Activists set up alternative Soldiers' Mothers Committee in Belarus
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An alternative Soldiers' Mothers Committee is being set up in Belarus, human rights activist Natallia Basalyha-Haracka told Narodnaya Volya. She says the new organization will differ from the existing Mothers of Soldiers association, which she describes as a 'Defense Ministry's proxy.'
Basalyha-Haracka says that on 1 November she visited the General Staff of the Defense Ministry to lay out and justify her idea of an alternative Soldiers' Mothers Committee - 'created a fait accompli' that it will be set up. She also says she 'met understanding' when at the Defense Ministry, which is expected to send an official reply in early December.
The human rights defender notes that the death of soldier Alexander Korzhych in the Pecy military bootcamp center revealed the problems in Belarusian Army. Her own son Ivan recently returned from the army. The young man is 'still struggling to return to normal life" because "it feels like he was in prison - not in the army.'
The committee seeks to receive a state registration and work along with the Defense Ministry to improve conditions in the army and 'in no way to shame the armed forces."
