"Vremya MN", March 12, 2001, N 42 (653), page 1.

SPRING CRACKDOWN

by Olga Papkova

(photo by Kiril Kalinnikov: "Only each fifth draftee goes to the army willingly")

Those who ignore the call-up papers are enregistered as criminals

In April the State Duma will examine at the first reading the bill "On the alternative civilian service". The parliamentary hearings scheduled for March 16 will precede these debates. In the meantime, there is some talk that measures of influence on "draft evadors" will be drastically reinforced. What do those who in the performance of their official duty must convey recruits to the assembly point think in this connection? To what extent have they the right to apply force to future recruits?

"According to the law "On the conscription and the military service", the president as supreme commander-in-chief and the head of the exwcutive power issues the order on the next draft. It concerns both us, the military, and heads of subjects of Federation", the Moscow military commissar Mikhail Sorokin says. "We can't organize the draft without local authorities. By the way, the Moscow city draft commission is headed by Lyubov Shvetsova, vice-premier of the Moscow government".

The military commissar can't be reproached with aspiration "to exceed the plan of the draft". As he said, young men who study in the high school, serve their native land in their own way. The legal bases for a deferment are studies in the high school that has a state accreditation, state of health, two children or work at state enterprises that have the reservation.

"Let parents be not afraid and don't trust in rumours", Mikhail Sorokin addresses to mums and daddies of the draftees. "If they are worried by any question, let them come to reception to the military commissar".

Today only 10 percent of young men of draft age come to the draft stations. It's about 5-6 thousand persons a year. 60 percent of the draftees are deferred because of their studies, a quarter - through illness, and 5 percent escape.

The purpose of the organized system which operates in Moscow is to bring annually one and a half - two thousand persons to the draft commission and then to the assembly points. Full lists of recruits are in the Municipal Department of Internal Affairs, and the information about those who didn't arrive according their call-up papers, are weekly included in statistical reports on crimes.

"According to the law "On the conscription", a person must serve", Sorokin goes on. "Therefore military commissariats together with the bodies of the Municipal Department of Internal Affairs develop plans of measures to search those who evade the military service.

"In practice it looks like that", the press-secretary of the Municipal Department of Internal Affairs Andrey Zubkov develops the theme. "The military comissariat sends a paper to the local militia office:

"We ask you to assist in the draft of the following citizens". The divisional inspector goes to the draftee's address, serves the call-up papers and explains to the draftee and his parents criminal consequences of draft evasion. Sometimes it happens so that the military ask the divisional inspector to go with them to several addresses where especially persistent evadors live. In some cases the man can be detained in the street and asked to present his documents. There isn't nothing illegal here. As agreed with the Public Prosecutor's Office, we really deliver persistent evadors to the military comissariat where they are given an explanatory talk. But there aren't cases when a person is brought to the assembly point directly from the street, is clothed in field shirt and closely cropped".

"No, there were cases like that", Sorokin specifies. "During last draft three persons from those who are hung with mobile phones were sent to the assembly point directly from the street. And they couldn't do anything as they hadn't legitimate right to a deferment".

Today joint actions of the Municipal Department of Internal Affairs and military commissariats against evadors are backed not only by the federal law but also by the joint instruction signed by ministers of two departments.

There is also a corresponding order of the mayor of Moscow to organize the draft of muscovites for military service. Both documents are at disposal of our newspaper. From the legal point of view, they are made absolutely competently. The only one thing wasn't taken into account - the Art. 59.3 of the Constitution about the right of citizens to the alternative service.

"Today there is a lot of lacunae in the legal system, including the questions connected with the military service and rights of servicemen", the adviser of the State Duma, a member of the President's Commission on Human Rights Vyacheslav Seryogin says. "In the constitution of Germany, for example, all restrictions of rights of servicemen are written down. In our country, they form part of the laws which are lower in their rank than the Constitution.

In the case when there exist disagreements or lacunae in the legal system, the court should act impartially. It's obliged to act this way by the article 6 of the Civil Code.

On the basis of this article conscientious objectors more and more often lodge complaints against actions of the officials who carry out the draft.

Public organizations that support alternative civilian service also help to withstand coordinated actions of the Ministry for Defence and the Ministry for Interior.

"First of all, the guys who want to escape the army should remember: if they won't help themselves, the power will do to them everything it wants", the adviser of the Antimilitarist Radical Association Andrey Rodionov says. For three years he struggles against the military comissariat asserting his right to serve without arms in hands. "It is necessary to remember that militia officers have no right to break into your apartment if they don't have the warrant. The call-up papers is just the invitation to the assembly point. Nobody came to my place with a submachine gun - they simply put the call-up papers in my letter-box".

When Andrey several times didn't come to the assembly point, the military commissariat of the Central Administrative District decided to refer the case to the court. The Tverskoy Intermunicipal Court denied the right to alternative service to Andrey, and the evador Rodionov lodged a cassation complaint to the Moscow City Court. There he was advised not to go against the stream and to go to serve like all normal people.

"Then I was cited to the Public Prosecutor's Office", Andrey recalls. "The military commissariat demanded to institute criminal proceedings against me according to the Art. 328 of the Criminal Code - "evading the military service". I explained that I was realizing my constitutional right to alternative civilian service which was confirmed, by the way, by the Constitutional Court. As a result, there wasn't any decision in respect of my case, but two or three times a year I find new call-up papers in my letter- box.

According to Andrey, now many young inspectors work in the bodies of the Public Prosecutor's Office. They regard sympathetically the conscienscious objectors. According to the General Staff, there were about 12 thousand conscientious objectors in 1995. Obviously, this figure was several times underestimated at that time.

The law on alternative civilian service for the first time was introduced into the State Duma in 1994. It passed the first reading, but was rejected at the second one. This time the deputies will examine the draft prepared by Yuly Rybakov. The draft specifies the sphere of application of the ACS. For example, "alternative servicemen" can serve only in the system of the Ministry for Emergency, in the social and public health sphere. The "compromise" variant of the defensive lobby was rejected; according to this draft the military would take a half "alternative servicemen" for service on civil posts in the Armed Forces. According to the new draft, the term of the ACS makes 36 months, for persons with higher education - 18 months.

It's perfectly clear that the destiny of this bill won't be simple.

Force agencies are not interested that the draftees go away to other departments.

"We simply are not ready to introduce the ACS", Mikhail Sorokin states. "For example, it isn't clear how an "alternative serviceman" will be registered, what civilian service will correspond to the service in the army where there is risk of life.

Anyway, today only each fifth young man of draft age is morally ready to serve honestly the state with arms in hands. And until the laws on military service are not changed, the season hunt for "evadors" will be a habitual business of the Ministry for Defence and the Ministry for Interior.