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AZERBAIJAN: ARMY HAZING SCANDAL
Human Rights Tribune
24 October 08
Switzerland
Violence in the Azerbaijani army, from a video posted on You Tube
- Two video-clips posted on the Internet showing brutality in the
ranks of the Azerbaijani army have fueled allegations that hazing is
rife, despite unprecedented increases on spending on the military in
recent years.
Jasur Sumerenli*/IWPR, Baku - Azerbaijani prosecutors have made
arrests and launched an enquiry after two video clips were posted on
Internet showing brutality in the army. They initially denied that
the clips were authentic. In one of the videos, recorded on a mobile
phone, a soldier who has completed most of his military service -
still known in Azerbaijan by the Russian word "dembel" - forces five
younger conscripts into a contest in which they are forced to beat
each other in pairs.
The video shows how one soldier has lost his hearing because of a sharp
blow and is clutching his ears with pain on his face, while another
has a big bruise on his face. The dembel watches them, laughing. The
soldiers' clothing suggests that all this is happening in a military
hospital or in the medical facility of a military unit.
An earlier clip posted on YouTube on October 4 shows two dembels
savagely beating 20 or 25 new recruits lined up in front of their
beds in a barracks. The clip caused outrage and angry reactions in
the Azerbaijani press.
The security agencies and military prosecutors began to investigate
the incident and it was revealed that the clip had been filmed in
an interior ministry forces unit in the Hajigabul region. This was
confirmed to IWPR by the interior ministry press office.
The press office said that the soldiers who were beaten up had been
called up in July this year. Two sergeants, Vugar Agayev and Eldaniz
Ragimov, who allegedly carried out the beatings have been arrested
and are now in Baili prison in Baku. The commander of the unit,
lieutenant-colonel Gamlet Gurbanov and his deputy responsible for
education, Beiler Eminov, have been reprimanded and relieved of
their posts.
The military prosecutor's office has also opened a criminal case into
the staged fights recorded on the other clip. It said one person had
been arrested and an investigation was underway.
Before this scandal broke, the security structures had consistently
denied that hazing was a problem in the Azerbaijani armed forces. When
the first film appeared on the Internet, defence ministry spokesman
Eldar Sabirogly said it was a fabrication and a "provocation".
Yet independent research suggests that these kinds of incidents are
actually on the rise. According to a study conducted by the military
think-tank Doktrina in the first nine months of 2008, around 50
military servicemen died in Azerbaijan, with 35 of those deaths
occurring off the battlefield. The centre says that the number of
suicides and irregular deaths is greater than last year - and this
at a time when the military budget has been increasing by more than
50 per cent a year and now stands at over one billion dollars.
Military analyst Uzeir Jafarov says that there are three main reasons
why hazing is rife in the army.
"The first reason is that the conscription age has been raised to
35," he said. "People with such a big age gap between them are very
different both physically and in their outlook. And that leads to
illegal actions by the strong over the weak. A 35-year-old draftee
instantly becomes a figure of authority in a military unit."
The second reason, he said, was that there is no protection of the
rights of soldiers written into military legal documents. He also
blamed the poor food conscripts are given. "Soldiers often resort to
breaking the law because they are so badly fed," he said.
Another military expert, retired colonel Ildyrym Mamedov said that
the Azerbaijani army had inherited hazing from Soviet times.
"This problem was here before - it is now and it will continue to
exist," said Mamedov, who said that the army was still working "under
the laws of the old Soviet Union".
"There is a double centre of power in the Azerbaijan army nowadays," he
said. "Everyone knows that our country when it became a member of the
Council of Europe took on obligations with regard to human rights. And
Azerbaijan also signed international human rights conventions. But
today despite all the international conventions, commanders in the army
have the right to detain servicemen subordinate to them for ten days."
The Public Union of Officers, which comprises officers who are in
reserve or retirement, has also issued a report which is strongly
critical of hazing and corruption in the army and an official failure
to combat them.
The head of the organisation, Yashar Jafarli, said that in the past
five years more soldiers had died as a result of irregular behaviour
in the army than on the ceasefire line near Nagorny Karabakh that
divides Armenian and Azerbaijani forces.
"In the last few years, cases of suicide in the army have sharply
increased," said Jafarli. "It is quite possible that hazing is at the
root of this. The reasons for the absolute majority of suicides that
take place in the army since the truce [over Nagorny Karabakh in 1994]
are unknown. But we can suppose that in most cases soldiers are pushed
to suicide by the men they are serving with."
Jafarli said that there was evidence that hazing had "national
characteristics", in other words being linked to discrimination
against different ethnic groups.
The military prosecutor's office says that a series of meetings will
be held to discuss the state of the army and that the procedures
whereby servicemen could lodge complaints would be simplified.
For the past few years, the telephone numbers of military prosecutors
have been hung on the walls of most military units. Every soldier
has been told that if he complains about a problem, it will be
investigated. But soldiers have been afraid to do so. The new proposal
is for soldiers to be able to lodge their complaints anonymously.
*Jasur Sumerenli is editor-in-chief of the military website,
www.milaz.info, and a military observer with the Aina and Zerkalo
newspapers in Baku.
Human Rights Tribune
24 October 08
Switzerland
Violence in the Azerbaijani army, from a video posted on You Tube
- Two video-clips posted on the Internet showing brutality in the
ranks of the Azerbaijani army have fueled allegations that hazing is
rife, despite unprecedented increases on spending on the military in
recent years.
Jasur Sumerenli*/IWPR, Baku - Azerbaijani prosecutors have made
arrests and launched an enquiry after two video clips were posted on
Internet showing brutality in the army. They initially denied that
the clips were authentic. In one of the videos, recorded on a mobile
phone, a soldier who has completed most of his military service -
still known in Azerbaijan by the Russian word "dembel" - forces five
younger conscripts into a contest in which they are forced to beat
each other in pairs.
The video shows how one soldier has lost his hearing because of a sharp
blow and is clutching his ears with pain on his face, while another
has a big bruise on his face. The dembel watches them, laughing. The
soldiers' clothing suggests that all this is happening in a military
hospital or in the medical facility of a military unit.
An earlier clip posted on YouTube on October 4 shows two dembels
savagely beating 20 or 25 new recruits lined up in front of their
beds in a barracks. The clip caused outrage and angry reactions in
the Azerbaijani press.
The security agencies and military prosecutors began to investigate
the incident and it was revealed that the clip had been filmed in
an interior ministry forces unit in the Hajigabul region. This was
confirmed to IWPR by the interior ministry press office.
The press office said that the soldiers who were beaten up had been
called up in July this year. Two sergeants, Vugar Agayev and Eldaniz
Ragimov, who allegedly carried out the beatings have been arrested
and are now in Baili prison in Baku. The commander of the unit,
lieutenant-colonel Gamlet Gurbanov and his deputy responsible for
education, Beiler Eminov, have been reprimanded and relieved of
their posts.
The military prosecutor's office has also opened a criminal case into
the staged fights recorded on the other clip. It said one person had
been arrested and an investigation was underway.
Before this scandal broke, the security structures had consistently
denied that hazing was a problem in the Azerbaijani armed forces. When
the first film appeared on the Internet, defence ministry spokesman
Eldar Sabirogly said it was a fabrication and a "provocation".
Yet independent research suggests that these kinds of incidents are
actually on the rise. According to a study conducted by the military
think-tank Doktrina in the first nine months of 2008, around 50
military servicemen died in Azerbaijan, with 35 of those deaths
occurring off the battlefield. The centre says that the number of
suicides and irregular deaths is greater than last year - and this
at a time when the military budget has been increasing by more than
50 per cent a year and now stands at over one billion dollars.
Military analyst Uzeir Jafarov says that there are three main reasons
why hazing is rife in the army.
"The first reason is that the conscription age has been raised to
35," he said. "People with such a big age gap between them are very
different both physically and in their outlook. And that leads to
illegal actions by the strong over the weak. A 35-year-old draftee
instantly becomes a figure of authority in a military unit."
The second reason, he said, was that there is no protection of the
rights of soldiers written into military legal documents. He also
blamed the poor food conscripts are given. "Soldiers often resort to
breaking the law because they are so badly fed," he said.
Another military expert, retired colonel Ildyrym Mamedov said that
the Azerbaijani army had inherited hazing from Soviet times.
"This problem was here before - it is now and it will continue to
exist," said Mamedov, who said that the army was still working "under
the laws of the old Soviet Union".
"There is a double centre of power in the Azerbaijan army nowadays," he
said. "Everyone knows that our country when it became a member of the
Council of Europe took on obligations with regard to human rights. And
Azerbaijan also signed international human rights conventions. But
today despite all the international conventions, commanders in the army
have the right to detain servicemen subordinate to them for ten days."
The Public Union of Officers, which comprises officers who are in
reserve or retirement, has also issued a report which is strongly
critical of hazing and corruption in the army and an official failure
to combat them.
The head of the organisation, Yashar Jafarli, said that in the past
five years more soldiers had died as a result of irregular behaviour
in the army than on the ceasefire line near Nagorny Karabakh that
divides Armenian and Azerbaijani forces.
"In the last few years, cases of suicide in the army have sharply
increased," said Jafarli. "It is quite possible that hazing is at the
root of this. The reasons for the absolute majority of suicides that
take place in the army since the truce [over Nagorny Karabakh in 1994]
are unknown. But we can suppose that in most cases soldiers are pushed
to suicide by the men they are serving with."
Jafarli said that there was evidence that hazing had "national
characteristics", in other words being linked to discrimination
against different ethnic groups.
The military prosecutor's office says that a series of meetings will
be held to discuss the state of the army and that the procedures
whereby servicemen could lodge complaints would be simplified.
For the past few years, the telephone numbers of military prosecutors
have been hung on the walls of most military units. Every soldier
has been told that if he complains about a problem, it will be
investigated. But soldiers have been afraid to do so. The new proposal
is for soldiers to be able to lodge their complaints anonymously.
*Jasur Sumerenli is editor-in-chief of the military website,
www.milaz.info, and a military observer with the Aina and Zerkalo
newspapers in Baku.