|
Third International Congress of Soldiers’ Mothers
FOR LIFE AND FREEDOM
RESOLUTION REGARDING MILITARY REFORM
Participants of the Third International Congress of soldiers’ mothers «For Life and Freedom», representing 107 regional organizations of soldiers’ mothers of Russia and 14 Russian and international human rights and peace-making organizations.
Insist on the immediate abolition of obligatory conscription and express their resolute disagreement with the government’s and the military-political leadership’s plans for military reform, directed exclusively at cosmetic maintenance of the existing system of military service.
Documents regarding the so-called reform of the armed forces do not take into consideration, indeed do not even mention, the interests and rights of servicemen by conscription. Put off for an indeterminate period of time (until the year 2010), the transition to an army consisting of servicemen of the rank or private and sergeant who serve by contract, threatens in the near future to take the form of an increase in the scale of conscription and the cancellation of deferments from conscription. The leadership of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Russian Federation have announced these items in the media.
Participants in the Congress cannot watch with indifference the profanation of military reform, which intensifies the destruction of the Russian armed forces. In the last ten years, generals and officials converted the army into a source of threats to their own citizens.
Soldiers’ mothers have all the reasons and rights to insist on participation in the decision-making regarding reform of the armed services, reform upon which their sons depend. Russia took upon itself the corresponding international obligations and voted for the United Nations Security Council resolution 1 1325 (2000), which demands observance of the principles of gender equality in the ensuring of peace and security and the necessity to involve women’s nongovernmental organizations in the decision-making process in the military sphere.
Russia’s leadership cannot ignore the position of soldiers’ mothers: they and their sons must pay for the interminable failures of the next reformative attempts in the military sphere. Without societal agreement in the solution to the problems of reform of the army in Russia, an effective instrument to guarantee Russia’s security cannot be created.
Participants in the Congress do not accept references to the shortage of financial resources for the transition to a professional army, especially in light of the fact that the government, when the situation of the officer corps approaches the insufferable, always finds the means to raise the generals’ salaries and at the same time raise the allowance of officers of the middle and junior ranks, especially in the period approaching elections.
For the development of the ideas of the Civil Forum (held November 2001 in Moscow) and the establishment of the principles of gender equality, Congress participants are prepared to render assistance to the military-political leadership of Russia in the procuring of necessary resources for the carrying out of genuine military reform and the creation of effective mechanisms for a system of civilian control over law enforcement agencies.
Soldiers’ mothers for the equal rights of women in the determination of perspectives of development of the armed forces of Russia!
Russia should fulfill its international obligations for the establishment of gender equality in the guaranteeing of peace and security!
Immediate abolition of the system of obligatory conscription in Russia is a necessary condition for the guaranteeing of the security of the country and the harmonious development of the individual, society, and state!
|
