InterPress News Service (IPS) - July 30, 1998
Andrei Ivanov

The cause is partly down to the general ill-health of the Russian population, reflected in the condition of the nation's young draftees. The rest is blamed on the rise of drug abuse among the country's abused and hungry soldiery.

According to Moscow military district Prosecutor Mikhail Kislitsyn, since the beginning of 1997, 128 cases of HIV were reported in the district compared with just 32 for the period from 1993 to 1996. The district covers 18 regions in Central Russia.

Of the 160 servicemen officially diagnosed as HIV positive, 18 percent are officers or non-commissioned officers -- and 12 percent of those are thought to have contracted the virus while serving in the army, Kislitsyn says.

"This means that drugs are being supplied to servicemen within the army, which they then inject using infected needles," he explains, adding that there had been a noticeable decline in general health in the army during the past five years.

He blamed the falling standards on doctors in the conscription commissions who accept many who are unfit. This is largely because of the increasing numbers of young men dodging the draft. The doctors now take on unfit conscripts just to boost the figures.

Kislitsyn fears for the future. "I am convinced that the number of HIV infections in the army will grow unless we take fundamental measures at the draft stage," he warns.

In 1997, three months after the spring draft in Moscow, 341 conscripts were discharged because of poor health, but their local conscription commissions had passed them fit to serve when they were first called up.

This year, extra care is being taken with any draftees who claim they are unfit to serve. Kislitsyn says that following a medical inspection of some 12,000 conscripts in the Moscow military district for 1998, 822 were sent to be treated for various medical conditions, 636 were found to be malnourished, and 14 were "immediately sent home".

He adds that the Defence Ministry plans to sue local administrations to seek reimbursement for funds spent on those illegally drafted.

But as far as AIDS and HIV is concerned, Kislitsyn says, mandatory testing has not yet been introduced. The army is holding discussions with the health minister to arrange for tests to be made available." Kislitsyn warns that HIV-positive conscripts pose a psychological and physical danger to other soldiers and themselves.

There is growing concern among parents of conscripts. Galina Shaldikova, president of the Society of Servicemen's Parents, is very worried about the high number of HIV cases reported.

"And these are just the official figures," she says. "In reality they are probably twice or three times as high." But she also points out that HIV infection was just one of a series of problems draftees face when they are called up into the Russian army.

"They are overworked and underfed, too cold in winter and bitten to death by mosquitoes in the summer," she explains. "It is no wonder that some of them turn to drugs to avoid the stress and depression."

Russia's Defence Ministry has expressed alarm at the state of teenagers' health and estimates that no more than 10 percent can cope with army service. During the past five years, the number of adolescent drug addicts with long records has increased by 50 percent and those who have just recently taken to drugs have tripled.

The average weight of male adolescents' decreased by 5-6 kilograms over the same period and 10 to 15 percent are too emaciated for conscription.

The number of conscription-age patients suffering from sexually transmitted diseases increased eightfold in 1997, alcoholics and drug addicts increased four-fold, and of patients with tuberculosis increased 50 percent.

Ultimately, conscription is the responsibility of Colonel-General Vladislav Putilin, who heads the Chief Organisational and Mobilisation Administration in the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff.

He admits that Russia's 2,000 conscription offices are currently facing serious problems. The situation is not being made any easier because the offices are now undergoing reforms.

They are no longer to be just military bodies but will also have to recognise and act in conformity with civil legislation.

Like the armed forces in general, they are underfunded by the federal government. For example, only 32 billion old roubles (5.8 million dollars) was assigned to the 1997 recruitment campaign, instead of the required 150 billion roubles (27.2 million).

"We try to partly compensate for the lack of federal budget allocations with money from local budgets, explains Putilin.

"Military registration and enlistment offices have to closely interact with local authorities: it is only in this way that they will be able to get the necessary funds to prepare young people for active duty.

He is concerned about the increasing cases of suicides and murders, and incidents of shooting guards on duty.

"The main reason for this is the conscription of people who are physically unfit for service. A conscript's health -- both physical and mental-- is one of the key problems facing the army today."

He says Russian draft boards reject about 70,000 young men each year, on the grounds of their having mental disorders. "But no one knows, however, the exact number of mentally-deranged draftees who pass the physical examinations and get into the army," he admits.

The main problem is lack of finance. "Only Moscow can now afford drug and alcohol addiction tests, costing 2.50 dollars each -- thanks to the money allocated by City Hall for the purpose. The necessary equipment is available in no other Russian city or town."

Every year, the army now drafts 27,000 underweight men, says Putilin. "They can't start serving before they are fed well enough to put on some weight. Strange as it may seem, the largest number of such boys come from Moscow and Siberia. There is no doubt that conscripts like this create an additional problem for the army," he says.

"We have even proposed that the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers adopt a motion that this category of young men should be exempted from the draft. But the women have refused our proposal, saying that in the army they will at least be fattened up."

However, Putilin hopes that the quality of the induction examination will improve.

"We have developed a special programme which, along with examining the draftees' mental health, will enable us to reveal those who are physically unfit for military service and to remove them from our draft rolls."

He explains that the system is being computerised. But more important, the staff at military registration and enlistment offices now include medical specialists who are largely civilian.

"Their conclusions are based on regulations adopted by the government rather than by the Defence Ministry, which gives us hope for their greater objectivity." (END/IPS/AI/RJ/98)

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