Spring Draft 2008

The spring draft began in the Russian Federation on 1 April and will run till 15 July 2008. As of today human rights defenders have fixed numerous infringements of the draftees’ rights. This was stated by the nongovernmental organization, Committee of Soldier´s Mothers, which gives consultations for citizens and holds weekly assemblies consulting people concerning issues of the draft. (20-MAY-08)

Written by Maria Paramonova/HRH Moscow
Links: http://www.newsru.com/russia/04may2008/pri.html; http://www.hro1.org/node/2056
Source: interview with Andrey Kalikh, the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights program coordinator of programs for human rights in the military sphere.
Photo: www.hro.org

Valentina Melnikova (photo) , the responsible secretary of the Union of the Committees of Soldiers Mothers` of the Russian Federation, said that they started to receive complaints from the beginning of March 2008. A significant number of these complaints concerns the drafting of young men with diseases who are unsuitable for service in the army.

This year a number of new problems, and new kinds of complaints appeared due to the canceling of some deferments: deferment from military service has been cancelled for young men whose parents don’t have a type 1 disability. “We do not know yet what to do, and how to solve these kinds of problems. At the consultations we ask everybody that finds themselves in such a situation to submit two claims to the Court both from the young man and from his parents or his grand parents at once”, Valentina Melnikova said.

The problems that appeared during the previous periods remain: problems spring up with young men who have graduated from college and in the previous year entered an instituteof higher education. These cases were fixed across the Russian Federation. “We are thinking about how to renew this right to deferment of military service”, Melnikova said.

Andrey Kalikh (photo) , the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights program coordinator of programs for human rights in the military sphere, in an interview given to a coordinator of the Moscow House of Human Rights, said that as a whole, in comparison with last year, conditions of the draft have become stricter. The changes to the Law on military service ware made during which the term of the draft was increased: it now continues till15 July while earlier it finished on 30 June. This means that young men will be drafted if they do not enter institutes of higher education.

The only thing NGOs succeeded in doing was saving deferment from military service for students. This happened not without the help of civil society when the inter-regional campaign “ Abolish the Cancellation!” was held across the Russian Federation in 2005, in which organizations such as the Youth Human Rights Movement, the movement “Stop the Draft!”, and the Youth Yabloko…etc, participated.

Many social deferments were cancelled. So, for example, the deferment was cancelled for young men who had a baby, or a wife more than 26 weeks pregnant. Now young men can receive a deferment if they have 1 baby and a wife on more than 26 weeks of pregnancy.

In A. Kalikh´s opinion, the canceling of deferments also strongly strikes on the military-industrial complex and other public services. In particular, rural doctors and teachers, firemen and militiamen, employees in the Ministry of Emergency Situations and tax services…etc. lost deferments. It can negatively affect their work because the salary is small in these spheres, therefore young men who could earlier avoid the draft by working there will cease to get a job in this sphere.

As well, the Presidential Decree from 6 February 2008 canceling the quota of 200 persons for talented youth which included young scientists, musicians, ballet performers…etc, can perniciously affect Russian society. In A. Kalikh´s opinion, 200 persons is an insignificant number for the army while it is enormous in the sphere of science and art. Due to a 1 year loss of rehearsals, young men can lose their qualifications and even their profession, while scientists will stop important research. Therefore the canceling by the president of the quota of 200 persons for talented youth will have a fatal affect on the condition of modern science and culture.

According to the forecasts of different researchers and specialists, the canceling of many social deferments can lead only to an increase in the level of corruption in the army, which today occupies third place after the public health services and higher education.