MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Deputy chief-of-staff of the Russian Armed Forces Colonel General Vladislav Putilin denounced on Thursday an experiment on introduction of alternative civil service that is underway in Nizhny Novgirod.
"It is inexpedient, unethical and immoral to experiment on people. That is because those men got down to the business for which there is no legal field. There is no law on the matter," Putilin told a news conference in Moscow.
He said the experiment was "labor slavery," because its participants do not know how long they must work in the hospital, what privileges they have and what salary they must be paid.
Moreover, a law on alternative civil service has not been adopted, and "these guys can be drafted for active-duty service on legal grounds," Putilin said.
As a result, courts invalidated the city mayor's order and the draft board's decision on introduction of alternative civil service. "Now the guys are not in alternative service, in fact, they are working under a contract with the director of the hospital signed in January 2002. They are subject to all aspects of the law on military duty," Putilin said.
Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Yuri Lebedev signed an order on introduction of alternative civil service in municipal bodies of the city on June 27, 2001.
Thirty conscripts applied for alternative service during the autumn draft. Twenty-one applications were admitted. The conscripts signed a contract for serving as nurses in the 1st city hospital over a period of two years. The municipal alternative service detachment started working in the hospital on January 4, 2002.
Prosecutors appealed against the mayor's order, but the Nizhny Novgorod district court rejected the appeal. However the judicial board on civil cases of the Nizhny Novgorod region court on February 15 invalidated the rejection and declared the order null and void.
The Nizhny Novgorod region military commissioner's office sent summons to the people in alternative civil service on April 5. The youths were summoned to local military commissioner's offices for undergoing active-duty service.
The city administration is planning to appeal against the decision of the military commissioner's office.