Still can't do alternative service?

ozziepost

This news report is showing on the WTS site:

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YEREVAN, Armenia—"I love my homeland and am prepared to do any beneficial work for it that is not connected with the military." These words were spoken yesterday by 21-year old Henrik Hovnikyan, a young Jehovah’s Witness being tried a second time for his refusal to serve in the military. The judge in the case, Mr. Gor Akopyan, commented on the young man’s fine character and his unblemished work record, as well as on character references from his employer and the municipality describing him as an exemplary citizen. Nevertheless, he sentenced him to two and a half years of incarceration.
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Does anyone know why they aren't applying for alternative service?

Cheers,
Ozzie

"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Anonymous

NeonMadman

Just a guess here, but maybe Armenia doesn't offer alternative service as an option for avoiding military service?

Tom
"The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure; to live it you had to explode." ---Bob Dylan

TheOldHippie

No guess needed, as you are correct; possibilities of alternative service are non-existant.

Pathofthorns

That's a really sad account.

It illustrates though just how frustrating it must have been for those in the past living in countries that had the choice of alternative civillian service but were not allowed to take it because of WT policy.

Path

Room 215

Hi all,

Just another reminder to those of us lucky enough to have been born in a nation that reveres and defends the individual freedoms of even the whackiest of us and wrack its collective brain to accommodate the most unorthodox and antisocial beliefs should never take such liberty for granted.

If only the high and mighty FDS would be humbled by the enlightend commitment to tolerance which the U.S. founding fathers built into the Constitution and Bill of Rights.