TEEN ADDICTS GET CLUB "CURE"

Russian City Lashes Youths In War On Drugs

The teenage heroin addict knew what would happen when his mother
brought him to the City Without Drugs rehabilitation centre. He had
heard about the beatings given to new arrivals. It was just after
midnight when his turn came.

Accompanied by another young addict, he was taken in silence from a
damp, overcrowded cellar where he had briefly been held and escorted
to a derelict house nearby.

He was strapped face down to a narrow bed and his trousers were pulled
down. Moments later the screaming began.

The "treatment" he received is meted out by City Without Drugs, a
group that has declared war on narcotics in the industrial city of
Yekaterinburg, 900 miles east of Moscow. The group's founders, three
wealthy businessmen, claim remarkable success in curing addiction -
but the cure is intimidating in the extreme.

Standing in darkness on either side of the teenager's bed, the guards
pulled out leather belts and folded them for extra thickness. They
then beat his buttocks, taking turns to strike while his cries grew
louder and more desperate with each passing minute. One of the
assailants used a cigarette lighter to inspect red buckle marks on raw
flesh. Satisfied, he barked a few threats and called for his next
victim.

The second addict, who had been lying terrified on an adjacent bed,
was beaten without delay. At one point the pain was so great that he
passed out. His tormentors hit him in the face to bring him round and
resumed the thrashing. By the end of the session each had received
300 lashes; both had to be helped back to the cellar, where they were
to spend the rest of their first week at the centre.

"On the first day we beat them with belts until their buttocks turn
blue," boasted Igor Varov, one of the three businessman behind City
Without Drugs. "Every week we have to buy a new belt because they go
too soft, but we have been impressed with the quality of Gucci belts.

"Drug addicts are animals who have lost all sense of values. This
way, the next time they think about getting a fix they remember the
pain of the trashing rather than the rush of the drugs. It's very
effective. You cannot solve this with mild manners - you need tough
measures."

It was two years ago that Varov, one of the richest men in
Yekaterinburg, and his partners launched their campaign against drugs.
They said they had been forced to take matters into their own hands
because the local authorities had failed to address a level of
addiction that is among the worst in Russia.

Their followers mounted ferocious punitive raids on drug dealers. One
suspected dealer was tied to a tree with a sign saying he was
poisoning the city's youth. Others had their legs broken or their
homes set on fire. But such was the demand for places at the
rehabilitation centre that a second one has opened.

After their initial beating, addicts spend their first few weeks
handcuffed to a bed, left to face their withdrawal symptoms with
nothing stronger than bread and water. Later the inmates are put to
work chopping down trees or labouring.

Nobody is allowed to leave during the treatment, which lasts a year.
The few who have tried to escape have been brought back and punished.
Former inmates who test positive for drugs are also subjected to beatings.

Before handing over their children, parents are required to sign a
form absolving the managers of responsibility for any harm that might
be done. Some 200 young addicts are under their supervision. Varow
claims his methods have cured 50 former addicts in less than 18
months, several of whom have stayed on to work at the centre. Drugs
consumption and trafficking in the city has also dropped, he says.

Police officers have gathered evidence of inmates being beaten with
batons and sticks. Andrei, 20, who was treated at the centre and is
too afraid of reprisals to give his full name, described how he tried
to escape from one centre but was beaten so badly that he spent three
weeks in hospital.

"I was made to lie on the floor. Then two guys beat me until I was
unconscious," he said. "I was then left to hang handcuffed for three
days from a wall. They are sadists. They love the power - that's
what it is all about. You can hardly call it therapy."