Soldier: Once I was on the company commander’s front command group and we were on a patrol. Suddenly a disturbance broke out. Someone threw stones at us and it seemed strange to me later that we could have got out of there and nothing would have happened, I don’t know. It turned into a chase on foot, we ran among the houses, back and forth. Like playing hide-and-seek, only with grenade launchers and stones.

 

Interviewer: How long did it last? Whom were you chasing?

 

Soldier: Three quarters of an hour, half an hour, kids 8-12 years old. We caught two.

 

Interviewer: What did you do with them?

 

Soldier: We yelled at them … You threaten them, mainly. Some people got beaten, but with them it wasn’t beating, more like raising a threatening hand. What can you do with a kid? The whole idea of chasing rioters is weird. Because the system has no means of handling things that happen there, with the law it tries to enforce. The enforcement system doesn’t care, and what are you going to do with a kid who just threw stones at you now, and he’s 8 or 12 years old.

 

Interviewer: Did you ever detain or arrest them?

 

Soldier: We detained adolescents, say 16, 18 years old. You shackle them, blindfold them, put them at the army post’s sentry booth and then take them back. Nothing happens to some of them. Some are harassed.

 

Interviewer: What kind of harassment?

 

Soldier: It doesn’t happen at a post, it happens while driving, say. Once we arrested someone and while driving, in the APC, someone played 'Kazabubu Shlaflaf’ with him. When I say 'Kazabubu’ you have to say your name, and when I say 'Shlaflaf’ you must say your family name. So he began to play the game with him without explaining the rules. He said: 'Kazabubu’ and hit him on the head. Not too tough, but it was simply humiliating. Less painful than humiliating. He would hit him and some would yell the answer at him, what he was supposed to say: 'Say your name!’ and the like: 'What’s your name?’ Shouts like that. Such a game can take about seven minutes …