Council of Europe Concerned with Dedovshchina
The Council of Europe’s committee for human rights promulgated Tuesday the report on human rights in the army. Condition of military in Russia and former republics of former Soviet Union was predictably attacked. The report is just an intermediary move towards a resolution to be canvassed at the April meeting of PACE, some analysts are sure.
Russia’s Army provokes the greatest agitation, the report says, pointing out from 50 percent to 80 percent of conscripts experience psychological and physical pressure of officers or older soldiers.
Among the reasons that lead to mass deaths and desertion are, first of all, the heavy conditions of service and vicious hazing of young soldiers. As before, dedovshchina is extremely wide-spread in Russia and the country’s authorities are still unable even to adequately evaluate the extent of the problem.
The Council of Europe’s report is based on conclusions of two non-governmental organizations – The Solders’ Mothers’ Committee and Human Rights Watch. The report says around 3,000 soldiers are annually killed in Russia’s Army. At least a third dies because of dedovshchina and another third commits suicide (usually also because of dedovshchina), according to Solders’ Mothers’ Committee.
Russia is not the sole state of the former Soviet Union, for which dedovshchina is acute. It could be easily spotted in armies of Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the report says.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 15, 2006
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