thedrifter
01-27-06, 10:06 AM
Russian soldier brutally hazed
By MARIA DANILOVA
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) -- Military prosecutors and top officers on Thursday pledged a thorough inquiry into one of the most brutal hazing incidents in the Russian military in years - an 18-year-old soldier whose legs and genitals had to be amputated because of beatings and torture by fellow servicemen.
Human rights groups assailed military officials for condoning rampant bullying and warned such crimes would persist until the nation abolishes the draft in favor of an all-volunteer army.
Doctors said Pvt. Andrei Sychev's legs and genitals were amputated after the New Year's Eve incident at the Chelyabinsk Tank Academy, in which older soldiers forced him to spend hours in an unnatural crouched position and brutally beat him.
At least seven other conscripts also were beaten, but they sustained less serious injuries, prosecutors said. Russian news agencies said eight servicemen - including several officers - were detained in the Ural Mountains city of Chelyabinsk, about 1,180 miles east of Moscow.
Sychev was hospitalized several days after the beating, when he was already in critical condition and unable to stand, and investigators were seeking to determine why he was not treated immediately, a prosecutors' statement said.
Authorities failed to notify Sychev's mother, Galina, until after he underwent his first amputation. "Why didn't anyone tell me: come here, you son is in grave condition?" she said in televised remarks, wiping her tears.
Sychev, who is in grave condition and unable to speak, scribbled the name of his most cruel tormentor on a piece of paper, his mother said.
His sister, Marina, told Russian television he had pleaded with his family to come to Chelyabinsk and take him home for a New Year's leave.
When his relatives said they couldn't make the trip, Sychev said: "What shall I do here? I have got sick of looking at these drunken bastards," his sister said.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov promised to punish the culprits. "We won't cover anything ... or anyone up," he said Thursday in televised remarks.
But in comments earlier in the day, he appeared to play down the incident, saying on Ekho Mosvky radio: "There is nothing serious there, otherwise I would have certainly known about it."
His remarks sparked outrage from rights activists, who blamed military commanders for violating soldiers' rights and turning a blind eye to vicious bullying in the Russian armed forces.
According to official statistics, 16 soldiers died of hazing last year, but experts say the actual number of deaths is much higher, with many conscripts driven to suicide by abuse and other bullying deaths passed off as resulting from illnesses.
The Defense Ministry said 276 servicemen killed themselves in 2005, but didn't offer any details.
Chief Military Prosecutor Alexander Savenkov acknowledged last year that the number of hazing incidents has risen in recent years. He said half of military suicides were caused by hazing.
Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have described hazing as one of Russia's biggest rights problems and have urged Russian authorities to move against the practice.
Hazing commonly involves forcing conscripts to perform endless tasks - buying alcohol, shining boots, making beds or obtaining money for senior soldiers. It also involves physical abuse, usually by drunken soldiers, such as beatings with stools or iron rods and sometimes even sexual harassment.
"As long as we have a conscript army, as long as kids are drafted there in handcuffs, as long as officers don't regard conscripts as humans and their lives, health and dignity aren't worth anything to them, such things will continue," Valentina Melnikova, head of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, a leading advocate for soldiers' rights, said on Ekho Moskvy.
All Russian men between the ages of 18 and 27 are required to serve two years in the armed forces - three years for the navy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly pledged to rebuild Russia's military, which has been demoralized and strapped for cash since the 1991 Soviet collapse.
By 2008, military officials plan to switch part of the armed forces from conscripts to volunteer soldiers and reduce the term of service by one year. But officials say this will require enlisting twice as many conscripts - around half a million per year.
Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent defense analyst, said underpaid and poorly trained officers are unwilling to carry out their duties and are ordering second-year conscripts to enforce discipline, which leads to abuse.
"Hazing is the only way of maintaining discipline in the armed forces," Felgenhauer told The Associated Press. "The situation with hazing will only get worse."
Ellie
By MARIA DANILOVA
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) -- Military prosecutors and top officers on Thursday pledged a thorough inquiry into one of the most brutal hazing incidents in the Russian military in years - an 18-year-old soldier whose legs and genitals had to be amputated because of beatings and torture by fellow servicemen.
Human rights groups assailed military officials for condoning rampant bullying and warned such crimes would persist until the nation abolishes the draft in favor of an all-volunteer army.
Doctors said Pvt. Andrei Sychev's legs and genitals were amputated after the New Year's Eve incident at the Chelyabinsk Tank Academy, in which older soldiers forced him to spend hours in an unnatural crouched position and brutally beat him.
At least seven other conscripts also were beaten, but they sustained less serious injuries, prosecutors said. Russian news agencies said eight servicemen - including several officers - were detained in the Ural Mountains city of Chelyabinsk, about 1,180 miles east of Moscow.
Sychev was hospitalized several days after the beating, when he was already in critical condition and unable to stand, and investigators were seeking to determine why he was not treated immediately, a prosecutors' statement said.
Authorities failed to notify Sychev's mother, Galina, until after he underwent his first amputation. "Why didn't anyone tell me: come here, you son is in grave condition?" she said in televised remarks, wiping her tears.
Sychev, who is in grave condition and unable to speak, scribbled the name of his most cruel tormentor on a piece of paper, his mother said.
His sister, Marina, told Russian television he had pleaded with his family to come to Chelyabinsk and take him home for a New Year's leave.
When his relatives said they couldn't make the trip, Sychev said: "What shall I do here? I have got sick of looking at these drunken bastards," his sister said.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov promised to punish the culprits. "We won't cover anything ... or anyone up," he said Thursday in televised remarks.
But in comments earlier in the day, he appeared to play down the incident, saying on Ekho Mosvky radio: "There is nothing serious there, otherwise I would have certainly known about it."
His remarks sparked outrage from rights activists, who blamed military commanders for violating soldiers' rights and turning a blind eye to vicious bullying in the Russian armed forces.
According to official statistics, 16 soldiers died of hazing last year, but experts say the actual number of deaths is much higher, with many conscripts driven to suicide by abuse and other bullying deaths passed off as resulting from illnesses.
The Defense Ministry said 276 servicemen killed themselves in 2005, but didn't offer any details.
Chief Military Prosecutor Alexander Savenkov acknowledged last year that the number of hazing incidents has risen in recent years. He said half of military suicides were caused by hazing.
Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have described hazing as one of Russia's biggest rights problems and have urged Russian authorities to move against the practice.
Hazing commonly involves forcing conscripts to perform endless tasks - buying alcohol, shining boots, making beds or obtaining money for senior soldiers. It also involves physical abuse, usually by drunken soldiers, such as beatings with stools or iron rods and sometimes even sexual harassment.
"As long as we have a conscript army, as long as kids are drafted there in handcuffs, as long as officers don't regard conscripts as humans and their lives, health and dignity aren't worth anything to them, such things will continue," Valentina Melnikova, head of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, a leading advocate for soldiers' rights, said on Ekho Moskvy.
All Russian men between the ages of 18 and 27 are required to serve two years in the armed forces - three years for the navy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly pledged to rebuild Russia's military, which has been demoralized and strapped for cash since the 1991 Soviet collapse.
By 2008, military officials plan to switch part of the armed forces from conscripts to volunteer soldiers and reduce the term of service by one year. But officials say this will require enlisting twice as many conscripts - around half a million per year.
Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent defense analyst, said underpaid and poorly trained officers are unwilling to carry out their duties and are ordering second-year conscripts to enforce discipline, which leads to abuse.
"Hazing is the only way of maintaining discipline in the armed forces," Felgenhauer told The Associated Press. "The situation with hazing will only get worse."
Ellie