Epress.am News from Armenia
The Armenian military signaled on Monday plans to toughen punishment for hazing and other chronic crimes responsible for the continuing non-combat deaths of soldiers, RFE/RL’s Armenian service reported.
Armenian defense minister Seyran Ohanyan discussed the matter with Armenia’s chief military prosecutor Gevorg Kostanyan and human rights ombudsman Karen Andreasyan. A statement by his press office said they agreed to set up a “working group” tasked with proposing ways of boosting discipline and reducing the crime rate in the armed forces.
The group will “review legislation regulating the armed forces and propose amendments,” said the statement. It added that the amendments should lead to a toughening of punishment for crimes committed by military personnel.
It was not clear who joined and who heads the task force.
Ohanyan has repeatedly promised a tougher crackdown on abuses within the army ranks. Dozens of servicemen have been arrested, fired or demoted over the past year.
Civic activists monitoring army crime insist that the Ministry of Defense is still not doing enough to tackle the problem. They also continue to accuse military authorities of failing to properly investigate soldier deaths.
Ohanyan met with the military prosecutor one day after yet another non-combat death was reported by the military. Official sources said a 20-year-old conscript, Vladimir Asatryan, shot and killed himself while on duty on a frontline position near Nagorno-Karabakh. No arrests or further details of the incident were reported as of Monday evening.