1,037 deaths in Russian army

Moscow - "Inhuman conditions" and cruel initiation rites in the Russian army have led to the deaths of 1,037 military, while a further 2,106 troops were wounded in 1997, a human rights spokesman said yesterday. "The inhuman conditions in the Russian army led to a large number of suicides among soldiers and officers," a member of President Boris Yeltsin's human rights committee, Mr Nikita Cheldymov, told a press conference.