Bullying in Russia and the UK

The Times, October 21 2004

Armies confront by definition the most complex challenge of all: being focussed on the need to kill or be killed. Frightened at such a threat, needing to cover up this fear, it is not surprising that they lurch into excesses of unthinking and "regimented" aggression or cover&ndashup against anyone who challenges the rigidly maintained structure of their thinking. The Pentagon has said that 5,500 US servicemen have deserted since the start of the war in Iraq. Most will, if caught, face the inhuman treatment armies mete out to deserters. Bullying is rife.

A report by Human Rights Watch in October 2004 describes the experience of Aleksei Andrushchenko, who joined the Russian Army expecting it would "make a man of him". Instead, it turned him into a physical and mental wreck. After less than a year of systematic abuse at the hands of older conscripts, he took his own life. His final humiliation was being forced to simulate sexual acts with another conscript. Mr Andrushchenko was one of hundreds of thousands of recruits who suffer appalling abuse every year as part of initiation rites to Russia″s under&ndashfunded Armed Forces.

The report said that ritual abuse, or "hazing", kills dozens of conscripts every year, causes hundreds to commit suicide and thousands to desert their units. Many more are traumatised. Earlier Alexandr Savenkov, Russia″s chief military prosecutor, revealed that 25 soldiers had died as a result of hazing in the first half of this year alone. During the same period, 109 committed suicide, 60 because of hazing, he said.Experts say that the actual death toll is higher, as official statistics include only cases that reach the courts. "This is not just a few bad apples - it is entirely systematic," Steve Crawshaw, the London director of Human Rights Watch, said.

Hazing is now considered one of Russia″s most serious human rights problems as it brutalises the 800,000 conscripts in the Armed Forces, creating a culture of violence that spills into the conflict in Chechnya and society itself. It is also a threat to national security as it creates an army of malnourished, unfit and psychologically disturbed soldiers. Tens of thousands try to keep their sons out of the military because of hazing. As wealthier families are more successful, recruits generally come from poorer segments of society and many suffer from malnutrition, alcoholism or drug addiction even before they join. Under the system known as "rule of the grandfathers", second year conscripts force new recruits into a year of servitude, enforced through punishments. In turn, they avenge themselves on the next generation of conscripts.

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