SOME PEOPLE DON’T SURVIVE
Naira Hayrumyan
Lragir.am News
13:41:00 – 31/08/2011
Tomorrow, the first protest of the Army Without Murderers Initiative
will be held in front of the House of Government. More than 500 people
have joined it.
Tomorrow is the day of the next session of the government. Sessions,
as a rule, are accompanied with protests of families of servicemen
killed at peace time, owners of expropriated kiosks who were left
jobless, as well as other social and civil groups.
Usually, protests are not populous though sometimes they are marked
by clashes with the police. The presence of protesters in front of
the House of Government gets on the nerves of the ministers. Some of
them try to avoid protesters, they walk by without looking at them,
whereas there have been cases when the protesters were shown the
gesture with three fingers. The number of people at the House of
Government could be a handy tool.
The recently revived discussion on the army caused a new wave
of protest. Though, some people insist it as an anti-army and
anti-patriotic movement, the Facebook group is not against the army,
it is against cruel murderers serving there.
The recent deaths of servicemen shocked the society. More and more
people demand resignation of the Minister of Defense. The Minister
had to describe the latest case as murder. As of now, almost all the
cases have been qualified as caused suicides, though nobody has been
prosecuted for causing to commit a suicide.
If the army leadership covers up those who beat soldiers to death or
cause them to commit a suicide, it means it needs these people. No
accident, no official statistics on murders and suicides in the army
has ever appeared in press, which would enable tracking dynamics
of occurrences and drawing conclusions on the efficiency of the
leadership.
Any incident in the army is a tragedy, but it is obvious that among
hundreds of thousands of men such incidents are inevitable. The
question is whether any steps are taken to reduce these cases,
whether the number of these cases decreases or increases, whether
the army leadership is interested in revelation of criminals and in
protection of rights of servicemen.
Unfortunately, the army leadership discloses no statistics. As far
as we know, the Ministry of Defense has refused a NGOs request for
statistics referring to military confidentiality.
What military confidentiality could be there if press reports such
cases almost every day? The fact that they hide statistics causes
suspicion that incidents tend to grow, while the army leadership is
reluctant to sign under this statistics.
Some steps to prevent violence in the army are, of course, undertaken.
Most officers admit they hold their breath as their home telephone
rings, fearing to hear news on another suicide or mockery. The greater
part of officers, each with their own conscience and outlook, tries
to establish order in their units. But they understand that something
is wrong with the foundation of the system.
The army where young men are supposed to defend their homeland is a
prison of low security where young men are allegedly taught how to
“survive”. But sometimes the experience of survival leads to a trauma,
revenge, an inhibition, and some people just don’t survive.
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