CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS - ONLY BELIEVERS REALLY?

The widespread is an opinion that those persons, refusing to perform military service for the reasons of conscience should have the possibilities of changing the way of executing the duty of military service for the alternative civil service, and the laws of many countries that allow this possibilities, make it quite significant to give the concrete expression of the concept "conscientious objection" for it determines the category of persons that might have the rights for that kind of changing.

But that way of pointing out this problem, seems to be erroneous. In my opinion, nobody should be under the compulsion to execute any duty whether it is a conscription or alternative civil service. As any such a compulsion is a gross error of the personal freedom. However, as the compulsory conscription is widespread all over the world, and there exists the practice of selection of an objectors for "conscientious objection". We can't deviate the discussion the subject of which is what should be considered as the objections of that kind.

According to the opinions of many, the reasons of "conscientious objection" are limited within only religious and pacifist reasons - e.d. the reasons, that does not allow somebody to execute the military service in any army of any country and to take any weapon in their hands. To my mind that point of view seems to be not quiet logical one, because it is not clear enough why only the believers and the adherents of the non-violence ideas might have the right to act in accordance with the conscientious reasons. What reasons in that case have for example white young men in South Africa, ignoring the conscription in order not to be involved in the crimes of apartheid? The United Nations Organisation regards them as "conscientious objectors" in the resolution of the General Assembly of UNO No 33/165 from 20th December, 1978, as it is a refusal from service in military or police forces used to enforce apartheid.

Amnesty International formulates the term "conscientious objection" in the document "Amnesty International Policy Guidelines on Conscientious Objection to Military Service", adopted by the International Council of AI in Vienna in 1980 : "1. A conscientious objector is understood to be a person liable to conscription for military service who, for reasons of conscience or profound conviction arising from religious, ethical, moral, humanitarian, philosophical, political or similar motives refuses to perform armed service or any other direct or indirect participation in wars or armed conflicts."

As we see from this two examples, this term is being used also for the persons that are guided by a political considerations and do not refuse to perform armed service as such in the armies of another countries. It is necessary to point out, that believers, refusing to perform the army service might be guided not only by the ideas of non-violence. For example, Jehovahs refuse to execute armed service only in earth army, regarding it as the service for devil, but in case, when Armageddon comes, all of them are going to be together under Banner of Lord to destroy unfaithful.

Jehovahs, however, form the majority of the Soviet prisoners of consciousness, imprisoned for their refusal to perform an armed service and there are no doubts, that they are conscientious objectors. Jehovahs reject the armed service in earth army, but the believers of the True Orthodox Church reject the service just in the Soviet, bolshevik army, and they do not reject to perform an armed service in the army of any other country. However, they are also the conscientious objectors. For example, the brothers Togushevs, the believers of TOC are in the list of the prisoners of consciousness of the Amnesty International.

But there is another aspect of this problem. Accepting the right for the conscientious objection only for the believers and pacifists the other words for the religious and non-violence reasons is a kind of discrimination against those, who refuse to perform an army service for another reasons. So, in that case, if somebody is a believer, his freedom of choice is wider, than for the others. Is this discrimination on religious reasons better than discrimination for racial or sex reasons?

The same time an idea, that conscientious objectors are only the believers and pacifists, has wide circulation. But it is obvious that in every country where the supply of the people for performing an army service is based on a call-up, the power of the state is interested to limit the circle of a people, that can be free from performing an army service. This is done in order to provide a supply of a human material for a military machine, that is why they are trying to confirm exactly this idea.

Directly this is being done by a mass media inspiring the people that the problem of objection to perform army service is the problem of believers and pacifists only.

The good example of this is the article in the soviet newspaper "Argumenty i fakty". The subject of this article is the necessity of establishing the possibility of changing an armed service for an alternative civil service. The title of this article is "Alternative civil service - only for believers or also for pacifists?" In this article there is nothing about the other motives of the young men, refusing military service, the same time the greater proportion of the refusals to perform the army service in the USSR takes place not for the religious reasons.(The newspaper "Argumenty i fakty" has the biggest circulation in the world - 33.392.200 copies and is regarded as the most progressive paper in the USSR.)

Here it gets quite clear that the real functions of the mass media in the countries of "real socialism" as well as in the countries of "real democracy" are the functions of the "forth power" against which so persistently comes out the Radical party. In my opinion we, the radicals, have to be consistent and not to follow the tricks of the forth power, and more, to counteract this dangerous attempts to disorientate the public opinion.

Alexander Pronozin

The end

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------