by Oleg LARJKO

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS TURN UP AGAIN

On the 1-st of October at 11:30 a.m. an unusual thing was happening in the Red Square. This event drew attention of numerous tourists and simple gapers.

A group of young men wearing T-shirts with a slogan "Conscription? No, thank you!" decided to remind the people of article 59.3 of Russian Constitution. This article guarantees to every citizen the right to conscientious objection and the possibility to replace military service by alternative civilian service. In short, young men decided to hold a demonstration like many others who organize in Moscow dozens of demonstrations and meetings.

However, a detachment of militia that had been waiting in two cars attacked them all of a sudden. Very quickly, as if it were a war, the militiamen blocked all "avenues of approach" to the main square of the country. Young demonstrators, members of the Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA), were pushed into militia cars (Gazel') and brought to the local militia office. By mistake, the militiamen caught up together with the demonstrators a journalist of Literaturnaja Gazeta. When later on one of officers of militia realized that a journalist had been arrested, he began shouting and swearing. Translated from his bad language into Russian the message was: liberate the journalist immediately!

As for ARA members, they remained behind bars "temporarily arrested". As far as I understand, they accomplished their task by drawing attention to the situation in which the autumn conscription campaign begins. The fact is that in spite of relative article of the Constitution, Duma Defense Committee has been dragging out the adoption of the Alternative Civilian Service Draft Law for three years. Now it is hardly possible that all the draftees who struggle to be sent for the alternative civilian service would believe the official misinformation about their constitutional rights.