Press gangs are operating in Kazakhstan, trying to fill out the ranks of the country’s military. Draft evasion is prevalent in the Central Asian nation amid reports of widespread hazing of new recruits that occasionally results in deaths or serious injuries.

Military officials are currently facing widespread criticism over regular media reports about the bullying of conscripts. According to the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office, 270 servicemen have died while serving in the military over the past three years, while 86 soldiers have killed themselves since 2020. Dozens more have attempted suicide. Those statistics are linked to the long-standing problem of hazing in the military. 

The practice of older soldiers bullying raw conscripts – known as dedovshchina in Russian – is a holdover from the Soviet era. According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report issued in 2004, fresh conscripts in many formerly communist states have had to endure a “year-long state of pointless servitude,” during which they are abused gratuitously and punished “violently for any infractions of official or informal rules.”

“Hundreds commit or attempt suicide and thousands run away from their units,” the HRW report adds. “This abuse takes place in a broader context of denial of conscripts’ rights to adequate food and access to medical care, which causes many to go hungry or develop serious health problems, and abusive treatment by officers.”

One of the most resonant, recent cases of an alleged hazing-related injury in Kazakhstan involved National Guard soldier Erbayan Mukhtar, who fell into a coma during his sixth month in the service. The unit’s leadership, without informing the 22-year-old soldier’s relatives about the incident, admitted him to a hospital, where part of his brain was removed. As a result, Mukhtar was left unable to eat or breathe on his own. He is currently cared for by medical workers hired by his relatives. Military investigators reported that Mukhtar slipped in the latrine and hit his head. The soldier’s relatives, pointing to the bodily injuries he suffered, assert his injury was caused by a severe beating.

Suspected dedovshchina-related incidents are often not investigated, and alleged perpetrators are rarely held accountable. Military officials routinely attribute deaths and injuries to accidents. At the same time, many victims show extensive bodily injuries indicative of the use of violence. Relatives of victims complain that the problem of hazing remains unresolved precisely because of the connivance of defence officials, who consider the phenomenon to be a military tradition.

The Ministry of Defence’s efforts to eradicate hazing have so far proven ineffective. Deputy Defence Minister Darkhan Akhmediyev announced plans in October to install video cameras with artificial intelligence technology in military barracks, enabling the “recording [of] all incidents.” However, according to members of parliament, the ministry had already installed thousands of video cameras by 2023, with no tangible impact on discouraging bullying.

Dedovshchina is widely acknowledged to be a major factor in explaining why lots of Kazakh youngsters are not answering their conscription notices. Kazakhstan’s autumn draft, which got under way in September and runs until December, is apparently falling well short of its target of inducting 39,000 new conscripts into the military.

Authorities are now resorting to extreme measures to round up draft dodgers. A video filmed in the capital Astana, now circulating on social networks, depicts a suspected incident of impressment outside a shopping mall in which men in plain clothes are shown trying to hustle younger men into a car. As some women try to stop them, their indignant cries can be heard: “Film everything and post it!”

On November 12, the Defence Ministry commented on the video, explaining that many conscripts are not responding to conscription summons and do not live at their registered addresses. In such cases, according to the law, the police must ensure their forced appearance, the ministry maintained.

“During raids, sometimes citizens do not obey legal demands of the employees of internal affairs bodies and resist,” the Ministry of Defence said.

Almaz Kumenov is an Almaty-based journalist.

This article first appeared on Eurasianet here.