Artur Sakunts: “The RA Ministry of Defense is unable to overlook non-statutory relationships established in the army”.
00:00, July 29, 2011 | News | Right to Life, Rights of Soldiers/Recruits | Armed Forces
The RA Ministry of Defense is unable to control non-statutory relationships established in the army; however, the RA Minister of Defense is responsible for the life of each person killed during peacetime while serving in the army.
On July 29, 2011, during a press conference, Artur Sakunts, head of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, stated: 44 death cases were discovered in the RA Army in 2010 as a result of surveys made by the organization. However, the US State Department stated there were about 54 death cases. “It means that there has been no public communication on 10 death cases by the RA Ministry of Defense or by the RA mass media. It is also obvious that the parents of the dead individuals are not alarmed about the incidents, as well. At the same time, it is peculiar that the RA Ministry of Defense considers the personal data of the dead soldiers as “state secrets”, at least for Armenia, although they are freely provided to the US State Department”, said Mr. Sakunts.
According to Artur Sakunts, the head of the HCA Vanadzor, the RA Ministry of Defense is obliged to publicize all death incidents that occur in the army, as well as to inform the public about the investigative actions on each case. “As a result of the non- statutory -relationships and violation of the cease-fire regime in the RA army, 15 cases have been filed out of the 44 cases; two were closed and ten are in a preliminary stage. However, in many cases the families of the dead military servants were not even informed about the preliminary work done by the investigating authorities. In most cases, the investigations are not being continued for fear of exposing the real crime”, mentioned the human rights defender.
During the press conference, Artur Sakunts also touched on the fact that many of the diseases which previously precluded serving in the military service, like third category diseases such as flat-feet syndrome, are now included for call-up, whereas they were on the unaccepted list 3-4 years ago. Now, those individuals who have flat-feet syndrome, visual, mental or other problems are called to serve in the military.
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