ARMENIA: New wave of Jehovah's Witness sentences begins

23 September 2005
Forum 18 News Service
By Felix Corley, Editor

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All 22 Jehovah's Witnesses who abandoned their alternative military service because it remains under defence ministry control and does not provide a genuine civilian alternative to military service now face severe punishment.[...]
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The alternative service law - which came into force on 1 July 2004, and was amended by parliament on 22 November 2004 and again on 24 December 2004 - provides for "alternative military service" of 36 months and "alternative labour service" of 42 months, both under the ultimate oversight of the defence ministry, thus failing to meet its commitments.
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The Council of Europe agrees. "We believe there should be a clear civilian alternative to military service in Armenia," Krzysztof Zyman of its directorate general for human rights told Forum 18 from Strasbourg on 20 September.[...].
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However, Sedrakian of the defence ministry denies this. "Those doing alternative service are under the control of the Social Care Ministry and the Health Ministry," he claimed to Forum 18. "The Defence Ministry has no control over them and has nothing to do with them. Passports are routinely taken off conscripts when they are called up and the same goes for those doing alternative service. But their identity cards make no reference to the armed forces. That is impossible." He denied that those doing alternative service are fed or clothed by the army, insisting that the defence ministry receives no financial allocation for these purposes.
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Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.