Human Rights Information Agency "Express-Chronicle"

English Weekly News Digest

October 16 1996

MOSCOW (E-C) "The latest disinformation campaign about conscripts' rights is underway in enlistment offices," declared Nikolai Khramov, Secretary of the Anti-Militarist Radical Association. He was speaking at a press-conference on 4 October, held to mark the beginning of the autumn call-up. Khramov introduced Aleksandr Seregin, a conscientious objector against military service. In August this year, charges were laid against Seregin under article 80 of the RSFSR Criminal Code - "evasion of the latest call-up." In May 1996, the Gagarin Intermunicipal Court rejected Seregin's case against the actions of the enlistment commission, which ignored the right of conscripts to perform alternative civil service.