SOLDIERS REFUSE ALTERNATIVE MILITARY SERVICE
Support A1+!«The people preferring alternative military service are also Armenians. The society and the military men must not have negative attitude towards them», said Avetik Ishkhanyan, head of the Armenian Helsinki Committee. He is surprised by the fact that the Government does not want to amend the RA Law on “Alternative Military Service” which was adopted in 2004.
Today by the initiative of the «Cooperation for Open Society» organized a discussion about the problem in which besides non-governmental organizations representatives of the OSCE Yerevan office and the Ministry of Defense took part. Ministry of Defense Juridical Administration head Sedrak Sedrakyan informed that at present 24 RA citizens are in alternative military service. 11 of them have applied to the commanders saying that they refuse to continue their service. The reason was that the officers make them do duties proper to soldiers and thus violate the law and their religious convictions.
Yesterday 4 alternative servers left their place of service in the Vardenis for the same reasons. They will be put to Military tribunal, as according to the law the punishments for the alternative and traditional servers are the same.
According to the Armenian Helsinki Committee the Law must be amended as soon as possible. Particularly, the date of 42 months for the alternative servers must be reduced by at least 6 months. Also the mark on their uniforms «Alternative server» must be eliminated, and, which is most important, their service must be regulated not by military, but by civic organs.
