Armenian human rights activists: The atmosphere of impunity reigns in the army
"The human rights situation in the armed forces of Armenia can be assessed as 'stable, continuously bad'."
According to Armenian mass media, the head of the Helsinki Civil Assembly Vanadzor office Arthur Sakunts made the due statement during the discussion on Friday, January 26.
"There is no mechanism for submitting complaints in case of violation of statutory relations. Therefore, we proposed the institution of a military ombudsman to deal with complaints about human rights violations in the army. The proposal, however, was not accepted. There is an "institution of caretakers", which are called "yahshis". No decisions are made in this regard. Courses are being organized, but mechanisms are needed to solve problems," the human rights activist said.
Human rights activist Janna Alexanian agreed with him, noting that the atmosphere of impunity in the Armenian army persists.
"When a Facebook user wrote that a conscript who had served 8 days threw himself out of the window and the spokesman of the Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan confirmed that the investigation is being conducted, we immediately visited this family. Prior to our visit, pro-government media wrote that the guy did not want to serve. I'm sure it was directed by the ministry. But our visit showed the opposite picture: the guy was leaving to serve with a great joy. I cite this example because I never noticed that the Ministry of Defense sought to disclose the incident. They should start a public discussion, establish the circumstances, find out what could have reduced the draftee to such a state in a week. This shows that the atmosphere of impunity persists in the army," Alexanian concluded.
News.Az
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