Serbia's secret shame
Updated on 15 November 2007
A video obtained by a charity shows the life for many inside Serb mental hospitals amounts to a version of hell. Unending cruelty if not by design, then by neglect. And yet tonight Serbia's Prime Minister said it's all "fabricated" and "malicious".
Shocking images of distress, malnourishment and extreme neglect of disabled inmates in Serbia's institutions have been dismissed by that country's prime minister as 'dark propaganda'.
An investigation by the charity Mental Disability Rights International documents the callous treatment of some 17,000 patients in Serbian institutions. It photographed children and adults tied down in their beds. It's claimed some were confined to a single crib for YEARS at a time.
Abuses are reported in several institutions across the country, including Kulina where some of the most inhumane treatment was filmed, with abuse also taking place at Kragujevac, Kovin and Vrsac.
Our report from foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller contains images that many viewers will find disturbing:
Its corrrespondent, was alarmed to find a 21-year-old man who looked like a boy
Out of sight, out of mind, that's how mental disability's dealt with in Serbia.
Seventeen thousand, two hundred disabled people, many of them children, condemned to subhuman conditions, segregation, disease, shackles and filth. Prepare to be shocked.
The video shows one seven year-old girl with hydrocephaly; it's easy and cheap to treat. Instead she's left to die. And without treatment, she will.
Many of the children filmed have Downs Syndrome, the mildest of disabilities; along with children with cerebral palsy, they live out their days in a bleak institution in south western Serbia.
Put any child in a place like this and they'll come out disabled. The most visible problems - such as emaciation - are the result of sheer emotional neglect; no wonder these children won't eat.
The well-established US-based charity, Mental Disability Rights International, spent four years investigating and documenting the extent of this abuse; they visited nine government institutions.
Their findings corroborated by a news crew from the US channel NBC. Its corrrespondent, was alarmed to find a 21-year-old man who looked like a boy.
Children who've spent years confined to little beds appear to simply stop growing. The journalists were granted unfettered access. But when they visited, the children had been unfettered too. The charity claims that just six hours later, they'd been tied up again.
Understaffing is mostly to blame for all this; there are far too few nurses and too many disabled people to care for, so they're just put in storage, warehoused, forgotten.
In institutions run by the ministries of health and labour, adults with mental disabilities also suffering what the charity brands "inhuman and degrading treatment" tantamount to torture in some cases - like the man with Downs Syndrome tied to the frame of his bed for eleven years.
"It is not acceptable to write off the population of those institutions; to leave the 15-17,000 people behind, to allow inhuman and degrading treatment and torture to go on, must be stopped. These are fundamental obligations of International law and immediately action is needed." Eric Rosenthal, Director Mental Disability Rights International
The abuses appear to violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights to which Serbia is subject. It prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment or torture. Improper segregation and arbitrary detention would also likely contravene the convention. This is important because one criteria for EU accession is protection of human rights - and Serbia wants to join the Union.
Which is probably why the Serbian government's come out fighting. Although at first, ministers did not deny there was a problem.
"These conditions are far from humane, the conditions are well below any acceptable level..." Rasim Ljajic, Minister for Labour and Social Policy
The Health Minister then told a Serbian radio station that he was doing his best.
"Conditions to treat disabilities are improving," he said.
Today though, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica released a statement branding the charity report "fabricated" and "malicious dark propaganda." Suspicion the report's being used for political purposes.
"We have no political agenda," the director of Mental Disability Rights International told Channel 4 News tonight. He called on the Prime Minister to take responsibility for what members of his government have already admitted.
The government's said it will set up a commission to investigate the allegations. There's a stigma attached to disability in Eastern Europe, particularly mental illness. And Serbia it seems, is no exception. This, its secret shame.
