Group raises alarm for Russia's street children

Reuters North America
12 March 1997

MOSCOW (Reuter) - A million children are homeless in Russia and the nation's youngsters suffer an indifference symptomatic of a "grave sickness in society," a charity said Wednesday.

It called on President Boris Yeltsin to act.

"The rights of Russia's children are being abused both within families and in state institutions," said the Moscow Human Rights Research Center, citing what it said were Interior Ministry data.

The group, which counts Soviet-era dissident Yelena Bonner among its leaders, called on parliament, the government and the president to set up a system to monitor childcare, including an agency to protect the rights of abused or neglected children, adding that the abandoned children were turning to crime.

Among the homeless million, over half are orphans or abandoned. Some 150,000 live in care.

The group's figures showed one in three of these turns to crime on leaving. One in 10 commits suicide after being turned out.

Russia's criminal justice system, far from rehabilitating children, was turning them into hardened offenders, it said.

For Russians, abandoned children, or "besprizorniki," were a phenomenon associated with the massive dislocation of society in the years of civil war following the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

The economic crisis ushered in by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 has given the term an all too modern connotation as ragged, unwashed children have become a common sight.

Return to PANGAEA HomePage Chechnya's Children STREET CHILDREN
Russia

VOICE OF AMERICA
DATE=1/30/97
TITLE=CHECHNYA'S CHILDREN
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=GROZNY

INTRO: RUSSIA'S BREAKAWAY REGION OF CHECHNYA IS SLOWLY RECOVERING AFTER 21-MONTHS OF WAR. THE DEFEATED RUSSIAN FORCES HAVE PULLED OUT, AND CHILDREN ARE AGAIN PLAYING IN THE STREETS. BUT AS VOA'S PETER HEINLEIN DISCOVERED IN THE CHECHEN CAPITAL GROZNY, THE YOUNGEST OF CHECHNYA'S FIGHTERS ARE BEING HAUNTED BY IMAGES OF WAR AS THEY TRY TO BECOME CHILDREN AGAIN.

TEXT: AT FIRST GLANCE, ELA LATAYEV SEEMS LIKE AN ORDINARY 14-YEAR OLD BOY. HIS THIN FRAME AND BABY FACE MAKE HIM LOOK EVEN YOUNGER THAN HE IS. WHEN VISITORS ARRIVE AT THE HAPPY FAMILY ORPHANAGE IN GROZNY, ELA AND 15 OTHER CHILDREN ARE CROWDED AROUND A TELEVISION SET, LAUGHING AS THEY WATCH AN AMERICAN COMEDY VIDEO.

BUT ELA IS NO ORDINARY 14-YEAR OLD. HE IS A COMBAT-HARDENED VETERAN OF CHECHNYA'S CIVIL WAR. WHEN ASKED ABOUT HIS ROLE IN THE FIGHTING, HIS EYES NARROW, HIS VOICE SEEMS TO CHANGE. HE TELLS OF HIS WORK IN A RECONNAISSANCE UNIT BEHIND ENEMY LINES.

///LATAYEV ACT UP, THEN FADE TO VOICE OVER...///

I WAS SCARED. ALL THE TIME I THOUGHT "I'M GOING TO DIE". IT WAS FRIGHTENING. I SAW CORPSES. I SAW DOGS EAT RUSSIAN CORPSES.

///END ACT///

ELA SAYS HE LIVED ON THE STREETS AFTER A RUSSIAN ROCKET DESTROYED HIS HOME AND BADLY INJURED HIS PARENTS EARLY IN THE WAR. HE SAYS HE STILL HAS NIGHTMARES OF THE HORRORS HE WITNESSED.

///2ND LATAYEV ACT UP, THEN FADE TO VOICE OVER...///

I SAW A MAN BLOWN TO PIECES, I SAW PEOPLE DIE, I HAD TO DRAG BODIES AWAY. PEOPLE RUNNING AROUND IN THEIR UNDERWEAR BECAUSE A BOMB HAD HIT THEIR HOUSE. AND I THOUGHT, THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO MY FAMILY, TOO.

///END ACT///

THE FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF THE "HAPPY FAMILY HOME," 30-YEAR OLD KHADIZHAT GATAYEVA, SERVED AS A FIELD NURSE FOR THE REBELS DURING THE FINAL DAYS OF THE WAR. AN ORPHAN HERSELF, SHE DECIDED TO DEVOTE HER LIFE TO CHILDREN AFTER SEEING SEVERAL YOUNGSTERS LYING DEAD IN THE STREET.

SHE OPENED THE "HAPPY FAMILY HOME" FOUR MONTHS AGO IN TWO ABANDONED APARTMENTS. SHE HAS TAKEN IN MORE THAN 30 WAR ORPHANS, ALL OF WHOM CALL HER "MAMA."

BUT SHE SAYS THE JOB HAS PROVED MORE DIFFICULT THAN SHE IMAGINED, PARTLY BECAUSE THE CHILDREN HAVE SUCH DEEP EMOTIONAL SCARS.

///GATAYEVA ACT UP, THEN FADE TO...///

THOSE KIDS, YOU CAN IMAGINE, AFTER TWO OR THREE YEARS IN THE WAR, THESE KIDS ARE ANGRY. HOSTILE. NOT JUST AT THE RUSSIAN TROOPS WHO BOMBED AND KILLED THEM, BUT AT THE ENTIRE RUSSIAN NATION. THEIR PSYCHOLOGY IS NOT NORMAL.

///END ACT///

MS. GATAYEVA SAYS THE CHILDREN ARE OBSESSED WITH WAR. SHE DISPLAYS PICTURES THEY HAVE DRAWN OF RUSSIAN HELICOPTERS SHOOTING INTO BURNING BUILDINGS WHILE GUNMEN CARRYING CHECHEN FLAGS FIRE BACK FROM THE GROUND.

WHEN THE HOME RECENTLY RECEIVED A DONATION OF SOME MODELING CLAY, THE CHILDREN IMMEDIATELY SHAPED IT INTO REPLICAS OF HAND GRENADES, COMPLETE WITH TINY DETONATOR PINS.

///2ND GATAYEVA ACT UP, THEN FADE TO VOICEOVER...///

ANY OF THESE KIDS CAN BREAK DOWN AND REASSEMBLE ANY WEAPON, DO WHATEVER HE WANTS WITH IT. THESE KIDS, THEY'RE UNBELIEVABLE.

///END ACT///

A PSYCHOLOGIST WHO HAS VOLUNTEERED TO WORK WITH THE CHILDREN CALLS THEM A LOST GENERATION. SHE SAYS THE WAR HAS DONE PERMANENT PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE.

MR. GATAYEVA IS MORE HOPEFUL. SHE REACHES INTO A DRAWER AND PULLS OUT A LETTER WRITTEN BY 14-YEAR OLD ELA LATAYEV. HE HAS DRAWN A PICTURE OF A WOLF, THE SYMBOL OF THE CHECHEN FIGHTERS. UNDERNEATH ARE THE WORDS, "MAMA, YOU ARE OUR MOTHER WOLF, AND WE ARE YOUR CUBS." (SIGNED)

NEB/PFH/PCF/KL

30-Jan-97 12:54 PM EST (1754 UTC) NNNN

Source: Voice of America

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