Andrei taken to mental hospital for pacifism
Military registration and enlistment offices send pacifists to psychiatric examination to find out whether they have mental disorders.
“I applied for alternative military service. Then I was summoned to the registration and enlistment office. The psychiatrist sent me to the regional clinic”, - said Lida inhabitant Andrei Charnavusau to Euroradio.
The guy arrived in Hrodna on the morning of May 2. He was taken to mental hospital in the afternoon. Now he can meet his parents only in the presence of the medical staff. Andrei says that doctors did not even examine his tattoos although the regional psychiatrist had got interested in them. They only asked him about pacifism.
“They asked me why I had written the application. I informed them that I had been brought up that way. We have the right of choice in our country, don’t we?”
The right of choice will cost the guy a week of life – he will spend the time in mental hospital. If his inclination for pacifism is recognized to be a mental disorder, he will have to spend more time there.
Uladzimir Matronichau, psychiatrist and expert in narcology of Hrodna Province health centre “Psychiatry and Narcology”, has reassured us that pacifism is not considered to be a mental disorder. It is the same as religious and political views. Military registration and enlistment offices send pacifists to psychiatric examination to find out whether they have mental disorders. According to the law, only a mental disorder can be a reason to exempt a person from military service. The reluctance to kill enemies is not an illness.
“Military registration and enlistment offices did not do it because he was pacifist. They thought that he might have a mental disorder. A pacifist is a pacifist. However, a mental disorder is a reason for the Ministry of Health to exempt him from military service. That is why they do it. This is normal practice”.
Andrei will have to go through the examination. A whole group of specialists will be involved in it.
“There are methods that will allow to find out whether it is a mental disorder or not. Specialists will be working – psychiatrists and psychologists. They will conduct complex work and find it out. His application alone does not mean anything”.
The Ministry of Defense says that pacifism cannot exempt a draftee from the service unless he has some mental disorder. According to the law, political and religious views are not a reason to be exempt from military service.
This is what capital inhabitants think about military service:
