SERBIA: Serbia angered by report on mental institutions

The Serbian government angrily rejects allegations, by a US human rights group, of systematic abuse of mentally disabled patients in hospitals and social care institutions. Serbia reacted angrily on Thursday (November 15) to a report by a disability rights group which said its mental institutions routinely use restraints that are tantamount to torturing helpless patients. Video shown by Washington-based Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI), allegedly shows systematic abuse of mentally disabled patients in Serbia's psychiatric hospitals and social care institutions. It has shocked Serbs and the international public. But Serbia's Health Minister Tomica Milosavljevic said the report entitled "Torment not Treatment", was fabricated slander. "The media's publishing of photos and videos, without any investigating of their authenticity or when they were filmed, it's very difficult to discuss," he said at a news conference in Belgrade. He said the report did not appear to adequately take into account the progress Serbia has made since 2000 to improve conditions in psychiatric hospitals. The report comes at the bad time for the Balkan nation as it battles with the West to prevent the independence of its breakaway province of Kosovo and advance its bid to join the European Union. Milosavljevic said this was not accidental. "When this is used as the top news, which has crashed Serbia for the past two days, then it means something totally different. I believe there is too much politics involved, he added. The report, on half a dozen institutions for mentally handicapped children, attributed abuse and neglect largely to understaffed and underfinanced hospitals. It cited "filthy conditions, contagious diseases and lack of medical care and rehabilitation." The report said MDRI investigators who conducted a study over four years found children and adults tied to beds, and children not allowed to leave their cribs for years. It was particularly critical of what it said was the widespread use of physical restraints. But a doctor at the Vrsac Mental Hospital, Radoje Bugarinov said there were times when patients needed to be tied down. "There are some situations when patients have to be tied up. For that we have a special procedure where you can see exactly when and why a patient was tied up, sometimes due to his own safety or for the safety of other patients," he explained. Serbian Prime Minster Vojislav Kostunica has vowed to fight back to clear his country's name but also said his government would establish a commission immediately to investigate the situation in long-term mental institutions. Serbia's treatment of the mentally ill was previously exposed after autocratic president Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown in a popular revolt in 2000. During Milosevic's rule, health care standards plummeted as government funding was diverted to pay for the wars in ex Yugoslavia. MDRI said in the report that the intention was not to accuse anyone of wrongdoing, but to point out problems. The group said it would send its report to the EU, the United Nations and other international organizations. It acknowledged conditions in Serbia's mental hospitals had vastly improved with help from foreign donors, but much more needed to be done "to address the serious human rights problems that exist for some 18,000" patients. MDRI has released similar reports on facilities in Romania, Hungary, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Turkey, Uruguay, Argentina and Serbia's province of Kosovo.

ITN Source | November 19, 2007

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