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RFE/RL Armenia: Jehovah's Witnesses Trapped In Bureaucratic Maze

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  • RFE/RL Armenia: Jehovah's Witnesses Trapped In Bureaucratic Maze

    RFE/RL Armenia: Jehovah's Witnesses Trapped In Bureaucratic Maze
    Friday, 22 October 2004

    At a gathering of the Council of Europe in June, the deputy speaker of
    Armenia's parliament said Yerevan would free Jehovah's Witnesses who had
    been jailed as conscientious objectors -- as soon as parliament passed a
    new alternative-service law. The law was passed in July, but at least 13
    conscientious objectors remain in jail in Armenia, including five jailed
    just this month. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
    has questioned the country's actions, as have other civil rights
    organizations.

    By Don Hill

    Prague, 22 October 2004 -- Different government officials offer
    divergent statements about the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses in Armenia.

    According to deputy speaker of parliament Tigran Torosyan, there are no
    members of the Christian denomination in jail for resisting military
    service as conscientious objectors. Torosyan told RFE/RL yesterday, "I
    don't know examples of people belonging to this organization who are in
    jail."

    The Forum 18 news service -- which covers religious freedom in the
    former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe -- reported that, in fact,
    five Jehovah's Witnesses have been jailed this month alone for refusing
    military service. That brings to 13 the number serving prison time for
    the offense. The maximum sentence for such an offense in Armenia is two
    years.

    In yet another statement, Torosyan said those conscientious objectors in
    jail in Armenia would be freed when a new law on alternatives to
    military service was passed. He made the comment to Jehovah's Witnesses
    representatives at a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
    Council of Europe last June. The law passed on 1 July. Yet the
    conscientious objectors remain in jail.

    Despite parliament adopting a law on alternative service, the government
    has not made any provision for such service. A lawyer for the Jehovah's
    Witnesses, Rustam Khachatryan, said that is what Defense Ministry
    officials told his clients individually before they were prosecuted and
    jailed.

    Officials have also said Jehovah's Witnesses cannot be recognized as
    conscientious objectors until the denomination achieves official
    registration as a religious organization.

    But Paul S. Gillies, a spokesman for the group, points out that
    authorities finally registered the church on 11 October. The group had
    sought this status for nine years. "One of the explanations [for denying
    conscientious objectors' rights] that was given to me personally was
    that they were waiting for registration. Because we were unregistered,
    then they couldn't release the prisoners. But then one of the obstacles
    to registration was always said to be the fact that we were
    conscientious objectors," Gillies told RFE/RL.

    "I get the feeling that no government department particularly wants to
    do this --- to [implement] an alternative-service law."

    Forum 18 says that Vladimir Karapetian of the ministry's Media Relations
    Division said on 19 October that the issue is outside the competence of
    the Foreign Ministry.

    Natalia Voutova, a Council of Europe representative in Yerevan, said the
    Foreign Ministry declined to explain how keeping a promise the country
    made to the council in 2001 could be construed as outside the competence
    of the ministry.

    Forum 18 editor Felix Corley told RFE/RL that he does not believe all of
    these contradictions indicate that Armenia's bureaucracy is incompetent.
    "No. I get the feeling that no government department particularly wants
    to do this --- to [implement] an alternative-service law." he said.
    "They know perfectly well what they are doing. The Foreign Ministry, the
    Justice Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the representatives to the
    Council of Europe -- they all know perfectly well what the commitments
    are. They all know perfectly well what the current situation is. They
    just don't want to. They fear political and social pressure."

    Corley said the Jehovah's Witnesses -- which says it has 8,000 members
    in Armenia -- is probably the most unpopular religious group in Armenia,
    where normalcy means membership -- however casual -- in the Armenian
    Apostolic Church.

    In a country troubled by tense relations with neighboring Azerbaijan,
    refusal of military service is disliked. Also, the group aggressively
    seeks to recruit new converts, an activity that offends many in the
    country.

    Jehovah's Witnesses has its headquarters in New York and claims 6
    million members around the world. The group's fundamental guiding belief
    is that the Bible contains the literal word of God.


    http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/10/85d9757a-21ec-495c-85a0-e71043e29bd2.html
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