"When Only Belarusians Were Left To Serve, It Seemed That Hazing Would Wane"

The Commander of the Internal Troops told about hazing in the Belarusian army.

Deputy Interior Minister – Internal Troops Commander Yury Karayeu shared his experience in combating hazing, when meeting with the graduates of the Internal Troops Faculty of the Military Academy.

As the magazine Spetsnaz reports, Karayeu notes that the death of conscript Aliaksandr Korzhych in Pechy reveals that "the main danger in the sphere of violating statutory rules of relations in the modern army is the trade and money relations between servicemen, in the simplest terms – the ordinary extortion: transferring money to bank cards, "purchasing" certain benefits, using mobile phones at exorbitant tariffs."

Karayeu notes that there was "an utter race-hatred hazing" in the USSR." After the collapse of the USSR, I thought that since only Belarusians were left to serve, the problem of hazing would disappear by itself. But then the dominance of sergeants turned up. And in a few years, the age-related difference in conscriptions returned. What happened was that everyone was acting under the principle: they’ve mocked me, and I will do it, too."

Karayeu says that, as commander of a military unit, he managed to reveal the whole system of hazing in it in two weeks. The deputy commander of one of the platoons, a senior sergeant, was "at the head of all the pestilence." According to the Deputy Minister, the reason for the violation of the statutory relations, first of all, is the absence of the platoon commander (this position is vacant), indifference of the company commander, unit commander's fear of responsibility.

"If the violation has occurred, then the paramount task of the platoon commander is to report this and clear himself of the sin of concealment," – Karayeu said.

In his opinion, any crime occurring in a unit is "a blow to the troops, power departments, the state and the president."

Also Yury Karayeu named the main evil, with which the young officer encounters: "1. Alcohol: how many where and with whom. 2. Money: debts, liens, games. 3. Night pastime: restaurants, clubs, discos."