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Refusal on Reserve Service = Imprisonment

December 19, 2006

kukava.gifAccording to the Parliament's decision, the reserve service has become obligatory for every man in Georgia. Thus, everyone who has already served in the army will have to do the same once more. The draft law was voted through at the first hearing. Subsequently, those who avoid service will be charged under the criminal law.

Under Georgian law on "Reserve Service", the reserve of the military forces is being created in the case of mobilization, war or national security to support the armed forces.  Under the Article 3 of the draft law, the length of the reserve service will be included the record of service. Besides that, his job and salary is saved.

The article 4 of the draft law deals with the age of reservists. According to it, the age of the active reservists is from 27 up to 50. In this part a person will be recruited once in two years and his service will last for forty days. The age of the reservists in the Guard is from 35 to 50 and they will be recruited once in two years and their service will last for three weeks. The age of individual reservists is from 27 to 45 and they will be recruited once in two years, and their service will last for two weeks. In emergency situations, even sixty-year-old man might be recruited.

Under the draft law, avoiding of the reserve service is either fined or be punished by 180-220 hour-long labor. In graver situation, law offender would be imprisoned for one year. Deserters will also be sanctioned and face imprisonment from three up to seven years. If a person avoids reserve service, he has to pay 1 000 GEL. If he does not pay this amount within the fixed time, he will be imprisoned for fifteen days.

Besides that, under the draft law, August 2 is declared the Reservist's Day.

Parliamentary Opposition and independent experts do not like the initiative. The opposition claims that the draft law will cause extra expenses in the budget. Experts say that there are numerous obscure topics in the draft law.

Kakha Kukava, one of the leaders of the Democratic Front, declares:  "We do not need this law. We think such total reserve formation can take place only during the war. During the peace, forming an army of 100 000 reservists is beyond any logic. It does not aim at resolving the military problems, but it is a kind of political oppression under what forces the population always to be in military form. Georgian budget cannot keep so many people. Even the authors of the draft law say that only 3 - 4% of the men will be recruited. When you choose 3 or 4% out of 100 people that will result into a corruption of course."

Neither Davit Saganelidze, from the "Rights", approves the draft law. He says: "The principal problem is whether we need reservists. When we say that the only way to solve the conflicts is through peace talks, we should not need reservists. But the question will change if we choose forcible methods. In this case, we should consider whether reservists will be useful for the purpose. Nobody knows what goals of these units are. There is another problem dealing with extra expenses in the state budget. Some of governmental officials joined reservists' army just for fun. We must know what millions of lari would be spent on. When there are so many problems in the country, I think that such expenses in the budget are not reasonable."

Military expert, Shalva Tadumadze, does not like the draft law, because there are many obscure articles in it. "It is good to create reserve army. It should have done previously too. But the point is what is the number of reservists and under what law is it regulated. The draft law was not discussed with experts and it resulted into many mistakes in it. There is not a criterion according to which the reservists will be selected and distributed to various camps. The recruiting process is not clear either. The state cannot keep 100 000 reservists altogether. I think this money should rather be spent on regular army and less number of reservists should be trained."

As for the parliamentary majority, they like the draft law prepared by the Parliamentary Committee of the Defense and Security. They are sure that it will serve the security of the country. The draft law should turn into a law after having discussed twice.

Eka Gulua

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