status.

Canadian Immigration Ministry spokeswoman Alexis Pavlich claimed that President Obama's administration would not persecute soldiers.

"Military deserters from the US are not genuine refugees under the internationally accepted meaning of the term," she insisted.

But Ms Rivera's lawyer Alyssa Manning said she could be jailed for up to five years.

WRSC spokesman Ken Marciniec said that Canadian officials had said in court that she wouldn't be arrested at the border.

"It doesn't get any clearer than this. The risk ... of Iraq war resisters being punished as prisoners of conscience isn't just risk, it's fact," he said.

Ms Rivera told reporters last month that she feared being separated from her children and being imprisoned for opposing the Iraq war.

Around 19,000 people signed an online petition against her deportation order and support rallies were held in a number of Canadian cities on Wednesday calling on the government to let her stay.

Nobel peace prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and US veterans organisation Veterans for Peace have also spoken out against the deportation.

The WRSC said that there are approximately 200 Iraq war resisters in Canada.

Canadian MPs passed a nonbinding motion in 2009 calling for all US military deserted to be allowed to stay, but the Conservative government ignored the vote.