COE ABOUT ARMENIAN ARMED FORCES
A1+
06:07 pm 14 March, 2006
Today during a meeting of the Legal Affairs Committee in Paris PACE
rapporteur on human rights of members of the armed forces, Alexander
Arabadjiev (Bulgaria, SOC) presented adoption of his report. Here is
the part concerning Armenia.
In Armenia, NGOs continue to condemn the infliction of violence and
initiation rites on young conscripts. The situation of conscripts
in the armed forces has been monitored by the rapporteurs of the
Assembly’s Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments
by Member States of the Council of Europe.
In 2003, the Chief of Staff of Armenia’s Armed Forces acknowledged
that around 10 cases of dedovshchina still occurred each year. The
Ministry of Defence admitted 56 non-combat deaths in 2001, and 33
during the first half of 2002. NGOs report 64 deaths for 2003. The
US Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2003
mentions official figures according to which 35 soldiers died in the
army in 2003; 9 of these deaths resulted from hazing.
Moreover, young conscripts who are homosexual, Yezidi and Jehovah’s
Witnesses reported that they were singled out for harassment or abuse
by officers and other conscripts . Refusal to serve is a widespread
phenomenon: material and living conditions in the armed forces are
very poor, and, moreover, conscripts may be sent to Nagorno-Karabakh
or neighbouring regions.