European Belarus activist drafted into army unlawfully

• 19.01.2010, 14:01

Aleh Ladutska, an activist of the civil campaign European Belarus, is drafted into the army in spite of the decision of the medical board.

Aleh Ladutska got a phone call from the military enlistment office at 6:40 a.m. (!) and was ordered to come to the office at 8 a.m.

“I was surprised to receive the call so early in the morning, but I didn’t suspect anything. I was found unfit for military service by the medical board, as I am a stammerer. I was told I would be called to the military enlistment office in January to receive a military ID. I came to the office and was ordered the chief of the Leninski district military office. A colonel said the diagnosis was wrong, was fit even for ‘space flights,’” Aleh Ladutska said.

Ladutska was handed in a summons for next day. According to him, the summons pointed “conversation with the military office chief” as a reason for calling.

“Under the law, I have a three-year military service deferment. All other actions, namely telephone calls at six in the morning, conversations with colonels and their ‘diagnoses’ are unlawful. I regard these actions as outrage and provocation, connected with my public activity. Such actions are unlawful. I will complaint at them to a prosecutor’s office and international institutions,” the democratic activist says.

Unlawful drafting into the army has become a rather wide-spread means of fighting against the democratic opposition in Belarus. A number of youth activists – Zmitser Zhaleznichenka, Franak Vyachorka, Ales Kalita, Zmitser Khvedaruk, Ivan Shyla and others – have been called for military service in spite of student deferments, family status, or problems with health.