I write to express our concern regarding six Armenian citizens who are conscientious objectors and who are
currently imprisoned for refusal to do military service on religious grounds, or who are in hiding due to continued
harassment.
I write to express our concern regarding six Armenian citizens who are conscientious objectors and who are currently imprisoned for refusal to do military service on religious grounds, or who are in hiding due to continued harassment. There is no alternative service law in Armenia, and these cases are part of a broader pattern of systematic human rights violations against those who decline to perform military service due to their religious beliefs, which has persisted at least since 1993. This harassment, generally carried out by police and conscription commission officials, includes physical abuse and beatings of conscientious objectors, repeated visits by the conscription commission officials and police to family member's homes during early morning hours and at night, and warrantless searches of their homes. During these searches family members told Human Rights Watch that officials threaten and insult them because of their religious faith. In previous correspondence with you, we also documented hostage-taking of family members of conscientious objectors by police and conscription commission officials.
Karen Voskanyan, an eighteen-year-old resident of Mashtots District, Yerevan, currently imprisoned at the Ministry of Defense Disciplinary Battalion at Hrazdan.
In early May 1998, Mashtots District Conscription Commission officials detained Mr. Voskanyan at his home and took him to the conscription commission premises. Shortly after his arrival Mr. Voskanyan fled, and conscription officials then pursued him and detained him in the street in front of a nearby building. Mr. Voskanyan's lawyer reported to Human Rights Watch that officials beat him severely during his detention, so severely that one of the officials allegedly died of at the scene as a result of exertion. Upon hearing of the official's death, officials from the conscription commission are reported to have resumed beating Mr. Voskanyan in retaliation. Mr. Voskanyan's lawyer told Human Rights Watch that when Mr. Voskanyan's brother and mother, Haikan Sarkisyan, tried at one point to intervene to prevent the beating officials struck them as well.
Following the incident, Mr. Voskanyan was detained at the Yerevan Military Police Department, and on May 14, 1998, was conscripted and sent to military unit No. 56952 in Gumri, despite his statements that we was a conscientious objector on religious grounds. His lawyer stated that upon arrival at the unit, Mr. Voskanyan reiterated that he was a conscientious objector, and subsequently, two officials of the Gumri unit—officer Navoyan, and noncommissioned officer Harutuniyan—beat him and threatened him with a knife in attempt to coerce him into serving.
Mr. Voskanyan was tried and found guilty of willful refusal to perform military service (Article 257-a of the Armenian criminal code), at Gumri District Court. He is currently serving a sentence of three years in the Ministry of Defense Disciplinary Battalion at Hrazdan. At court, his lawyer stated that he raised the issue of the beating by Navoyan and Harutuniyan. During court proceedings, Mr. Voskanyan's lawyer reported that officer Navoyan admitted that he struck Mr. Voskanyan on the face, but denied he had threatened him with a knife. The judge refused to order military officials to discipline officer Navoyan, and declined to investigate the beating of Mr. Voskanyan's mother and brother by Mashtots District Conscription Commission officials.
Andranik Kosyan, a twenty-four-year-old resident of Vanadzor, currently imprisoned in Sovietashen Closed Prison.
On October 29, 1998, Mr. Kosyan was found guilty of evading required military service (Article 75 of the Armenian criminal code), and sentenced to two years imprisonment, which he is currently serving in Sovietashen Closed Prison.
This is Mr. Kosyan's second imprisonment for evading of military service. On March 17, 1997, he was tried and convicted of the same charges, and was sentenced to one year imprisonment. On May 22, 1997, he was released by amnesty. Two days after his release on May 24, 1997, he reported that he presented himself at the Vanadzor police station as Armenian law requires of released convicts, but was not able to register. On June 6, 1997, he indicated that he again presented himself at the police station, where he was detained and immediately conscripted into military unit No. 58831, despite his statements that he was a conscientious objector on religious grounds. On June 19, 1997, Mr. Kosyan was taken to the Yerevan Military Police Department where, he reported, he was threatened by officials including the deputy warden, who took away his religious literature and told him that he would be deliberately sent to an area with heavy fighting to force him to take up arms.
On August 30, 1997, he fled the Yerevan Military Police Department, but was detained again on January 12, 1998. On February 25, 1998, Mr. Kosyan's trial began at the Arabski District Court. His lawyer told Human Rights Watch that despite substantial medical evidence presented at court that Mr. Kosyan's health rendered him unfit to serve -- regardless of his status as a conscientious objector -- he was convicted of evading military service on October 29, 1998, and is currently imprisoned in Sovietashen Closed Prison.
Samvel Manukyan, a twenty-year-old resident of Yerevan, currently imprisoned in Kosh Corrective Labor Colony.
According to his lawyer, in December 1996, Mr. Manukyan was reportedly conscripted and taken to Konakir military unit No. 63858 in Yerevan, despite having declared himself a conscientious objector on religious grounds. He fled the unit on May 16, 1997, and was detained the same day. On July 15, 1997, he was convicted on Article 255-a, desertion, and sentenced to three years of imprisonment, which he is currently serving in Kosh Corrective Labor Colony.
Artur Stepanyan, a twenty-two-year-old resident of Yerevan, currently imprisoned in Kosh Corrective Labor Colony.
Former inmates of the Kosh Corrective Labor Colony told Human Rights Watch that Mr. Stepanyan is currently serving in the colony after having been tried and convicted of Article 255-a, desertion, after declaring himself a conscientious objector on religious grounds. The former inmates are Mr. Stepanyan's coreligionists who spoke and prayed with him regularly at the labor colony.
Artashes Alexanyan, a twenty-four-year-old resident of Yerevan, currently on conditional release.
Mr. Alexanyan was tried, convicted and sentenced in September 1994 for evading required military service (on Article 75) to one year in a corrective labor colony. Mr. Alexanyan told Human Rights Watch that after he served his sentence and was released, he was detained at home on December 14, 1996, at approximately 6:30 a.m. by officials of the Hortain District Conscription Commission and Hortain District Police. He stated that officials arrived at his home, searched it without a warrant, and, not finding him at home, threatened to physically abuse his father. Officials subsequently detained Mr. Alexanyan in a neighboring apartment. Mr. Alexanyan reported that he was detained in a cell at the Hortain District Conscription Commission after he stated that he was conscientious objector on religious grounds. On December 14, 1996, he was taken to the Yerordmas Military Induction Center in Yerevan, and forcibly conscripted.
On May 16, 1997, Mr. Alexanyan was tried and sentenced to four years of imprisonment for willful refusal to perform military service (Article 257). On May 31, 1997, during his transfer from the Vanadzor Investigative Isolator to Sovietashen Closed Prison in Yerevan by train, he stated he was beaten by guards on the train when they discovered he had been sentenced for willful refusal to perform military service . He reported to Human Rights Watch that he was again beaten by officials of Sovietashen Closed Prison upon his arrival after they learned of his conviction for refusal to do military service. He was later transferred to Sovietashen Corrective Labor Colony, and was released conditionally on May 16, 1998, a status that does not permit him to travel and requires him to present himself regularly to police officials.
Tigran Petrossyan, a twenty-one-year-old resident of Hortain district, Yerevan. Mr. Petrossyan was released on October 26, 1998, but has been forced into hiding due to continued harassment from Ministry of Defense conscription commission officials.
Mr. Petrossyan reported that he declared himself a conscientious objector in 1995. Mr. Petrossyan's mother, Avleta Garayan, told Human Rights Watch that subsequently she was repeatedly visited at her home by officials from the Soviet District Conscription Commission and the Yerevan military police, who threatened her and on one occasion told her that they intended to physically abuse her son once they detained him and conscripted him. In 1997, Mr. Petrossyan again declared to conscription officials his unwillingness to serve, and on August 21, 1997, was tried and sentenced to one year and six months on charges of evading required military service (Article 75).
After his conviction, Amnesty International identified Mr. Petrossyan as a prisoner of conscience. After serving in Kosh Corrective Labor Colony, Mr. Petrossyan was freed on October 26 under a general amnesty adopted in September 1998. Yet Mrs. Garayan reported to Human Rights Watch that three days after his release on October 29, Hortain District Conscription Commission officials visited their home at approximately 7:30 p.m., conducted a search without a warrant despite her objections, and threatened and insulted her and other visitors in the apartment. Mr. Petrossyan is currently in hiding.
We are aware, in addition to the six cases documented above, of at least fifteen individuals who have been subjected to similar treatment, and who are currently in hiding due to this systematic harassment. While some of these fifteen individuals were harassed and immediately forced into hiding, others were imprisoned, released and subsequently subjected to continued harassment following their release. We consider the harassment of prisoners who have already served sentences to be a particularly egregious example of abusive activity by Armenian officials.
The government of Armenia is obliged to respect the rights of conscientious objectors. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has recognized conscientious objection to military service as a legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion (Resolution 1989/59, and reaffirmed in Resolution 1993/84) . The Commission reinforced this position in 1995, when it called on U.N. member states to "...if they have not already done so, . . enact legislation and . . . take measures aimed at exemption from military service on the basis of a genuinely held conscientious objection to armed service ( Resolution 1995/83)." Moreover, the Council of Europe, to which Armenia now seeks accession, supports the right to conscientious objection. In 1987, the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers issued to all member states Recommendation No. R (87) 8, which states that "anyone liable to conscription for military service who, for compelling reasons of conscience, refuses to be involved in the use of arms, shall have the right to be released from the obligation to perform such service..." The Committee of Ministers concomitantly called on members states to adopt laws to support this right.
Human Rights Watch believes that domestic law should provide for alternative service based on religious or conscientious opposition to military service, and that each affected conscript should be permitted by law to secure a fair review of a claim of his right to engage in such alternative service. We view the lack of such a law and the harassment against conscientious objectors, described above, as a violation of Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which upholds the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and guarantees individuals the right to "manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice or teaching." Moreover, in view of the resolutions made by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, the detention of conscientious objectors in Armenia can be viewed only as arbitrary deprivation of liberty, which contravenes Article 9 of the ICCPR. Beating and other physical abuse of any individual is a gross violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR, which bans "torture or . . . cruel or degrading treatment or punishment."
We therefore urge you immediately to:
- release Karen Voskanyan, Andranik Kosyan and Artur Stepanyan from imprisonment;
- make Artashes Alexanyan's release unconditional;
- investigate and prosecute all allegations that Ministry of Defense conscription officials and police have carried out a systematic, widespread campaign of harassment that includes physical abuse and threats against conscientious objectors and their family members;
- adopt a law establishing alternative service to military service for those who declare themselves conscientious objectors, and begin immediate implementation of the law after its adoption.
We thank you for your attention to these urgent concerns and welcome your reply.
Sincerely,
/s/
Holly Cartner
Executive Director
Europe and Central Asia Division
Human Rights Watch
cc:
Mme. Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mr. Nigel Rodley, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture
Mr. Jan Kleijssen, Co-Secretary, Council of Europe
Mr. Guy Du Four, Co-Secretary, Council of Europe
Mme. Danielle Coin, Co-Secretary, Council of Europe
Mr. Petr Sich, Co-Secretary, Council of Europe
Amb. Gerard Stoudmann, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
Amb. John Mitchiner, U.K. Embassy Yerevan
Amb. Michel Legras, French Embassy Yerevan
Amb. Carola Muller-Holtkemper, German Embassy Yerevan
Amb. Michael Lemmon, U.S. Embassy Yerevan
