224 suicides in Russian army

MORE than half of the 442 Russian soldiers who died last year committed suicide, Russia's defense ministry announced.A total of 224 soldiers took their lives in 2007 in a military regularly denounced for its abuses, according to official statistics. Another 126 soldiers died in accidents, not including 41 who died in road accidents. Some 15 were victims of hazing (humiliating and abusive initiations) the government said - although Russian nongovernmental organisations put the figure in the hundreds. In addition, 23 soldiers were victims of "accidental murder" and 13 died after mishandling their weapons, the ministry said. On Thursday, Russian human rights campaigners denounced what they claimed was forced conscription into the army, citing cases in which some cadets were strong-armed into signing new contracts extending their service after being physically abused. The grouping of nongovernmental human rights organisations has written to President Vladimir Putin to complain of the army's "arbitrary nature" and "massive persecutions" against its soldiers.Moscow has halved military conscription from two years to one as of 2008, but is having difficulty realising its goal to increase the number of professional soldiers in the army.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23116214-401,00.html

As in the days of Noah....