0 8000 12 11

Participants of a round table took no heed of the Armenian saying, “When talking about the army, either say good things, or say nothing at all,” but instead started speaking openly about the problems connected with military service.

---

The OSCE Yerevan Office and “Hakastver” NGO initiated a round table on “Human rights and military service – the prospects of contracted service”. The participants were representatives from NGOs, journalists, a judge and a prosecutor. Speaking about military crimes, the judge of the Court of appeal on criminal and military cases, Serzhik Avetisyan, pointed out the absence of specialized courts. He said several times that “Unfortunately, there are no Military Courts in Armenia and even the provision for the possibility of their establishment has been taken out from the new Constitution, whereas the world and RA judicial system started to establish specialized courts. The creation of the Economic Court of RA is an evidence of this. Soon an Administrative Court will be established. Moreover, referring to the International Convention on Human Rights, he mentioned that the right to be judged by a “competent” court does not only mean to be judged by a judge appointed in an appropriate procedure, but also by a specialist. According to S. Avetisyan, during the examination of military crimes, whether a commander’s orders were legal or not should be inspected. Furthermore, if a judge does not proceed with professionalism and if he can’t cope with military cases, then how can he find out whether an order was legal or not? The orders of commanders, even the order of the minister of defense, are disputed in 80% of cases examined in military courts in Russia. Greta Mirzoyan, the head of the NGO “Zinvori Mayr” (Soldier’s Mother), spoke about the need for psychologists in the army. To meet the demand, a new specialty was opened in the Yerevan State Teachers’ Training University /”Military psychology”/, and 25 students entered /23 girls/. That means that the army – consisting of thousands of soldiers – will have 25 psychologists in 5 years, provided that the girls currently studying to be psychologists do not get married, that they do not have children, and that they will be willing to work in the army. Julieta Amirkhanyan, the head of the organization “Femida,” presented their experiences gathered during the preparation of the TV program, “Judicial Channel,” and spoke about a number of problems connected with military crimes. She thinks that the soldiers often can’t protect their own rights, because during the investigation of crimes in the army, witnesses are “worked” on in their own military units, and sometimes the judge and public prosecutor do not objectively take into account the circumstances of the case, but instead listen to their “inner convictions” and thus their approach to ordinary soldiers and to officers differs. This is the reason why when an officer beat a 2-week recruit, he was not punished, since he was “deeply sorry” about it, but the soldier who slapped the officer who had beaten him was sentenced to 1-5 years imprisonment. The way out of the situation, according to Mrs. Amirkhanyan, is a professional army, where everyone will serve voluntarily, where there will not be any obligation and there won’t be everlasting confrontation between “old soldiers” and “newcomers.” The coordinator of HCA Vanadzor, Arthur Sakunts, was inclined to speak more by examples and to present their research connected with military crimes. He thinks that the Army is the only closed system that NGOs’ don’t have access to. Especially, he pointed out the isolation cells of the Military Police, which are in fact illegal structures, where they are busy with “preparing” the witnesses and the defendants of military crimes. Speaking about military crimes, it’s impossible to overlook the topic of Alternative Service. A. Sakunts mentioned the “Law on Alternative Service,” which doesn’t work in Armenia. Of course there are many reasons, especially the duration of the Alternative Service – 3.5 years – that make the law useless. Generally, the forms of Alternative Service violate human rights. The situation in the Army, according to A. Sakunts, is not good: most of the generals and commanders are busy with business, thus they create an unequal economic competition in Armenia and they harm the reputation of the Army; for example, last year a boy who was taking care of the commander’s pigs drowned in a lake in Vanadzor. Crimes performed in the army, according to A. Sakunts, are hidden, murders aren’t revealed. There are military units where a number of incidents are registered, but nothing is done against them. Proceeding from population statistics A. Sakunts says that in 2006 the army cannot be as it was in 1988, it is just impossible, no matter what administrative methods are used. We must work not on the quantity of the army, but on its quality, which hasn’t been done. He thinks that we’ve wasted a lot of time and we must hurry now.
  P.S. Arthur Sakunts also remembered the issue of Arman Babadjanyan, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Zhamanak Yerevan.” He asked judge S. Avetisyan why Arman was discriminated against when he wasn’t allowed to pay to be free from service – unlike everyone else who’s also 27 years old or older – but instead was forced to serve 4 years in prison. The question was rhetorical and Arthur didn’t expect an answer, nonetheless the judge explained that he cannot answer the question because he is not familiar with the details of the case.
Armine Ohanyan
Newspaper “Zhamanak Yerevan”
November 17, 2006