FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

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11 December 2008
ARMENIA: IMPRISONMENT OF SOME 80 CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS "NOT A HUMAN
RIGHTS ISSUE"
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Armenia’s Foreign and Justice Ministries have denied to Forum 18 News
Service that the country’s alternative to military service is also under
military control. Karine Soudjian, who heads the Human Rights Department in
the Foreign Ministry, insisted to Forum 18 that the current Alternative
Service Law has "no contradiction" with Armenia’s international human
rights obligations, including to the Council of Europe. But the Council of
Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg says the Law "does not
provide for a genuine civilian service as the service is still managed and
supervised by the Ministry of Defence". Soudjian says the imprisonment of
some 80 Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objectors – a figure she disputes –
"is not a human rights issue". Parliamentary deputy David Harutyunyan told
Forum 18 the Law has "room for improvement" and is being discussed in two
parliamentary committees, but declined to spell out what changes are being
discussed. Jehovah’s Witnesses fear that if the system does not change, at
least a further 15 young men will face trial from January.
* See full article below. *

12 December 2008
KAZAKHSTAN: SECRET POLICE RAID, FILM AND INVESTIGATE BELIEVERS
le_id=1229
A Protestant church’s Sunday afternoon prayer meeting in the town of Aral
in October was raided by police and secret police without a warrant, church
members told Forum 18 News Service. Officers filmed those present without
their consent, summoned seven of them to the police station and tried to
prosecute the leader, Indira Bukharbaeva, on administrative charges. But
she was acquitted in December. Public Prosecutor Abdukarim Abdullaev told
Forum 18 it was too sensitive to discuss by phone whether measures would be
taken over the unauthorised filming of the church meeting. Meanwhile the
secret police in Taraz have lodged serious criminal charges against
Protestant pastor Sarybai Tanabaev for "inciting religious intolerance"
over two sermons he gave. One recording was confiscated from one church and
the other apparently covertly made by the secret police. The secret police
officer involved in the case, Major Mukhamedjan Paezov, told Forum 18 the
case was initiated from the capital Astana and is being run from there.

9 December 2008
RUSSIA: WHY WEREN’T VIOLENT CHURCH ATTACKERS CONVICTED?
cle_id=1227
None of the alleged participants in two violent attacks on a Pentecostal
church – by three people in the first attack and eight people in the second
attack – has gained either a criminal or administrative record for the
attacks, Forum 18 News Service has found. Asked why, given the seriousness
of the attacks, no criminal case had been launched and no criminal trial
had taken place, a senior investigatory official responded: "That’s your
subjective view." Only one attacker – Oleg Sumarukov – appears to have had
any form of official action taken against him. However, a local newspaper
thought to have encouraged the April 2008 attacks was given an official
warning. During the attacks, slogans such as "Sectarians are everywhere!"
and "You must be destroyed!" were shouted, parishoners were threatened with
a pistol, the pastor was beaten up and threats were made to murder him, and
a threat of an arson attack on the church was made. The attackers also
tried to intimidate the church not to call the police. There have, however,
been no attacks on the church since, and local police "even visit from time
to time to check we’re OK," a Pentecostal told Forum 18.

11 December 2008
ARMENIA: IMPRISONMENT OF SOME 80 CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS "NOT A HUMAN
RIGHTS ISSUE"

ticle_id=1228
By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service <;

Despite the call back in April by the Council of Europe’s Human Rights
Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg for Armenia to free all its imprisoned
conscientious objectors, those who cannot serve in the army or perform the
alternative service under military control currently being offered continue
to be arrested and sentenced, Forum 18 News Service has found. Some 80
conscientious objectors – all of them Jehovah’s Witnesses – are now
imprisoned. The current Alternative Service Law "does not provide for a
genuine civilian service as the service is still managed and supervised by
the Ministry of Defence," Hammarberg complained.

Lyova Markaryan of the Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 from the capital
Yerevan on 10 December that they have been able to meet officials to
resolve some issues, but that "nothing is clear" about whether the
Alternative Service Law will be amended to meet Armenia’s international
commitments. He fears that if there is no change, the number of prisoners
could soon rise sharply. "Cases are underway against more than 15
individual Jehovah’s Witnesses and unless there is any change their trials
could begin as early as January."

Parliamentary deputy David Harutyunyan told Forum 18 that two
parliamentary committees – the state and law committee (which he chairs)
and the human rights committee – are "discussing ways to improve the law".
"It’s questionable whether the Law provides a civilian alternative service
or not," he told Forum 18 from Yerevan on 9 December, "but there is still
room for improvement." He blamed "misunderstandings" on both sides for the
continuing imprisonment of conscientious objectors and said a solution will
be found. He stressed that alternative service must be free of military
control, but not free of state control.

Harutyunyan refused to specify what changes to the Law or to procedures
are being discussed or any timetable for any changes.

However, Karine Soudjian, who heads the Human Rights Department in the
Foreign Ministry, insisted to Forum 18 from Yerevan on 9 December that the
current Alternative Service Law has "no contradiction" with Armenia’s
international human rights obligations, including to the Council of Europe.

As of 1 November, 78 Jehovah’s Witnesses were serving prison sentences of
between one and three years for refusing military service on grounds of
religious conscience, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. All had been
sentenced under Article 327, Part 1 of the Criminal Code, which punishes
evasion of the call-up to military or alternative service. The maximum
sentence under this article was increased to three years’ imprisonment in
December 2005. One other Jehovah’s Witness was serving a suspended two-year
sentence.

As of 1 November, a further two Jehovah’s Witnesses were in pre-trial
detention in Nubarashen near Yerevan: Tigran Melikyan, who was arrested on
30 July, and Grisha Ohanjanyan, who was arrested on 13 October.

Soudjian of the Foreign Ministry dismissed the information Forum 18 had
received about the number of imprisoned Jehovah’s Witness conscientious
objectors. "This is not the real figure – you have bad information." Asked
what she believes the current figure is, she said: "We haven’t any figure."
Asked why the Human Rights Department does not seek out this information,
given that a Council of Europe commitment is to free these prisoners and
introduce a fully civilian alternative service, she told Forum 18: "This is
not a human rights issue."

Unlike representatives of the Foreign Ministry, Armenia’s Justice Ministry
does admit that Jehovah’s Witnesses who cannot serve in the military on
grounds of religious conscience are in prison. However, Lana Mshetsyan,
spokesperson of the Justice Ministry, insisted to Forum 18 back in October
that the situation for the then 86 Jehovah’s Witness prisoners was
"different", saying that they were imprisoned for refusing the alternative
service being offered. She denied absolutely that the alternative service
is under military control and believes it is adequate for those who cannot
serve in the military. "So they are not ‘prisoners of conscience’ at all,"
she told Forum 18.

The number of imprisoned conscientious objectors has barely changed over
the past year. As of September 2007, a total of 82 Jehovah’s Witnesses were
in prison serving sentences or awaiting trial. As well as the hundreds of
Jehovah’s Witness prisoners in recent years, a young Molokan Pavel
Karavanov was freed from prison in 2006 after serving a sentence for
refusing military and alternative service on grounds of religious
conscience. Molokans are a Russian Protestant church, established in the
17th century and known for their pacifism. There are about 4,000 Molokans
in Armenia (see F18News 26 September 2007
< e_id=1024>).

Soudjian of the Foreign Ministry claimed to Forum 18 that the Alternative
Service Law adopted in 2003 and amended in 2004 and 2006 meets the
obligations Armenia took on itself when it joined the Council of Europe in
2001. However, the failure to free imprisoned conscientious objectors and
introduce a civilian alternative service by 2004 has drawn repeated
criticism from officials of the Council of Europe, as well as of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The Council of Europe also criticised the length of the alternative
service (42 months compared to 24 months’ military service), a criticism
repeated by Commissioner Hammarberg in April, who described it as "far too
long".

Markaryan of the Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 that he and his
colleagues have met officials to try to help them understand the Jehovah’s
Witnesses’ position. He said they met Deputy Defence Minister Ara Nazaryan
in late November. "He told us at the end that he understood that we want an
alternative civilian service," Markaryan reported. "At the moment officials
are listening and we believe they understand what we want. But we don’t
know what reaction there will be."

Markaryan and other Jehovah’s Witnesses insist that the alternative
service now on offer remains under military control. "This became clear
back in 2004 when 22 of our young men tried it. There has been no change in
procedures since then." The 22 abandoned the service when they saw it was
under military control and were subsequently imprisoned.

Markaryan pointed out that participants are given military record books
where they are described as soldiers, are checked up on each week by the
military and need permission from the military to go on leave. Article 14
of the Alternative Service Law says that the military organises the
alternative service call-up, while Article 13 says that individuals are
assigned to their place of work by the military. Article 18 subjects those
doing alternative service to the army’s Code of Rules. Article 21 treats
those who desert from the army and those who abandon alternative service in
exactly the same way.

However, Markaryan does note two areas of progress. He said that at a
meeting in spring 2008 with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Deputy Prosecutor General,
Aram Tamazyan, said that those awaiting trial on charges of refusing
military and alternative service would no longer be held in pre-trial
detention. They would instead only be detained in the courtroom if found
guilty. "This is only half-being implemented – it seems not all local
prosecutors know about this," Markaryan told Forum 18. "But it is some
improvement."

Tamazyan confirmed that he had met the Jehovah’s Witnesses to discuss the
issue of pre-trial detention. But he insisted to Forum 18 on 10 December
that those awaiting trial for refusing military and alternative service are
treated the same regardless of which region of the country they live in. He
declined to discuss the two current cases where Jehovah’s Witnesses are
being held in pre-trial detention, one of them for more than four months.

Markaryan also noted that the previous practice of denying military cards
to those who have served terms of imprisonment for refusing military and
alternative service has now ended after Jehovah’s Witnesses met the Defence
Minister Seyran Ohanyan in summer 2008. Ohanyan then instructed all
military commissariats to issue such cards, a process that began soon
after. Markaryan said all their former prisoners now have such cards.

"This was a real problem. Without the military card the young men could
not register their place of residence," Markaryan told Forum 18, "and
without a registered place of residence they couldn’t get an identity card
or passport. So they couldn’t get a job in the government, couldn’t leave
the country and couldn’t even get married!" (END)

Further coverage of Armenian-related religious freedom issues is at
< mp;religion=all&country=21&results=50>

A printer-friendly map of Armenia is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=armeni& gt;
(END)

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