IWPR - March 28th, 2003

Suicide is increasingly seen as the only way out for young recruits beaten and bullied in the Belarus military.

By Anastasiya Dorofeeva in Gomel and Minsk

Sergei tried to kill himself after less than six months in the Belarus army, following continual beatings and harassment from his fellow soldiers. One night, he crept into the toilet and slashed his wrists in a desperate attempt to leave his misery behind – but he was discovered in time and his life was saved.

“I couldn’t endure this hell anymore,” he told IWPR. “Everything here is directed towards humiliating you and destroying your personality. You might be woken up at night and forced to sing songs, or forced to do squats and push-ups. And far, far worse things can also happen to you.”

Sergei - not his real name - was one of many victims of the phenomenon known as hazing, in which experienced soldiers conduct a systematic bullying campaign against new recruits. “It is normal to take the money, cigarettes and food sent from home to a dukh, or spirit, which is what they call the new soldiers,” he said.

The trauma is still too fresh for Sergei to be able to discuss his own personal experiences in any detail. “They beat me up violently and frequently,” he concluded briefly.

Military sources suggest at least 27 soldiers committed suicide last year - twice as many as died in 2001. Unsuccessful attempts are far more common, and their number is difficult to estimate, as it has been classified by the defence ministry's educational and information department.

One doctor at the Gomel military hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IWPR that suicide attempts were far more frequent than actual deaths.

“It’s not very easy to die in the army, as everyone is closely watched at all times,” he said. “Many ‘suicides’ are not serious in their intentions, it is rather a sign of protest.”

Vladimir Seroshtan, head of the defence ministry's information department, insisted the suicide rate in the armed forces is no higher than it is in the country as a whole. He also maintained that the situation in the military was “changing for the better", adding, "Fewer people die in the army than they do in factories or in car accidents”.

Seroshtan maintained that personal problems, rather than hazing, were the main factors driving recruits to kill themselves. “Every time a soldier commits suicide a criminal case is opened," he said. "Above all we talk to the commanding officers, whose duty it is to know the psychology of each soldier.”

But military officials are far from sympathetic to all cases of recruits taking their lives. “Boys frequently are not prepared to endure the hardships of the army,” one employee in the military prosecutor’s office said. “Many come completely unprepared, and they are simply too delicate and spoiled.”

Under military rules, suicide cases may be treated as if they had died in the course of their duty if it is judged that they committed the act when mentally ill or were pushed. In those cases, families of the victim are entitled to receive benefits – but this is very rare.

Lyudmila Shklyarenko, who spent months trying to investigate the death of her son, said that in order to find out what really happened within the military, families have “to plunge into a terrifying world of lies”.

The head of the Belarusian Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, Galina Chigrinova, described it as an agonising process. “Besides the anguish of loss, parents must then suffer the pain of injustice,” she said.

An employee of the central military hospital said suicide attempts were only the tip of the iceberg of the hazing problem, which was responsible for a host of physical injuries regularly inflicted on recruits.

“Recruits are often taken to hospital suffering ruptures of the spleen, fractures to the jaw and concussion - not to mention large haematomas caused by severe kickings from soldiers’ heavy boots,” he said.

One lieutenant serving in a military unit in Uruchje, near Minsk, said hazing happened in almost every unit.

The officer described one torture which is a particular favourite in many units. "It’s known as the bicycle. Matches are lit between the toes of a sleeping person. When he begins to burn, he starts waving his legs wildly while still half-asleep,” he said.

“It’s one of many jokes played on new recruits. But we try to ensure that the commanding officers don’t hear about it – in fact, only extreme cases ever reach the top.”

This culture of secrecy makes hazing almost impossible to stamp out. Officers rarely get to hear about specific cases, as the victims are well aware that their torture will only increase if they are known to tell tales on older soldiers.

In an effort to combat the scourge, the selection process for recruits is being tightened and psychologists are being assigned to every military unit and battalion.

But Sergei remains sceptical about the changes, saying, "What can psychologists do if the problem is not me – but is actually all around me? It’s hardly going to stop the beatings.”

Anastasiya Dorofeeva is a reporter for Vechernyi Gomel in Gomel