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German teenager off to Siberia

Berlin: German authorities exasperated at the antisocial behaviour of a 16-year-old boy have sent him to a remote Siberian village for an “intensive educational experience.”

The unusual measure by youth welfare officers in the State of Hesse raised fresh questions about dealing with delinquents blamed for a series of ugly crimes.

The boy, who has not been identified, was dispatched east after behaving violently in school and at home and attacking his mother. He is being forced to fend for himself in boot camp-style conditions in the forlorn village of Sedelnikovo, several hours drive from the city of Omsk, in the western Siberian interior.

He has had to cope by collecting and chopping firewood to make his own fires, digging his own toilet and pumping water supplies from a well. He will stay there for nine months, separated from family and friends, the Internet and TV, under a regimen designed specifically for him.

Under the supervision of a Russian-speaking German assistant, the boy is attending school. Once he returns to Germany, he will be monitored for a further two years.

“We deliberately sought a region that was particularly lacking in allure,” said Stefan Becker, the head of the youth and social department in Giessen, calling it “the ultima ratio” in the attempt to re-educate the boy, for whom all other measures had failed. “[The youth] spends most of his time trying to cope with his day-to-day existence, living in conditions like we had 30 or 40 years ago,” he added. “If he doesn’t chop the wood, his room is cold. If he doesn’t fetch water, he can’t wash.”

The Hesse authorities have defended the move as an “educational adventure” and say an inspector who visited the boy believed the “treatment” was working. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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