The opposite side of reforms: delaying and non-disclosure of the cases of servicemen who died in peaceful conditions; What do state bodies promise and insist on?
Activities | Media about us | Project։ Protection of the rights of conscripts and servicemen | Civilian Oversight and Monitoring
Nazeli Movsesyan, the coordinator of the Department of Oversight of Defence and Security Sector of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, states in a conversation with Aravot.am that “During 2010-2024, we have recorded more than 1000 cases of servicemen deaths. If we remove the cases merely by the cause of military actions, a very large number comprise the cases of servicemen deaths in non-combat conditions. On average, during a year we have more than 50 cases. During the years of our observation, more than 70% of the more than 1,000 deaths since 2010 were in non-combat conditions, which is worrying, especially the cases, that occur as a result of non-statutory relations; murders, suicides, sometimes there are also incidents due to violations of the rules of use of weapons."
The lawyers complain about the ineffectiveness of the investigation of cases of servicemen who died in peaceful conditions. The Investigative Committee claims that these cases are assigned to experienced investigators.
According to Ani Chatinyan, the lawyer of HCAV, “If we do not record the implementation of this goal from the point of view of law in at least one percent of the cases that occur today, we must say that the effectiveness of the investigation is equal to zero. We have judgments v. RA declared by ECHR during the last months, hence in the framework of the protection of rights of servicemen who died in peaceful conditions. All these cases have stated both the violations of material rights, that is, it is recorded that the state violates the right to life, and in all cases, the European Court states in its analysis that investigative and judicial actions aimed at revealing what happened were not carried out; no effective investigation took place, that is, no “special diligence” was displaced to find out what happened.”
Unfortunately, domestic processes take years, 5-7 years at the EC, and, in fact, on average, from the occurrence of cases to the declaration of the judgment, within 15 years, many pieces of evidence may disappear or the existing evidence may lose its probative value and be no longer worthy to confirm and deny certain factual circumstances. In other words, the cases may objectively reach a dead end, and it will not be possible to identify the criminals. Details in the video.
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