Oleg from Chechnia

Oleg carried out his military service in the military unit # 29 483 in the town of Vladikavkaz. The soldiers were treated like slaves in the unit : they were sent to work for two days and nights, were not fed consistently during that time, and sergeants and the senior draft soldiers would beat the junior draft soldiers.
Lice, cockroaches and mites were present in the cold caserns.

An extract from the Oleg’s letters :

“It is very hot here, and they have us run to the firing ground, 8 km from the unit. So, you have to march there 8 km at such hot weather and then march back. Moreover, when you get there they make you run till you faint. Then they stop us to have a smoke, and you keep running till someone else falls down. They killed a lad there in the field on July 22th: they sent him to fetch cigarettes and he had no money to buy them. When he came back to the field the sergeants struck him on his chest, in the region of the heart. He died, literally, in a couple of minutes.”

“There is no way out from here but to go to Chechnya. Almost no one wants to go there but their opinions are not asked for. They are simply beaten until they sign the contract. One young lad just like me was beaten to death. And they wrote to the parents that their son had trodden on an electric cable and died.”

Oleg was sent to the mountains after 1.5 months of military service ( 40 km from the Chechen border) to be on watch :

“Our obligations were the following. If someone is walking during the day you shout : “Halt!”. If this “body” keeps moving you fire into the air. If “it” pays no attention, you can fire at the legs. If someone walks at night, you fire without warning. You fire whoever it is. They said not to save cartridges.”

So sergeants continued to brutalize soldiers in the mountains. And Oleg left for the mountains. He wandered until he stumbled upon a Chechen shepherd, who warmed and fed Oleg and led him to the Special Troops of Fast Reaction ( STFR) policemen. The latter transferred him to the local city, and a local there called Oleg’s mom. She came and fetched him. At the present time Oleg is being examined by civil doctors. He needs rehabilitation. Oleg’s family seeks to receive an order to go to a military hospital to determine his military service fitness.

Kamenka

Two very worried women came to the organization on the 20.10.2000. They brought a young man. He looked like a little beast, with fear in his eyes, bound movements, and the absolute refusal to contact anyone at all. This was Dovran.

The women turned to be city street cleaners. They had done a regular survey of basements, and had found two youngsters at terrible conditions in one of them. Dovran was hanging in a noose tied to a pipe., the other, Alesha, was laying on the floor. Nadejda took the boy out of the noose and led him to her place. She learnt the boys had been forced to leave their unit because of numerous acts of abuse.

Dovran and Alesha had served in a military unit located in the town of Kamenka of the Leningrad region as part of the Peacekeeping brigade. Most all the officer staff and many of the senior staff soldiers had participated in the Chechen hostilities. All of them needed psychological rehabilitation, which were not being provided for them. Alesha and Dovran had suffered from brutal beatings committed by their drunk captain as well as the senior draft soldiers.

Their mental state was undermined. They left their unit several times, and committed several suicide attempts. Nadejda led Dovran to the organization and helped Alesha return back home to the Republic of Bashkiria. There he addressed a military commissariat. The military commissary said to him “ go to your unit.” After that Alesha addressed our organization. Dovran and Alesha were examined by psychiatrists from the Bechtereva Reseach Medical Institute, supported by citizens’ donations ( generally it is poor people that make donations).

Based on the doctors’ diagnoses submitted to the local prosecutor’s office, they were recommended and sent through an examination by a medical military commission to determine their military service fitness.