Report: During 2010 42 death cases occurred in the Armenian Army
00:00, February 22, 2011 | Press Release | Right to Life, Rights of Soldiers/Recruits | Armed Forces
Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor has published statistics of death cases in military service during 2010.
The NGO claims that 42 death cases occurred in the army; however, the Ministry of Defense disseminated official communications regarding only 10 of them. While presenting its report at the round-table discussion on “Human Rights Protection in the Army” held in Yerevan on February 22, 2011, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor stated that most of the cases were as a result of violations of statutory relationships. Representatives of the NGO sector, who participated in the discussion, claim that army officers are protected and exonerated from liability because of an atmosphere of impunity in the army.
Virab Khachatryan, Leading Expert of the Staff of the RA Deputy Minister of Defense does not agree with the statement that an atmosphere of impunity exists in the army. He also claims that the Ministry acknowledged the issue of holding offenders responsible by noting that it was a good means of building trust. Advocate Tigran Muradyan representing the family of a deceased serviceman, Sergey Manukyan’s, spoke about the case of the victim by stating, “The officials degraded and beat him so severely that the serviceman committed a suicide. A soldier is dead but one of the officials is still free.” The representative of RA Deputy Minister of Defense responded, “There are no recorded cases where the offenders were not held responsible. I don’t want to discuss how the investigations were carried out or what penalties were given, as my service ethics won’t allow me to speak about it.” The death cases of several servicemen were presented and representatives from The Ministry of Defense expressed their viewpoints. An appeal to establish society – army cooperation was proposed.
Responding to the previous perspectives, Davit Amiryan-Deputy Director for Programs of “Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation Armenia”stated in his speech, “42 victims died aged 18-20. I think human life is above all such matters. Any explanations, concepts and appeals will be additional means of constructive work.”