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Third International Congress of Soldiers’ Mothers
FOR LIFE AND FREEDOM
RESOLUTION REGARDING THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF THE ONGOING MILITARY OPERATIONS IN CHECHNYA
Participants of the Third International Congress of Soldiers’ Mothers «For Life and Freedom», representing 107 regional organizations of soldiers’ mothers of Russia and 14 Russian and international human rights and peace-making organizations, with great sorrow establish that in Russia the number of citizens who are becoming victims of the armed conflict and counter-terrorist military operations in Chechnya is constantly growing. Negative consequences include the following:
- many hundreds of thousands of participants in the fighting, including servicemen by conscription who are serving in conditions of constant stress and being exposed to the negative experience of having scorn for another’s life and human dignity, and who are completely uneducated about the norms of international humanitarian law, the laws of war, and proper treatment of the civilian population. After their return from war they are forgotten.
- over 20,000 dead servicemen, including those who are missing. The military authorities are scared to publish even a list of the dead and missing in the first Chechen war. As the Ministry of Defense explains, «the committing to publicity of lists of servicemen who were lost (died) in battle can lead to the pursuit of members of their families and relatives by terrorists», and among the disappeared «servicemen who deserted their units can be found…voluntarily taking part in fighting on the side of groups of bandits» (quote from a letter of the Ministry of Defense 1158/ěě216 from 25/03/2002);
- some tens of thousands of invalids as a result of military trauma and military service. According to new pension laws, from 2002 pensions increased, but far from all are paid – social security departments do not manage. First, the problem of prostheses (artificial limbs) remains acute – for growing young people, who need to change prostheses frequently, new prostheses are very difficult to find;
- more than a million psychologically traumatized young people have returned from war. Social degeneration and lack of social resources pushes them to crime, and leads to alcoholism, drug use, and suicide. «Vietnam», «Afghan», and «Chechen» syndromes are not paid attention to: for all of Russia there is one medical center, located in Moscow, which professionally provides psychological-psychiatric help to all victims of the war in Chechnya - former servicemen as well as civilians. 60 beds for all Russia are too few.
- not less than ten million parents, children, and wives, the grief of which the government does not notice.
- some hundreds of thousands of victims of fighting are civilians who are deprived of their homes and not able to lead a normal life.
The persistence of the General Staff and law enforcement agencies in the preservation of principles of military administration of the last centuries is ruinous for Russia. Preserving these principles, we cannot compensate for the disgrace of the Chechen wars or eradicate the cult of violence, which today flourishes in Russia. We need a contemporary military policy, free professional preparation of citizens, and free recruiting to the army of citizens for which military service is a profession.
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