Serbs Reject Charges of Patient Abuse

Officials in Serbia today called "dark propaganda" a report by a US human-rights group that alleged patients with mental and physical disabilities were systematically abused, and that staff at one facility tortured retarded children. "We may be suffering staffing and financial problems," one administrator said, "but for anyone to say that we are tormenting our patients is a total lie."

Mental Disability Rights International yesterday released a report titled "Torture Not Treatment," an effort "to address the serious human rights problems that exist for some 18,000" patients, the AP reports. PM Vojislav Kostunica called the report "malicious" and said his government would form a commission to report on the "real" conditions at institutions described in MDRI's document. (More Serbia stories.)