"Go out, give a response", - the parents in black and the civil activists shouted in front of the Residence of RA President on Friday, October 14th.

They were driven to come out by consequent cases of 3 soldiers' deaths in the army, especially because the results of preliminary investigation of all cases were qualified as suicide.

Mothers of servicemen perished in the army in peacetime assured that their sons were killed, the investigations conducted were not thorough, important circumstances were concealed and the perpetrators were not punished. 15 red-berets from the Police special battalion and 23 police officers were controlling the protest action: they have formed two rows in front of the President Office preventing the protesters to approach the residence.

Mothers who lost their sons are confident: if RA President Serzh Sargsyan wished, he could prevent the violence in the army by issuing a single statement. "He should come up with a speech and say that if a single died soldier will be brought to his mother, all officers of that unit will be sentenced to life imprisonment. If the President of the country makes this kind of declaration and keeps his promise, the murders will stop", says Nana, mother of Valeri Muradyan (died in 2010).

Nobody received parents of died conscripts at the residence of the President. Officer Vardan Ghukasyan from the staff of the Deputy Minister of Defense Vladimir Gasparyan appeared instead. He tried to convince the protesters to go to the Military Police where all chiefs of investigation from all garrisons are ready to hear the relatives of perished soldiers. Mothers refused to go and said that these investigators lied during the years and they demand to meet the President of the country.

Representative of the Deputy Minister of Defense left the place after the "speech" and debate with the protesters. The young man allowed a statement addressed to the mothers of soldiers perished in peacetime that maybe they did not fostered their kids properly if they died in the army.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Defense Vladimir Gasparyan received a group of relatives of soldiers perished in the army. He repeated once again that they are not only capable but they reveal and punish those who are guilty. Vladimir Gasparyan also allowed evaluating and qualifying the actions of the protesters without understanding that among the protesters there are citizens who are preoccupied with the situation and mothers who received dead bodies of their sons. "How can their hearts feel pain for the army of the country, if they receive funds from other countries? They just think about the scandal, the worse the case the better because they can earn money then. People who are working in that realm do not have a homeland, dignity", he said.

Today parents of eight conscripts and the Human Rights Defender Karen Andreasyan submitted a joint reference to the National Assembly regarding the gaps and violations that were allowed during the investigation of each case of perished soldiers. "Only thorough and objective investigation of the past cases (even if it happened 10 years ago) and restoration of justice in relation of these cases will restore the confidence towards the investigation of current cases of death and will prevent violence and murders in future", Karen Andreasyan is confident.

The preliminary investigation of the 3 recent cases of death in the army is still continuing, so far only one serviceman is arrested in relation to one of the cases.

Aghavni Yeghiazaryan

Source: www.hra.am