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Army draft reform controversy
Critics of military conscription reform say it does not go far enough
By Janna Alexanian
Armenianow.com (01.11.2003)/ HRWF Int. (03.11.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net/ - Email: info@hrwf.net - New legislation allowing Armenia's conscripts an alternative to front line service, has met with domestic and international criticism.
The long-awaited reforms will enable those who object to national service on religious grounds to take on a non-combat military role, but critics argue that the changes are too limited to represent any kind of significant improvement in the country's conscription programme.
The reforms, currently being debate in parliament, signal a move towards the phasing out of compulsory military service in line with Council of Europe membership requirements.
Under the new legislation, young men objecting to conscription for religious reasons are to take up auxiliary positions in the military, but have to serve for three and half years instead of the standard two, because, it is argued, their average working day will be shorter.
Those who opt for this alternative will be precluded from working in law enforcement or the judiciary.
"Unlike the classic European model of providing alternatives to army service, our version can best be described as 'military service without weapons'," said vice speaker of the Armenian parliament Vahan Hovannisian, who co-authored the legislation.
But many ordinary Armenians, opposition parties, local NGOs and international organisations believe that the reforms do not go far enough.
"We had very different expectations about this alternative to military service. It should be civilian. The whole idea is to serve the community in valuable ways other than through the military. This law has failed to give our children such an option," said prominent academic Levon Karapetian.
"This bill is unacceptable," said Mikael Danielian, chairman of the Helsinki Assembly. "We should be talking about a true alternative to military service. Armenia has pledged to the Council of Europe to bring its legislation into conformity with European standards, but there is a vast gulf between this law and the European standards."
Christine Martirosian, who works with the Organisation of Security and Cooperation, OSCE, in Yerevan, said the new form of conscription should not only be civilian in nature, but also equal in length to conventional army service. She and others believe extending the former smacks of punishment for not opting for the latter.
Viktor Dallakian, secretary of the opposition Ardarutiun (Justice) bloc, said excluding those who choose to take up an auxiliary role in the army from working in the judiciary or in law enforcement is a flagrant violation of basic human rights.
The government's decision not to introduce more liberal legislation stems from Armenia's continuing dispute with Azerbaijan over the Karabakh region, which requires the army to be on alert and at optimum strength.
"Armenia cannot afford to be more liberal on the issue than Azerbaijan," said Mher Shahgeldian, chairman of a parliamentary commission on defence, national security and internal affairs. "Both nations' alternative service laws should be equal."
"Our army is recruited through sweeping conscription," said Hovannisian. "That is why our alternative service will not be civilian in nature."
Even opposition politician Viktor Dallakian, who is critical of the bill, pointed out to IWPR that if Armenia were to completely follow European advice all conscripts would say their religious convictions forbade them from joining the military.
Conditions in the Armenian army are hard and brutality is widespread, while conscientious objectors are reported to persecuted by the authorities.
In one of the most shocking incidents to date, Artiom Sargsian, who had led a series of student protests against the arbitrary cancellation of draft deferments, was beaten to death in army barracks in Vanadzor in February 2001, two months after being conscripted.
"The army is ruled by jailhouse law," said Armen Gasparian, a student at the Agricultural Academy. "Friends who've refused to obey it have been killed or maimed. If they give us another conscription law - this time disguised as an 'alternative service law' - nothing will ever change."
The Armenian public have long been critical of conditions in the military and many parents dread the day their sons receive their call-up papers.
"My son is in college in the United States and I'm awaiting his return with trepidation," said Maya Karapetian, a Yerevan resident "I don't want him to serve in today's army - it is a very unsafe environment. I'm only one of many parents who share this view."
No let-up in Jehovah's Witness sentences
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (09.10.2003)/ HRWF Int. (09.10.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net/ - Email: info@hrwf.net - Despite Armenia's commitments under the Council of Europe to free all conscientious objectors to military service, ten more Jehovah's Witness young men have been sentenced to terms of between one and two years under the new Criminal Code, which came into force on 1 August. Nine of the ten are now in labour camps, bringing to twenty-four the number of imprisoned Jehovah's Witnesses.
"All the conscientious objectors should have been freed in line with Armenia's commitments back in January 2001, when it joined the Council of Europe," Natalia Voutova, special representative in Armenia of the Council of Europe secretary general, told Forum 18 News Service from the capital Yerevan on 7 October. "We are aware that conscientious objectors are now being imprisoned under the new criminal code." She said the Council of Europe will keep up the pressure on Armenia for it to abide by its commitments.
Krzysztof Zyman of the Council of Europe's Directorate General of Human Rights is equally clear. "The Armenian government's practice of continuing to imprison conscientious objectors is a violation of the commitments to the Council of Europe Armenia took on when it joined in January 2001," he told Forum 18 from Strasbourg on 8 October.
However, Narine Nikolian, Armenia's deputy representative to the Council of Europe, vigorously denied this. "There were several amnesties and those who were imprisoned when Armenia joined were pardoned and freed," she told Forum 18 from Strasbourg on 7 October. "Those in prison now are different people."
She insisted that Armenia's constitution, which declares in Article 47 "Every citizen shall participate in the defence of the Republic of Armenia in a manner prescribed by law", currently requires young Armenian men to conduct military service and overrides any international commitment. She maintained that the continued sentencing of conscientious objectors cannot end until a new alternative service law is adopted. Parliament has just adopted such a law in a text that does not meet Council of Europe recommendations (see forthcoming F18News article).
The ten new Jehovah's Witness prisoners were sentenced under Article 327, part 1, of the new criminal code which declares: "Evading a recurring call to emergency military service, or educational or military training, without a legal basis for being relieved of this service, shall incur a fine in the amount of 300 to 500 minimum [monthly] wages or arrest for up to two months or imprisonment for up to two years."
First to be sentenced under the new article was Edgar Saroyan on 7 August, who received a two year sentence and is now in labour camp at Kosh near the town of Ashtarak. In quick succession came the sentencing of David Sahakyan (2 years), Artur Torosyan (1.5 years), Jora Keropyan (2 years), Mikael Manvelyan (2 years), Pavel Sarkisyan (1.5 years), Artur Kocharyan (1 year), Hracha Sarkisyan (1 year) and Mihran Unanyan (1.5 years). The most recent trial was of Andranik Mavetsyan, sentenced on 24 September to one year's imprisonment and now in labour camp at Nubarashen near Yerevan. While nine of the new prisoners are being held in labour camps, Kocharyan has not been imprisoned, but has been required to sign an undertaking not to leave his home.
These new prisoners join thirteen who are still serving sentences for refusing military service on religious grounds under the old criminal code.
A further three - Artyom Kazaryan, Kevork Chatyan and Ishkhan Namunts - are awaiting trial. Rustam Khachatryan, a lawyer for the Jehovah's Witnesses, told Forum 18 from Yerevan on 9 October that judge Nelli Kasparyan of Abovian regional court had said two days earlier that Namunts' trial is due to take place sometime around 25 or 27 October.
There are also seven other Jehovah's Witnesses who have been released early from their prison sentences but who are still under arrest in their homes. They have to report regularly to the local police and cannot leave their home town without permission until the end of their sentences.
Official figures put the number of conscientious objectors sentenced in the last three years at 150, the majority of them Jehovah's Witnesses.
Source: F18News http://www.forum18.org/
Jehovah's Witnesses take stand
Religious group threatens to sue government if it is refused legalisation
by Vahan Ishkhanian
IWPR (14.08.2003)/ HRWF Int. (19.08.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Jehovah's Witnesses in Armenia say they will take the government to court if it refuses yet again to grant them official status.
The minority Christian group will submit its latest application for registration on August 18. The request follows last year's appeal by the Council of Europe for the government to give the Jehovah's Witnesses legal recognition.
Under Armenian law, a religious organisation is illegal unless it is officially registered. The Jehovah's Witnesses have been denied registration repeatedly since they first applied in 1995.
The Jehovah's Witnesses say they have close to 8,000 followers in Armenia, and another 20,000 "sympathisers" or "potential followers".
In the Soviet era, they suffered years of persecution, and were forced to operate clandestinely. In 1986, Sergei Glebov was jailed for 12 months for refusing to do military service, to which Jehovah's Witnesses are opposed on pacifist grounds.
Although they no longer had to meet in secret after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, they have never been able to preach freely in Armenia. The group is unpopular with the country's main Apostolic Church, which resents "imported" Christian groups that might recruit its members. The Witnesses have continued to fall foul of the authorities because of their resistance to army conscription.
Until last year, the registration process was in the hands of the State Council on Religious Affairs. Lazar Sujian, former head of the council, told IWPR that the Jehovah's Witnesses were denied official status previously because of their proselytising, which he said was an offence under the law, and because they were conscientious objectors. However, a closer inspection of Armenian legislation reveals that there is no precise definition of "proselytising".
When the council was disbanded its duties passed to the government. Armenian media coverage has been universally negative, with the Jehovah's Witnesses denounced as a harmful force.
But not all ordinary Armenians agree. Arpi Voskanian, a college student, thinks it is only fair that the group should woo new recruits. "If they believe in their religion, they are bound to disseminate it," she said.
"I'm neutral about religion, but why put the Armenian Apostolic Church in a privileged position? Why does everyone help the Apostolic Church and you never get any objective information about the others, only abuse?" asked Voskanian.
The Jehovah's Witnesses had hoped that Armenia's accession to the Council of Europe in 2001 would force the government to soften its position, since the council demands that member states allow unrestricted freedom for all religious denominations.
In September 2002, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly expressly demanded that Armenia recognise the movement as a "legitimate religious organisation" - but the government simply ignored it.
Instead, pressure on the group increased. In July this year, the presidential Human Rights Commission issued two edicts which did further damage. One of them said that the human rights of Armenians, children in particular, were being infringed "as a result of proselytism and other illegal actions by certain sects". The other urged parliament to amend the penal code to punish proselytising and "other destructive activities" by religious organisations. The commission did not specify which groups it was referring to, but it clearly had the Jehovah's Witnesses in mind.
Hovanes Asrian, chairman of the presidential Human Rights Commission, defended the move, saying, "We've had instances when children were forced to join the Jehovah's Witnesses, and there was nothing the state could do about it."
But Mikael Danielian, a human rights activist who leads the Helsinki Association of Armenia, told IWPR, "These documents are intended to infringe the rights of Jehovah's Witnesses. They testify to the absence of freedom of worship in Armenia."
The most controversial case involved Levon Markarian, who was sent to trial on charges of proselytising among children without their parents' consent. The case passed through every stage of Armenia's judicial system, but ultimately fell through and Markarian was acquitted.
"The court made the wrong decision," said an unrepentant Asrian. The human rights commissioner went on to accuse the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, of putting pressure on the trial judges and acting like "a new Politburo for Armenia".
Kristina Martirosian, human rights officer with the OSCE's Yerevan office, said her organisation had actually exerted little influence. "The OSCE has sent innumerable letters about human rights violations to the Armenian government," she told IWPR. "But those letters fall on deaf ears and change nothing whatsoever."
Jehovah's Witnesses come into conflict with the authorities most often when they refuse to be conscripted. This is an offence under Armenian law, and some 150 members of the group have been convicted - many of them more than once - because of their staunch pacifism. Twenty-four are currently serving sentences, trial is pending for another eight, and seven more have recently been released but remain under house arrest.
"No one forces us to do this," Levon Markarian told IWPR. "It's the personal choice of every young man."
A new penal code which came into force on August 1 has reduced the severity of punishment for conscientious objectors - but only slightly. The maximum sentence has been reduced from three to two years, and judges may instead order a fine of more than 5,000 US dollars - a great deal of money in Armenia.
The government has so far opposed any form of alternative military service, variations on which are accepted across much of Europe. The Council of Europe stipulates that members should allow alternative schemes, and Russia recently initiated.
Not all Armenians agree that objecting to military service is a crime in itself - even if they are not keen on the Jehovah's Witnesses.
"That's their own business," said one pensioner. "All I want is for them to stop pestering me in the street and knocking on my door."
Vahan Ishkhanian is a reporter for the website www.armenianow.com.
Conscientious objection to military service
War Resisters International (09 July 2003) / HRWF Int. (11.08.2003) C Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Although Armenia is obliged to pass a law on conscientious objection because of its acceptance to the Council of Europe, such a law has not been passed yet. Armenia continues to imprison conscientious objectors for periods of up to 3 years. Most of those sent to prison are members of the religious community of the Jehovahs Witnesses. At the time of writing, War Resisters' International is aware of at least 32 imprisoned Jehovahs Witnesses. On 2 July, Araik Bedjanyan was sentenced to 1? years in a labour camp for evasion of active military service, and on 2 July two other Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested in Yerevan, and are now imprisoned in Nubarashen Labour Camp, awaiting to be tried for conscientious objection1. This is in breach of Armenias obligations, as expressed in Opinion 221 (2000) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (2), and accepted by Armenia.
Although Armenia partly fulfilled one of its obligations by passing an amnesty for imprisoned conscientious objectors in June 2001 C shortly after it was accepted to the Council of Europe C it continues to imprison conscientious objectors. The Council of Europe stated clearly that Armenia is obliged in the meantime,to pardon all conscientious objectors sentenced to prison terms or service in disciplinary battalions, allowing them instead to choose, when the law on alternative service has come into force to perform non-armed military service or alternative civilian service(3).
According to official statistics of the Ministry of Justice, 90 young men were sentenced on the charge of avoiding conscription in 2000, 75 in 2001, and 42 in the fist half of 20024. These figures show that the problem goes beyond just Jehovahs Witnesses.
The draft law on alternative service, which was presented in May 2003, would not improve the situation, it does not meet the standards set out in Council of Europe Recommendation 87 and UN Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1998/77.
According to this draft, alternative service would be 48 months, compared with 24 months military service, and therefore would need to be seen as punitive in length. In addition, any alternative service would be unarmed service within the military, thus not genuine civilian. Article 14 of the draft law refers to an oath of faith before the state flag of the Re public of Armenia, which also might not be consistent with the reasons for conscientious objection. Only members of registered religious organizations would be eligible for conscientious objection, which would not only rule out members of the Jehovahs Witnesses (as they cannot get registered in Armenia) (5), but also conscientious objectors for non-religious reasons. In addition, the religious beliefs of the official religion need to be in conflict with military service (6), which might be a problem for pacifist members of the Armenian Orthodox Church or of other churches, which as church don't oppose military service. War Resisters' International sent out several coalerts in cases of imprisonment of Armenian conscientious objectors, and included a number of Armenian conscientious objectors in its annual Prisoners for Peace Honour Roll (7).
1 Concodoc Project at War Resisters' International: Armenia: More conscientious objectors in prison, 8 July 2003, http://wri-irg.org/news/htdocs/20030708a.html
2 Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly: Opinion No. 221 (2000), Armenias application for membership of the Council of Europe.
http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/AdoptedText/a00/eopi221.htm; see especially Art 13 iv. d
3 see Opinion No. 221 (2000)
4 Vahan Ishkhanyan: Conscience on Trial: Jehovahs Witnesses continue to face imprisonment for religious beliefs. ArmeniaNow.com, 20 December 2002
5 Vahan Ishkanian, Helsinki Association for Human Rights: The Alternative of the Army is to flee. April 2002,
http://www.hahr.am/english/open4/obsarmyalt.htm.
6 The Republic of Armenia Law on Alternartive Service, draft, May 2003
7 See for example: Prisoners for Peace 2002, http://wriirg.org/news/2002/pfp02-en.htm#Heading9; Prisoners for Peace 2001, http://wri-irg.org/news/2001/pfp01-en.htm#list; Prisoners for Peace 2000, http://wri-irg.org/news/2000/pfp00-en.htm#List
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No change for Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors
by Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (08.07.2003)/ HRWF Int. (09.07.2003) Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Since the beginning of July one Jehovah's Witness has been sentenced to a year and a half in a labour camp and two more have been arrested and are now facing prosecution for refusing military service because of their religious beliefs, Jehovah's Witness lawyer Rustam Khachatryan told Forum 18 News Service. The sentence brings to 24 the number of Jehovah's Witness men now serving sentences for refusing military service, with a further eight awaiting trial. Seven more have been freed early from labour camp but remain at home under arrest and have to report regularly to police. While Hovhannes Asyryan, chairman of the presidential human rights commission told Forum 18 he was optimistic that parliament would adopt a new alternative service law this autumn in line with its commitment to the Council of Europe, Khachatryan was sceptical. "The authorities promise a lot but never fulfil their promises," he told Forum 18 on 8 July. "They promised to free all the Jehovah's Witnesses but they are still sentencing them. I see no change."
Araik Bedjanyan was sentenced in the northern town of Alaverdi on 2 July under Article 75 part 1 of the criminal code, which punishes "evasion of active military service" with a penalty of up to three years' imprisonment. He is now in labour camp at Vanadzor in northern Armenia. Suren Hakopyan and Artur Torosyan were arrested in the capital Yerevan on 3 July and are awaiting trial in the labour camp at Nubarashen near Yerevan.
Although the level of arrests and sentences of conscientious objectors fluctuates (see F18News 1 April 2003), April was a record month, with five Jehovah's Witnesses sentenced to labour camp terms ranging from one and a half to three years' imprisonment. By contrast there were no sentences in May, and only one Jehovah's Witness, Ashot Hakopyan, was sentenced in June.
Khachatryan points out that Article 75 part 1 will be replaced under the new criminal code by Article 327, which prescribes a punishment of up to two years. The new criminal code, adopted by parliament on 2 May, comes into force on 1 August. But he believes the change will not halt continued sentencing.
Asyryan repeatedly declined to say whether the continued sentencing of Jehovah's Witnesses violated Armenia's commitments to the Council of Europe. On accession in January 2001, Armenia had pledged to adopt a law on alternative service within three years and in the meantime to free all conscientious objectors from prison. He said that judges have to enforce the law as it stands at present and if the law conflicts with Armenia's obligations "it should be changed".
"The human rights commission supports the adoption of a law on alternative civilian service that would allow anyone who does not wish to serve in the army to conduct alternative service outside the framework of the army," Asyryan told Forum 18 from Yerevan on 8 July. He said his commission had proposed the adoption of an alternative service law even before Armenia's entry into the Council of Europe. "We can only lobby and propose," he declared. "Parliament decides."
Asyryan said the parliamentary defence and internal affairs committee is handling the draft new law and expected it to be presented to the new parliament after 9 September, when it resumes work after the summer recess. "The Council of Europe deadline is close. This must be done soon."
Khachatryan complained that even if the law was adopted, it was likely that alternative service would be far longer than military service (Council of Europe principles ban alternative service of "punitive" length). "People are saying that if there is a new law, any alternative service will be three and a half years. This is unacceptable."
The Jehovah's Witnesses C who claim some 7,500 adherents in Armenia and have been repeatedly denied registration as a religious organisation C are also sceptical that the authorities' ban on registration will be lifted.
In a report adopted on 13 December 2002 and made public on 8 July, the Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) criticised the Armenian authorities' attitude to the Jehovah's Witnesses as "unsatisfactory". "Firstly, ECRI considers that steps should be taken to solve the difficulties raised in connection with military service, so that conscientious objectors are provided with a civilian alternative service, the practice of imprisoning conscientious objectors is ceased, and any barriers to the registration of the Jehovah's Witnesses resulting from the issue of military service are removed," the report declared.
"ECRI also feels that the climate of opinion within society towards this group might be improved once it is seen that the authorities are not taking legal steps against them; in this context, ECRI also stresses the important role political and other leaders have to play in not using language or rhetoric which might increase societal prejudices against minority religions."
The ECRI said it was "pleased to learn" that the prosecution of Jehovah's Witness Levon Markaryan for "offences against the person" had been overturned in April 2002.
A police order issued last December insisted that no members of any faith other than the Armenian Apostolic Church are allowed to serve in the police, as such faiths are "totalitarian" and "destructive". The order C of which Forum 18 has received a copy - called for members of religious minorities to be identified and for "explanatory, educational" work to be conducted with them "so that they resign of their own freewill from membership of such religious organisations". If that fails, they are to be sacked. The order led to an attempt to sack Jehovah's Witness Zemfira Voskanyan from her job with the Lori regional police (see F18News 25 April 2003).
Forum 18's repeated fax enquiries to Edik Kazaryan, chief of staff of the National Police Service in Yerevan, have gone unanswered, while further calls to Nune Manukyan of the National Police Service secretariat on 8 July have been unable to establish whether the order is still in force.
Source: http://www.forum18.org
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Secret order banishes religious minorities from police
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (25.04.2003) / HRWF Int. (29.04.2003) Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Human rights activists, the Baptists and the Jehovah's Witnesses have criticised a secret order issued by the head of the police service last December banning members of religious minorities from working for the police. "This order is unconstitutional and violates human rights," Mikael Danielian, chairman of the Helsinki Association, told Forum 18 News Service from the Armenian capital Yerevan on 25 April. Officials are reluctant to discuss the issue. Asked by Forum 18 whether in the light of the order members of religious minorities can work for the police, Edik Kazaryan, chief of staff of the police service, responded: "This is the first I have heard of it, so I cannot reply to the question." He declined to answer any further questions over the telephone but promised an official response in writing.
Forum 18 contacted the secretariat of the police service in Yerevan on 25 April, but they declined a telephone interview with Lt-Gen Hayk Harutyunyan, the head of the police service who signed the order.
Colonel Arshaluis Budagyan, deputy head of the personnel department of the Lori regional police who had originally sacked Jehovah's Witness Zemfira Voskanyan in February on the basis of the order, told Forum 18 on 25 April that it applies to serving police officers, not to "technical staff" employed by the police. However, he refused to answer questions on why members of religious minorities cannot serve as police officers. "I haven't seen this order," he claimed. "I'm new in this job." He then put the phone down.
Echoing Danielian's criticisms of the order was Asatur Nahapetyan, general secretary of the Baptist Union. "We regard this order as very negative," he told Forum 18 from Yerevan on 25 April. He said he had first learnt about it back in January from Baptists who work in the police but had not seen a copy of the text. He regarded the order as part of a general pattern of obstruction to the activity of any religious group apart from the dominant Armenian Apostolic Church.
Drew Holiner, a Jehovah's Witness lawyer who defended Voskanyan in court, also vigorously condemned the order. "It is clearly discriminatory," he told Forum 18 from Yerevan on 23 April. "It requires dismissal in pretty unambiguous terms of those who belong to other groups than the Armenian Apostolic Church." He declared that such discrimination violates the Armenian Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European human rights convention.
The order, No. 551-A, signed by Lt-Gen Harutyunyan on 3 December, was apparently sent to all police departments. Employees of the police appear to have been given it to read soon after it was issued and some were required to sign it to say they had read and understood it. However, the order has not been published and Forum 18 has so far been unable to obtain a copy of it from the police service, from human rights community or from diplomatic sources in Yerevan.
On 18 April, local journalist Vahan Ishkhanyan published on the news website ArmeniaNow what he said were extracts from the order. He said that the order specified that police department employees who are members of any religion other than the Armenian Apostolic Church must be identified and those who do not recant their faith are subject to dismissal. According to the order, "unlike the Armenian traditional national Church, new religious movements and organisations represent corrosive totalitarian cults or sects. Their activities are directed against individuals and families as well as society."
Attempts by the Jehovah's Witnesses to obtain a copy of the order through the court failed. Likewise the Helsinki Association failed. "Our branch in Vanadzor asked the local police verbally for a copy of the order but they refused," Danielian declared.
Holiner objected not only to the content of the order but to the fact that it was unpublished. "Article 6 of the Armenian Constitution says that normative acts which are not published have no legal effect," he declared. "There is a question as to whether this order is valid."
Rustam Khachatryan, a Yerevan-based Jehovah's Witness lawyer, told Forum 18 on 23 April that Voskanyan is the first and so far only Jehovah's Witness to have been sacked as a result of the December order. "Some other Jehovah's Witnesses have left their jobs in the police because of the atmosphere, though not specifically because of the order."
Nahapetyan told Forum 18 that to his knowledge no Baptists had so far been dismissed from the police as a result of the order. "No-one has had any problems yet, but maybe that will come soon." An official of the Baha'i community in Yerevan also confirmed to Forum 18 on 25 April that none of their members had encountered problems as a result of the order. Nor had the Helsinki Association learnt of anyone apart from Voskanyan who had been sacked in the wake of the order.
The Helsinki Association plans in the coming days to work on having the order revoked, Danielian reported. "It is difficult to say whether we will be successful."
Source: http://www.forum18.org
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Police reinstate Jehovah's Witness
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (25.04.2003) / HRWF Int. (24.04.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - A Jehovah's Witness who was sacked from her job with the police in the wake of a secret December decree requiring members of minority faiths to be removed from the police (see separate F18News article) has regained her job. After Zemfira Voskanyan from Stepanavan in Armenia's northern Lori Region challenged her dismissal in court the police backed down. "We reinstated her in her job," Colonel Arshaluis Budagyan, deputy head of the Lori regional police personnel department who had originally sacked her, told Forum 18 News Service on 25 April. "She is back at her desk." He blamed a "mistake" for Voskanyan's dismissal, saying the order to remove non-Armenian Apostolic Church members from work in the police applies only to serving officers, not to support staff.
However, Drew Holiner, an American lawyer who works for the Jehovah's Witness centre near the Russian city of St Petersburg, who represented Voskanyan in court, remains concerned that she could still be removed from her job for her faith.
Voskanyan, who was sacked on 20 February as head of the accounts department of the Stepanavan police, had worked for the police for nearly two decades. She earns 23,000 drams (297 Norwegian kroner, 38 Euros or 42 US dollars) a month and says it is the only means of supporting her 13-year old son.
The police legal department's written decision to fire Voskanyan stated that she "is a member of Jehovah's Witnesses' religious and sectarian organisation. After work she participates at the religious lessons." It added that the dismissal followed Labour Code regulations for dismissing an employee when "incompatibility with the work status is detected".
"Your being a Jehovah's Witness and working in the police is incompatible," Colonel Budagyan reportedly declared.
Holiner reported that at the first hearing on 9 April at the Lori regional court Budagyan admitted that Voskanyan had been dismissed solely on the basis of her faith as a Jehovah's Witness. He based the dismissal on Order 551-A, issued by the head of the Armenian police, Lt-Gen. Haik Harutunyan on 3 December. Although Voskanyan's legal team asked the court to instruct the police service to make the text of this order available to them, the court refused. The case was then adjourned.
At the second hearing on 22 April, the police brought an order unilaterally restoring Voskanyan to her position and providing her with back pay for the months she had not been at work. "There's a certain aspect to this, though," Holiner warned. "The court terminated the proceedings saying there was no further basis for them." He told Forum 18 that Voskanyan was reinstated only on a formality: that the police had failed to consult her trade union. "It fails to remove the threat to her job caused by this discriminatory order," Holiner insisted. He said she is now considering a further appeal.
Members of religious minorities in Armenia - especially Jehovah's Witnesses - face strong popular dislike. The dominant Armenian Apostolic Church enjoys extensive influence over public policy.
Source: F18News http://www.forum18.org/
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Appeal court doubles Jehovah's Witness sentence
Forum 18 News Service (01.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (07.04.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: www.hrwf.net - The lawyer for Jehovah's Witness Hambartsum Odabashyan, whose sentence for refusing military service on grounds of his faith was doubled today (1 April) to three years in labour camp, has described the sentence as "illegal". "The court took no account of Armenia's obligations to the Council of Europe to end the sentencing of conscientious objectors," Razmik Khachaturyan told Forum 18 News Service. But foreign ministry spokeswoman Dziunik Agadjanian denied that the continuing sentencing of conscientious objectors has caused conflict with the Council of Europe. "It does not violate our commitments," she told Forum 18 and pledged that a "full stop" would be put to the practice of imprisoning conscientious objectors by the end of 2003. A Council of Europe official told Forum 18 that the Armenian authorities' claim that imprisoning conscientious objectors did not violate their commitments was "absurd". "It is unacceptable. How can this continued sentencing be in line with the commitments Armenia made?"
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