The soldiers are shocked. The commander orders "fight", this time to me personally. I lie down. And I feel a hard blow to the kidney with his boot. My whole life flashed before my eyes. And again a blow to the other kidney. I raise my head to get up, and he hits my head with his boot, again and again. I fall face down, and he steps on my head with his boot so that I can't get up. He says: "What, are you going to f**k yourself?" I wanted to get up so much and hit him. The soldiers watch as my head is pressed into the rocks and dirt. And he doesn't stop, he hits my kidneys again and again. At some point he hits my left ear with his boot. It starts to bleed, as it turns out – my eardrum burst. At this point the commander stopped and kicked us out.
After that, I walked around with a sore back for about two weeks before they put me in the medical unit. It turned out that my kidneys had sagged because of the blows. When they shift, dark circles appear under my eyes. I was like a panda. They didn’t really treat me in the medical unit. And then the military police arrived. The officer saw that I had dark circles. He asked what happened, I said, everything is fine.
I was taken to the next room by two military policemen, who started asking questions, but I didn't say anything. They really were trying to find out what had happened. The next day I thought they had left me alone – but the officer who had beaten me started asking: "Are you trying to turn me in? Just try it, I'll give you no peace."
I was afraid to tell, because in the eyes of the soldiers and sergeants you would be seen as a snitch, and I didn't want to receive that status. There were guys who were snitches, and they were called "toqyldak" for the rest of their service. It was embarrassing to talk to them, to shake their hand.
The next day they took me to the city hospital and started checking me. The military police were sure that I had been beaten. They wanted to finish the job, to prove to everyone that I was being beaten. One of them said: "You were definitely beaten, with a boot on your back, I can see it." I denied everything.
I had an ultrasound and was examined by a traumatologist. The guys from the military police told him: "Write that he was beaten, it's obvious." I look at the doctor and with my whole look I make it clear that I don't want the military police to know. And he sees, of course, that my kidneys are displaced. And he looks at me, nods and tells the military police that he can't confirm the beating. The military police officers were so disappointed. We were driving back to the unit together, one said: "F**k, you could have done something useful by telling about this." I arrived, lay in the medical unit for another week and got back into action as if nothing had happened.