Sviatlana Korzhych: I Stand for Other People's Children

The mother of the deceased soldier still has a lot of questions to the Minister of Defence of Belarus.

On March 21st , Minsk presented the National Award "Charter'97" for the protection of human rights. Sviatlana Korzhych, the mother of the deceased soldier Aliaksandr Korzhych, became one of award holders.

The death of Private Korzhych in the military unit in Pechy shocked the whole country, people learned about the terrible situation in the Belarusian army with hazing and extortion of money from soldiers.

Sviatlana Korzhych does not believe an official version of her son's suicide and continues seeking the truth. Today she answers questions of Charter97.org.

- The Charter'97 Award was a complete surprise to me. Thank you very much for your support, recognition of my struggle. Unfortunately, many people do not understand me and my "war".

For example, a man whose son serves in Pechy came to my work today. We started to discuss the news about the 18-year-old soldier who left the unit and he hasn't been found for several days. You wrote about it. In general, we keep in touch. An elderly woman approaches and starts to sling dirt at these poor soldiers: "What is it, how do they give birth to such stupid soldiers? My son used to serve in Germany, my second son served in Trans-Baikal, and everything was fine".

I just parry her question: "My relative also served in Germany, and my husband served in the navy in Soviet times, and everyone came home. But my son didn't, and I'm standing for other people's children".

In general, in such a situation, your support is especially important to me.

- What would you like to say to Belarusian mothers who have their sons serving in the army?

- I'll tell you how I spent my day off. I visited the grave of the soldier who died in 2015 in the forest in Kalinkavichy district. There are two flowers on the grave. For four years neither the military enlistment office, nor the authorities did anything.

I went to see the soldier's mother. She earns 300 rubles (150 dollars) a month. She says she can't install a tombstone, she can barely make ends meet. You see, how the situation looks like - there is nobody to help.

I looked at this poor mother... She says when the coffin was opened, her son was beaten and injured. Those who brought him, closed the coffin and said "Hurry up, we don't have time". They said he hung himself. I'm shocked. Who did come up that the young guy hung himself? It seems that there is the rule in the army - if you say a word to the officer personnel, they will "suicide you".

We have to fight this injustice! My support team and I plan to go to the Ministry of Defence on April 3 and ask Raukou whether he cares about our children or not.

It's noteworthy that there's another dead soldier in that cemetery. My legs were shaking. They recruited our children, returned them in coffins, and now they lie in the woods... For what?

By the way, I've been told how trainings are held under Brest. One soldier was buried in a trench up to the neck, as in the famous movie "White Sun of the Desert", and all the unit walked and spit in his face.

Anyway, I will take a stand. I will fight them, whatever it takes. I am not going to be silent. My only son was taken away from me...

- You’ve said you disagree with the sentence of the court in your son’s case. Will you continue the struggle so that people know the truth about the tragedy in Pechy?

- As I already said, I am going to address to the Ministry of Defense soon. I want to find the doctors who worked in Pechy. It appears they fled somewhere. In the documents, for example, there is a reference to a Major-Psychologist who claimed that it was possible to commit suicide, having put a plastic bag on one’s head.

I am going to take an extract from the criminal case and read it to the officials of the Ministry of Defense who will receive me. I’ve already read this to the officials in the military enlistment office, when the Deputy Military Commissar on the issues of ideology from Brest came to Pinsk. So I gave him a lecture to raise awareness where they send our children.

They tell tales about close communication with military units. So I asked them straightaway: has any of you been there at least once? Have your children served there? Have you seen what conditions they created in the unit? They gathered cadets in Pechy, while there was no soap for them.”

I would also like to stress how they told me in the Investigatory Committee that it was me who should be blamed for the tragedy with my son, as I rendered “sponsor aid”.

What am I to blame for? Before the army service, both Sasha and I worked, my mother helped. My kid had everything, and suddenly he found himself in the conditions where he had to hide even soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, socks, food. So I had to render “sponsor aid” of BYN 50 a week. Sasha’s last salary, BYN 600, also went to the military unit.

I wanted to help my son, while in fact paid the warrant officer’s utility bills, paid for his food. I want to ask a question: what were the officers doing at that moment? How come they missed this?

The most horrid thing is thaty I had an impression they consider me guilty of underpaying someone. When we went to take Sasha’s body, a Colonel, who arrived to Pechy to be rewarded with General’s epaulets, approached me. He told me my son had debts.

I was shocked and asked to explain what debts there could be as I sent my son money on first call. I calculated – over a thousand dollars was spent in four months. This was my “sponsor aid”.

It was later that I found out that my son’s wages card “travelled” around entire Belarus. Sasha and his friend Illia tracked it via internet-banking and saw that, for instance, at 2 a.m. someone paid with it at the petrol station, for fuelling the car.

It turns out, in the Belarusian army it is possible to take a soldier’s banking card so that officers could use it as they wish. Everything started with this card.

When Aliaksandr wanted to take his card back from the warrant officer for the first time, there was Captain Churkou sitting in the chancellory, who gave no reaction and took no measures. He is fired now, but why do I care? He’s alive, healthy and works at some logistic company.

When Sasha went to the chancellory to take the second attempt to return the card, the squadron officer Sukavenka was there. Besides, he has a price for three leave warrants - $500. This young man needed Iphones.

I am telling you all this so that you have awareness about the modern army. Why do we need such an army anyway? Hire contract officers! Such an officer can be honestly paid $ 1000 and more for four months. Any parent would agree to this. Let the contract officer work, no hazing, no deaths.

- In your opinion, what happened in the training military unit in Pechy in the actual fact?

- I know about the incident which happened prior to Sasha’s death. They beat him so severely in Pechy so he could not move. He was dying on the table, while the sergeants tried to hide him.

During the investigation I asked one of the sergeants, Skuratovich: “So, did Sasha die like this, on that table?” And he said, “No, I called Captain Churkou. He came and took Korzhych someplace.” Besides, that man Churkou was later taken by Raukou for promotion. The Head of the medical unit was sitting there crying. I called her. At first, they told me she couldn’t be found anywhere. How did she treat my son? She took no measures! Aliaksandr was held in the punitive confinement cell with grated windows, like some mentally ill person, when he had a fever of 39,2.

They later told me at every hearing that he had a “hidden form of a mental disease”. Well, that’s ridiculous. Why did you take him into the army in the first place then?

On May 18, he passed the medical examination before the army service, with no problem. He was healthy, and then, after a couple of months of being in that military unit, when he came to the warrant officer to take back his wages card, he suddenly appeared dying on the table and mentally ill.

They say he told after the beating “You will surely pay for this.” So they convicted him. This is my opinion.

When my son was discharged from the medical squadron, he got to the medical unit. There, no one allegedly saw him for 8 days. So now again, a soldier has been missing for 6 days and no one knows anything.

Psychiatrists testified in court. One of them said Korzhych was mentally healthy. I summoned a specialist from the military hospital, he also said my son was sane. It was then I said that normal people gave normal evidence.

According to the investigation, Sasha hanged himself in the premises of the medical squadron, having tied his own legs together with a bootlace and put a T-shirt on his head. Isn’t it obvious these are too complicated actions for a suicide?

I want to tell another episode from the trial, which can be called nothing but theatrical staging. They brought an 80-year-old man to the trial in my son’s case, and he started telling that what happened with my son is the third such incident in the world history. Allegedly, he committed a queer suicide, having tied own legs and arms and put a shirt over his head in order to keep warm. I simply couldn’t endure this, so I rose up and said:

- Excuse me, are you a doctor?

- No, I’m not a psychiatrist.

- I will tell you so. This was a wanted child. He lived a very beautiful life. Sasha was not capable of a suicide. His last words were “Mom, I will lead the war with the army myself. I only need to survive 10 days in Pechy.” Do you think he rushed away to hang himself after this?

- I don’t know, let the investigators solve this.

- So why did you come here? Who brought you here? What for?

The people who served in Pechy told me that Sasha hanged in the room that is called the torture chamber. There is another room nearby, a ventilation room, for the mummification of dead bodies. So, I don’t know for how long they kept Sasha’s body in that second room.

Eight days, imagine that, for eight days nobody looked for my son! Why? I think they wanted to let the postmortem lividity to start manifesting, to conceal the traces of bodily injuries.

That is why I am going to the Ministry of Defense. I have many questions to Mr. Raukou. He should explain to me, where all these heads of the medical squadron, officers are. Otherwise, I will find them by myself. They must tell what they did with my son.

What is the point of such an army, medical squadron, training center? I’m telling you, if I had any more kids, none of them would go to serve in the army.

They took away my only son. I will not let anyone make a self-killer out of my kid. Let the people from the Investigatory Committee put themselves in my place.

Today, the thing that gives me strength is that even in Pinsk, people come to me and say “thank you.”