TBILISI. Feb 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgian ombudsperson Nana Devdariani has said that units of the Georgian Armed Forces "failed to uproot hazing that remains from the Soviet times".
Devdariani proposed that the Georgian parliament establish public committees incorporating parents of servicemen in each military units. The committees are "to control the situation in those units," she said.
The ombudsperson's aide on servicemen affairs Nodar Yefremidze told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday that "the problem of hazing becomes more and more pressing in the Georgian army."
"At the same time, hazing does not exist in all military units; there is no such thing in units manned by professional servicemen," Yefremidze said.
According to Devdariani, over 2,000 AWOL cases were registered in the Georgian army last year. The number of murders, suicides and accidents registered since 1995 has reached 200.