Yesterday, on 21 February, in the Independent press-centre has passed the conference devoted to the 15-anniversary of “Mother’s Right” Foundation, member-organization of the Russian research center for human rights. (22-FEB-05)

Establishment

 “Mother’s Right” Foundation was established in 1989-1990’s to strike against “VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE RUSSIAN ARMY”. The Foundation acts in following directions: a) legal advocacy by the publishing the brochures, distributing the information bulletins, letters to the parents containing the legal information, publishing articles on questions concerning the rights of families of servicemen died during military service; b) providing legal consultative service by the lawyer; c) the written answers to questions of parents and members of families; d) the Foundation made recommendations to legislative and executive branches of the Government concerning amendments of law on assistance to parents and families of servicemen who died during military service.  

Statistics

During the 2004 lawyers of the Foundation assisted to 1765 citizens who addressed to the Foundation: 388 people got assistance during their visit of the Foundation; petitions of behalf of the Foundation have been sent to various government bodies upon 1244 appeals; 5914 people received consultations over the telephone. Apart from it more than 1500 complaints about compensation of material and moral damages to the parents, whose sons were killed in Chechen Republic and during military service during peace time.
Lawyers working in the Foundation take part in litigations on free-of-charge, in which parents of victims act as claimants. In 2004 they participated in 130 litigations in 58 Russian cities.

Non-conformity with official data

Press conference MRFThe “Mother’s Right” Foundation data on destruction of conscripts, miss statistics of the Defense Ministry. The Defense Ministry released statistics that said 1,100 people had died in the army in 2004. By the Foundation statistics this amount is much underestimated. “According to our information, the number is three times as much,” the said the Mother’s Right foundation head, Veronika Marchenko. It is about 3,000 conscripts die each year while doing their mandatory service in the  Russian army.

According to Veronika Marchenko, the most dangerous places to serve are in the Moscow region — where 28 percent of the deaths occur — and the North Caucasus region surrounding the Chechen Republic, where 14 percent of the deaths occur.

Veronika Marchenko also said that some 35 percent of parents seeking guidance in her foundation said that their sons had committed suicide. About 15 percent are the result of murder and beatings, while 17 percent are the result of military action.

”By way of hundred cases we managed to prove in court, that the reason of conscript’s death is not suicide, but provocation to a suicide or pure murder “, -the Foundation lawyer Lyudmila Golikova has told. Frequently, according to the lawyer, parents do not know about death of their children within many months.