ARMENIA: WILL ALTERNATIVE SERVICE REFORM KEEP JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES OUT OF JAIL?
EurasiaNet.org, NY
March 19 2013
by Gayane Abrahamyan
Amid ongoing tension with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh peace
process, controversy is growing in Armenia about a proposal that
would liberalize the terms of alternative service for religiously
motivated conscientious objectors to the draft.
Under Armenian law, all men between the ages of 18 and 27 are
required to serve two years in the armed forces. Although Armenia
has had a law on alternative service since 2004, its provisions have
“not been applied in practice,” asserted human rights activist Avetik
Ishkhanian. Men who refuse for religious reasons to perform alternative
service under the supervision of military personnel often have received
prison terms.
Members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses – a Christian-oriented sect that
espouses millennial beliefs and whose members shun military service –
have been particularly affected: Over the past decade, 274 Jehovah’s
Witnesses have done jail time for failing to fulfill alternative
service obligations, according to Ishkhanian. The Armenian government
has long been under international pressure to scrap the practice of
jailing conscientious objectors. In November 2012, the European Court
of Human Rights ordered the Armenian government to pay 112,000 euros
($142,338) in damages to 19 Jehovah’s Witnesses who were so treated.
The Armenian parliament approved the alternative service amendments
in their first reading on March 18 by a 103-1 vote. After the vote,
MPs sent the amendments back to the government for some tweaking. No
information was immediately available about what changes the MPs
were seeking.
The lone MP to vote against the amendments was Shushan Petrosian,
a member of the governing Republican Party who is also a well-known
singer. “This is an issue when I just can’t agree with the government
and with my party colleagues, ” Petrosian said. “My belief is that
every boy who has no health problem should serve in the Armenian army.”
Under the amendments in their present form, military personnel would
no longer supervise work done as an alternative to military service,
and the number of required months of alternative service would be
reduced to 30 from 42. “We need this law because the one we have is
not effective, and at this moment more than 80 people have preferred to
go to prison and are now in penitentiaries, rather than do alternative
service,” Justice Minister Hrayr Tovmasian commented to EurasiaNet.org.
For Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesperson Tigran Harutyunian, the amendments
offer a welcome break from the past, when believers had to opt
for either a three-year prison term, or alternative service that
“contradicted their religious beliefs” and involved “humiliating”
working conditions. Alternative service currently includes street
cleaning, as well as hospital maintenance and guard work, mostly in
psychiatric hospitals. District military officers are required to
supervise the work done at least once a day. “We are hoping now that
there will, in fact, be an alternative,” said Harutiunian.
Not all members of the governing Republican Party of Armenia are
content with the potential changes. Concerns persist, amid a rise
in Karabakh ceasefire violations, that Armenia cannot afford to let
able-bodied men to avoid military service. When Justice Minister
Tovmasian submitted the amendments to parliament on February 27, MP
Hayk Babukhanian complained that the amendments would give a “green
light” to “sectarians” to effectively draft-dodge. Babukhanian and
other Republican Party MPs predict that many young Armenian men will
join religious groups specifically to avoid military service.
“The growth of sect numbers in our country is already a matter of
national security,” Babukhanian told EurasiaNet.org. He claimed that
“various research” shows that “300,000 to 350,000 Armenians today
belong to some denominations.
Human rights advocate Avetik Ishkhanian cited Babukhanian’s comments on
sects to point out “how intolerant our lawmakers are toward religious
minorities.” Armenia has no state religion, but the Armenian Apostolic
Church is viewed as central to the country’s historical identity.
While some Republican Party MPs are clearly disgruntled, senior party
leaders in parliament, such as Koryun Nahapetian, chair of the Standing
Committee on National Security and Internal Affairs, are strongly
supportive. “These legislative changes and amendments of some other
related laws will guarantee that the law [on alternative service]
truly serves its purpose,” Nahapetian said. “After all, the right
to freedom of religion and conscience is first of all established in
the Constitution of Armenia, and it is our duty to protect it.”
Some human rights activists believe that the government is less
interested in defending civil rights than it is in avoiding additional
negative rulings by international courts. “The government is not
worried about protecting the rights of religious minorities, but
is seriously concerned about the cases it has been losing,” said
Mikael Danielian, chairperson of the Helsinki Association, a human
rights watchdog.
Independent MP Edmon Marukian, who, as a human rights activist in
2003, took part in discussions about the alternative-service law,
contends that the government has only itself to blame for the costs
incurred. “It was clear right from the beginning that … people
will refuse to serve on religious grounds, and, rather than creating
favorable conditions to use their potential somewhere else, the
state has convicted them, used taxpayers’ money to keep them in
penitentiaries, and is now paying 100,000 euros in compensation for
illegal imprisonment,” Marukian said.
The parliamentary debate over the amendments is continuing, but
Marukian feels certain they will be adopted. “After all, it’s a
government project, and [the Republicans] make up the government,
so they won’t go against it.”
Editor’s note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com
in Yerevan.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66709