Government wants to ensure call-up, return its students to motherland but adopts “well-off’s” law: Sakunts
09:37, January 24, 2014 | News, Other news | Rights of Soldiers/Recruits | Armed Forces
By initiating a draft law on making amendments to the RA law on Military Obligation and introducing “pledging” institute in it, on one hand the government attempts to solve the army recruitment issue and on the other hand to return young men studying broad back to motherland, but it is merely a law for “the well-off”, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Artur Sakunts shared such an evaluation in a talk with Tert.am.
“The problem is that the well-off can enjoy that chance, those, who have a chance to pledge money, real and personal property. Thus, this a law conditioned by social polarization, which can be enjoyed only by wealthy people”, said the human rights activist.
The draft law on making amendments to the law on Military Obligation, which is included on the draft agenda of tomorrow’s session of the Government, foresees making amendments to Part 1, Article 14 of HO-250 law on Military Obligation dated on September 16, 1998.
Those amendments set forth that henceforth a deferment from compulsory military service call-up will be granted to the students of higher educational institutions of foreign countries through interstate and interagency agreements and students enrolled in residency, internship, Master’s or PhD programs to continue their study only in cases and procedure as defined by the Republic of Armenia, which nothing else but introducing a pledge ensuring the implementation of students’ obligations”.
The attached report reads that as a result of adopting the draft, relevant legislative grounds are expected to be formed aimed to exclude the cases of turning study in foreign educational institutions as a means of evasion from compulsory military service expecting that study in foreign universities will be directed at only satisfaction of a person’s educational needs. In the meantime, the adoption of the draft will to some extent contribute to the effectiveness increase of call-up administration in the given conditions of presence of limited resources of draftees.
The Government has analyzed and assessed the situation that recently the vast majority of applicants willing to study within the frames of the RA interstate and interagency agreements are male citizens and that “the motive for the phenomenon is basically the chance of evading obligatory military service, which in its turn contributes to the migration and creates grounds not to return to motherland”.
Whereas, according to the Government, the granting of a deferment upon signing a pledging agreement ensuring the performance of obligations will provide a safeguard to return to the Republic of Armenia, to implement the constitutional obligations and invest the obtained knowledge in the RA.
Addressing the aforementioned draft law the human rights activist noted that he did not welcome the adoption of legislation brining in any restriction-coercion force.
“It is stupidity to deprive a person of a chance to get education. As the most vivid proof of it, I can bring the case of world-known violinist Sergey Khachatryan, when it came to filing a criminal cases against him for alleged evasion from military service”, added the human rights activist.
Source: http://www.tert.am/am/news/2014/01/22/zinapartutiun/