Probe confirms child abuse in nunnery

Torture and brutality were all on the curriculum at a Russian convent school, according to an investigation headed by human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin.

The enquiry was launched after allegations of Gulag-style conditions at the Bogolubsky convent near Suzdal in Vladimir Region.

One pupil, Valentina Perova, wrote to Dmitry Medvedev to tell the president about appalling conditions, gzt.ru reported, while two teenagers escaped the convent and went to the police earlier this month.

“Children who earlier lived in the convent told of the tortures the religious staff subjected them to in the orphanage,” Lukin’s press service told RIA Novosti.

Systematic abuse

Perova’s letter described how children were forced to labour in the fields or pray for up to three days without a break for food or sleep.

She told of punishments where pupils were made to do more than 1,000 bows without a break and explained that she fled when she was stopped from visiting her dying mother.

No word to parents

Upon delivering their children at the convent parents were told it was better that they kept their distance from their offspring, for the children’s sake.

Marina said that she went to the convent with her mother when she was 10 years old. Upon arrival they were separated and told that the other had died. They were also allegedly told to sell their apartment and send the money to the convent.

15 year old Ksenia said she was sent to the convent with two pilgrims after her mother had spoken to one of the nuns. When she got there she had to sever contact with her mother, “I was immediately warned I didn’t have any parents any more and that I should devote myself to God alone.” Devotions included stripping off after Sunday service and being beaten with willow branches, she said.

Commissioner’s doubts

Presidential commissioner for children’s rights Pavel Astrakhov is not convinced by Lukin’s findings. He was surprised that the investigation was concluded so quickly.

“I think that only the statements of children are not enough to base conclusions on,” he told gzt.ru. “These children have already twice contradicted their own words….My assistant, along with psychologists, is interrogating the children, to find out at which point they were telling the truth.”

He said earlier that a religious life called for sacrifice and that religious asceticism could be confused for abuse. He added that individuals entered into a religious life of their own accord, or in the case of children at the will of their parents.

The nuns denied the allegations and said that children only worked short shifts in the fields, with the parents’ consent, and that they did not beat them. They swore on the Bible.

Elsewhere

A court in Yekaterinburg region has meanwhile fined the director of an orphanage 15,000 roubles ($500) for cruelty to children.

From December 2009 to January 2010 she regularly used to hit her charges and twisted their ears, RIA Novosti reported.