Soldiers Go AWOL in Akhaltsikhe

Civil Georgia (Tbilisi)
2005-05-04

News broke on May 3 that 12 servicemen abandoned their military unit
in Akhaltsikhe and went AWOL claiming they were subjected to human
rights abuse and intimidation from officers and other servicemen of
the military unit.

All of these servicemen are residents of Akhalkalaki, a town in
southern Georgia region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, which is predominately
populated by ethnic Armenians.

Rustavi 2 television interviewed several of these AWOL servicemen on
May 3. Private, with the second name Barbarian, said in an interview:
“we were beaten up [in the military unit]; we were frequently told why
we speak in Armenian and not in Georgian. But I do not know Georgian.”
Another private complained that officers were intimidating him and
demanding money.

No official comment has been made by the Georgian Defense Ministry yet.

The Georgian Public Defender’s Office has already launched probe into
the case. “I have talked with [official from] the Defense Ministry and
I think we can find some solution to this problem,” Sozar Subeliani,
the Public Defender, told Rustavi 2 television on May 3.

Civil.Ge (UNAG online Magazine)