Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Bigotry Monitor: Volume 8, Number 38

News

Bigotry Monitor: Volume 8, Number 38

(September 19, 2008)

Volume 8, Number 38
September 19, 2008

BIGOTRY MONITOR

A Weekly Human Rights Newsletter on Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and Religious Persecution in the Former Communist World and Western Europe

EDITOR: CHARLES FENYVESI
(News and Editorial Policy within the sole discretion of the editor)

Published by UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union
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DEADLY INTERETHNIC BRAWL OUTSIDE MOSCOW. Police are on alert after a massive inter-ethnic brawl led to two deaths in the village of Lunevo, Russia (Moscow Region), according to a September 16 report by the Regions.ru news web site. On September 15, two Uzbek construction workers got into a verbal altercation with a female employee in a late-night store, prompting some Russian customers to stand up for her. The conflict escalated into a brawl involving more than 40 people. At least ten were injured and two on the Russian side were killed. Police detained about 20 people and have so far charged one Uzbek man with murder.

In the wake of the 2006 Kondopoga race riot, which began as a bar fight and escalated into a mass expulsion of non-Russians from the town, local police beefed up their presence in and around the village. A television news report on Russia's 5th channel showed witnesses charging that the Uzbeks killed two unarmed and outnumbered Russians. Rumors are circulating that a Tajik man was later killed in retaliation, but the television crew was unable to find any Uzbeks or Tajiks to interview. Apparently, they have left town, fearful of further violence. A September 17 article posted on the web site of the national daily "Komsomolskaya Pravda" added that some local residents are calling for an expulsion of all migrants. The article's subtitle reads: "Local Residents Intend Fierce Revenge Against the Asians and Will Resort to Lynch Law in Lunevo."

MOSCOW HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT DETAINED, SUSPECTED OF RACIST MURDERS. Police in Moscow detained an 11th grader in connection with two racist murders, according to a September 15 report by the Rosbalt news agency. Mikhail Merchuk allegedly belonged to a gang of neo-Nazis. On August 21, the suspect and his comrades allegedly stabbed to death a man identified only by his last name, Adzulaev. The second murder he is charged with is the August 27 killing of a 20 year old migrant named Bakhtemirov in the Moscow Region town of Zelenograd. Investigators are looking into the student's possible connection with other racist murders.

JAPANESE DIPLOMAT ATTACKED IN MOSCOW. Three men attacked a Japanese diplomat in Moscow, according to a September 15 report by the RIA Novosti news agency. The attack on the Japanese embassy's first secretary took place the previous evening in Gorky Park. The report does not mention if the attackers robbed their victim, which suggests a hate crime.

IN INGUSHETIA, STORES SELLING ALCOHOL SET ON FIRE. Three stores and one cafe that sell alcohol were burned down in Russia's turbulent region of Ingushetia, according to a September 9 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. A sign of increasing Islamic radicalism in the region, the arsons took place during Ramadan. No one was hurt as a result of the fires. The report offered no information about arrests in connection with the arsons.

VORONEZH PROSECUTORS FILE HATE CRIME CHARGE. Prosecutors in Voronezh, Russia charged a 20-year-old suspect with aggravated assault motivated by ethnic hatred, according to a September 12 report by the news web site Gazeta.ru. The suspect, along with two other men who have not yet been charged, allegedly beat and stabbed an ethnic Armenian man on the night of September 2 while shouting the far-right slogan "Russia for Russians!" The victim, who was hospitalized, and the young woman he was walking with reported that seven young men attacked him. Police detained suspects three days later.

Earlier this month, Voronezh prosecutors filed hate crimes murder charges against another group of neo-Nazis.

TWO BOROVICHI RESIDENTS FOUND GUILTY OF HATE CRIME. A court in Borovichi, Russia (Novgorod Region), found two local residents guilty of a hate crime, according to a September 16 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. Sova cited the local prosecutor's web site, which just released details about the June 10 sentencing, as the source for its report. The defendants got six years and two years in prison respectively for attacking a man from the Caucasus.

ULYANOVSK COURT SENTENCES ANTISEMITIC VANDALS. A court in Ulyanovsk, Russia sentenced four local residents to prison and fines after finding them guilty of painting antisemitic death threats on the building of the Jewish Community Center, according to a September 17 report by the Sem40.ru news web site which specializes in news pertaining to the Russian Jewish community. The four were convicted of illegal hate speech after an expert study found that the graffiti was "an open call to kill Jews." The defendants were sentenced to three years in prison, one year in prison, and 84 and 80 hours of community service, respectively.

RUSSIA’S MAIN FAR-RIGHT GROUP SPLITS. A split has occurred in the ranks of Russia's main far-right group, the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), according to the national daily "Kommersant” dated September 15. A meeting of 30 regional branches of the DPNI--a group linked with anti-migrant violence in Kondopoga and other cities--rejected the proposal of its leader Aleksandr Belov to ally with "respectable" political parties. The delegates then declared that Belov is no longer the DPNI's leader because he allied the group with members of the small party "Narod" which has taken part in liberal opposition rallies.

Since July, Belov has been trying to turn the DPNI into a mainstream party, allying it with the Narod party and the extreme nationalist Great Russia party of Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO. Belov blamed the split on Russia's secret services which he claimed "hired about 30 skinheads for a little bit of money" to engineer his ouster.

Both sides of the dispute blame the government, which they accuse of engineering the split.

YOUTHS ATTACK UKRAINIAN RABBI AND HIS 3-YEAR-OLD SON. Antisemites attacked the chief rabbi of Vinnitsa, Ukraine, a friend of his from Canada, and the rabbi's three year old son, according to a report by local Jewish activist Boris Chizman. On September 11, the three went out shopping to prepare for the child's birthday party when a group of youths started shouting "Heil Hitler!" and "We'll kill all the Jews!" The assailants punched the child in the face, and assaulted the adults as well until some people in a passing car chased the attackers away. Rabbi Shaul Govoritz called the police, who detained a group of suspects shortly afterwards. He characterized the youths as more than typical "hooligans" saying that "They weren't drunk or crazy. The young people looked completely normal. They simply hate Jews."

UKRAINIAN POLITICIAN ACCUSED OF ANTISEMITIC AGITATION. Two local Jewish leaders in Kherson, Ukraine accused a member of the city council of spreading antisemitic propaganda, according to a September 17 report by the AEN news agency. Aleksandr Vayner, director of the Kherson Jewish Charitable-Community Center, and Vitaly Bronshtein, chairman of the Kherson branch of the Council of Regions of the Jewish Conference of Ukraine, accused Sergey Kirichenko, a member of the Kherson city council, of antisemitic incitement. According to their accusation, Kirichenko has made several appearances on the local radio show "Vik" accusing Jews of robbing the Ukrainian people, plotting to enslave Ukrainians, and exterminate Slavs. The deputy allegedly posted "Catechism of a Jew in the USSR"--a slightly updated version of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"--on his web site. On September 6, Kirichenko allegedly praised the Nazi occupation of Kherson during World War II on the "Vik" radio program. Hate speech is illegal in Ukraine but it is not clear if local authorities will bring charges against Kirichenko.

POPE STIRS CONTROVERSY IN FRANCE. Pope Benedict XVI’s four-day visit, his first trip to France since his election in 2005, has stirred political controversy across France, Deutsche Welle reported. "It would be a folly to deprive ourselves of religion," President Nicolas Sarkozy said in his greetings and called for a principle of "positive laicity, open laicity, an invitation to dialogue, tolerance and respect." Laicity is what the French call their principle of the separation of church and state, made into a law in 1905 and considered part of the country's identity. Socialist Party boss Francois Holland struck back: "There is no positive or negative laicity, no open or closed laicity, no tolerant or intolerant laicity. There is only laicity."

In his unusually warm welcome, Sarkozy applauded the pontiff’s thoughts on religion and freedom. Sarkozy declared that religion does not represent a danger for any democracy and that Christian values constituted a "living patrimony" for the entire society. Benedict, 81, warned that Western cultural efforts to marginalize religion and believers would bring disaster for humanity and ultimately "play into the hands of fanaticism."

In an address to academics including Muslims at the College des Bernardins, a 13th century landmark confiscated during the French Revolution and reacquired by the Church recently, the pontiff denounced “fundamentalist fanaticism.” "It would be a disaster if today's European culture could only conceive freedom as absence of obligation, which would invariably play into the hands of fanaticism and arbitrariness," he said. In reporting on Benedict’s “multi-dimensional” approach to different elements in French society, the Catholic News Service (CNS) also praised his summary “in 20 graceful lines the Church's respect for Judaism and its firm rejection of antisemitism.” According to CNS, the pontiff “attempted to build on the new openness shown the Church by President Sarkozy.”

Speaking on Sunday at the famous pilgrimage site Lourdes, the pontiff said that to "emphasize the Christian roots of France... a new way must be found to interpret and experience every day the fundamental values on which a nation's identity is built." He then praised Sarkozy, saying: "Your president has described a way."

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, RUSSIA’S RETURN TO DEMOCRACY MUST BE OUR FOCUS * * * “Restoring Georgian independence and the confidence of Russia's other democratic neighbors is critical,” wrote ex-gulag prisoner Natan Sharansky in an opinion piece in “The Washington Post” dated September 14. “But if the root of the problem is to be addressed strategically, the focus must return not to this or that specific foreign policy action by Russia but rather to the matter of democracy within Russia itself. This linkage must be broad and deep, and it must be reinforced by an international community willing to shine a light on Russia's retreat from democracy.”

EU WALKS A TIGHTROPE IN GEORGIA
Caught Between Anger and Fear, EU Is Finding Its Way While NATO and U.S. Talk Tough

On September 14, Russia completed the withdrawal of its troops from western Georgia, including the key Black Sea port of Poti, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement reached on September 8. That agreement also stipulated that the EU must have at least 200 observers in place in Georgia by October 1 if Russia is to withdraw its troops from the “buffer zones” it set up unilaterally, following the original ceasefire agreement.

1. EU MOVES QUICKLY WITH OBSERVER MISSION. Angered by Russia’s tactics but worried about their dependence on Russian energy, the Europeans moved quickly. On September 15, EU foreign ministers gave the go-ahead for a 200-strong observer mission to Georgia, and 11 EU countries--the Baltic states, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Sweden—pledged support for the mission. But the question remains whether the observers will be deployed in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that the bloc's priority is to deploy 200 observers in Georgia before October 1. "After that, we will see how the situation evolves," Solana said. British Foreign Minister David Miliband sounded more resolute, saying that "We are very committed to making sure that we play our full part in that important mission, meeting the deadline and getting the right number of people in at the right time to the right places." In addition, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has a mandate to post observers in South Ossetia, and talks are under way to boost their number by another 80, said Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb who holds the OSCE's rotating presidency.

Moscow has announced that it will maintain close to 8,000 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia in the foreseeable future, even though the EU and the United States charge a flagrant violation of Russia’s commitment to withdraw to pre-war positions. Russia has rejected any suggestion that the EU send its own observers into the breakaway regions, leaving EU foreign ministers walking a tight-rope as they define the mission's mandate. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini explained: "We need the agreement of all sides involved, because we do not want to act as an occupying force." While some member states are pushing for a specific reference to the breakaway regions, others argue that the wording should be left ambiguous to avoid antagonizing Moscow, diplomats told reporters.

On September 17, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed friendship treaties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia and pledged them Russia's military backing. The treaties formalize military, diplomatic, and economic cooperation between Moscow and the separatist regions, which Russia has recognized as independent states though so far, only Nicaragua has followed.

However, on September 18, talks on sending more monitors to Georgia broke down because of disputes with Russia about where they should be deployed, the OSCE announced. "We don't see the point of continuing negotiations in Vienna at this stage,” Antti Turunen of Finland, current chairman of the OSCE's Permanent Council, was quoted by Reuters as saying. “They have been put on hold. The area of responsibility for monitors is the main sticking point." Georgia's OSCE envoy cited Moscow’s "absolutely non-constructive" demand that South Ossetian authorities should decide the future OSCE mandate because the region is now independent.

2. EU TO SEND MORE AID TO GEORGIA. More important in the long run, the EU Commission is ready to provide "up to 500 million euros" ($714 million) in additional aid to Georgia, Deutsche Welle quoted Benita Ferrero-Waldner as saying on September 15. That money comes on top of the roughly 100 million euros already authorized for Georgia this year and the bilateral aid provided separately by individual EU member states. The money is intended for 2008-2010, to be used in four areas: refugees and internally displaced people, economic recovery, financial stabilization, and infrastructure. The package will be conditional on Georgia enforcing democracy and political reform, Ferrero-Waldner said. "The European Commission is at the heart of efforts to rebuild stability and shattered confidence in Georgia," the commissioner added. Though the package is intended to cover Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as well, a decision on that issue will be taken "in phases," she said. She stressed that the commission will ensure that Georgia will not use the money to buy weapons. Some recent reports have claimed that the Georgian authorities are using EU funding to buy arms.

3. RUSSIA HAS NO VETO ON NATO MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS, NATO CHIEF SAYS. On September 16, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer issued an unambiguous statement to the effect that the Western alliance will continue its expansion program despite Russian opposition and warned Moscow that it has no veto on Georgia's bid to become a member. In a speech at Tbilisi State University, NATO chief Scheffer said that "the road to NATO is still wide open" and Russia could not break the alliance's ties with the former Soviet republic through military action. "The process of NATO enlargement will continue, with due caution but also with a clear purpose--to help create a stable, undivided Europe," he said. He was accompanied by the NATO ambassadors of all 26 allies member states that news agencies interpreted as an unusual display of unity.

Scheffer condemned Russia's recognition of the two separatist regions in Georgia, saying its sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected. He also called on Moscow to tone down its rhetoric in the wake of the war. He pointed out that NATO is "not in the business of punishing Russia" and does not want to be. "Punishing Russia is not the way forward. The way forward, really, is to help Georgia," he said.

NATO would not accept Russian demands that it choose between Russia and Georgia, Scheffer added.

On September 17, Russia's Foreign Ministry condemned a visit to Georgia by senior NATO officials as “anti-Russian” and confirming NATO’s “Cold War-era reflexes.”

On September 18, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that Russian leaders will not accomplish “their primary war aim of removing Georgia’s government.” She said that Russia’s military action failed to achieve its objectives and has put Russia on a path to “self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance.” The following day, President Medvedev charged that Russia is being forced behind an Iron Curtain and blamed NATO for “provoking” the Georgia conflict. “This is not our path,” he said. “For us there is no sense going back to the past.”

4. NEW CLAIMS ABOUT THE WAR’S START AND MEANING. Russia only sent troops and tanks to drive Georgian forces out of South Ossetia after President George Bush failed to pressure Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to stop his attack, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin told Western journalists and Russia experts on September 11 in Sochi. He claimed that during two meetings at the Beijing Olympics Bush failed to give him sufficient assurances on halting the war in Georgia.

Putin assured the annual gathering organized by the Valday international debate club that Russia has no "imperial ambitions" and that another Cold War is not on the way. He also claimed that his government “determined that nongovernmental organizations had been formed in some republics of the North Caucasus that, under the pretext that South Ossetia was not protected, had begun raising the question of separating from Russia."

Speaking with the same group in Moscow on September 12, President Medvedev characterized NATO’s promise to eventually extend membership to Georgia "unjust," "humiliating," and "intolerable" for Moscow.

However, the basic message that Putin and Medvedev delivered to Valday was that Russia wants to return to business-as-usual relations with the West, “The Moscow Times” quoted Alexander Rahr, a leading Russia expert at Germany's Council on Foreign Relations, as saying.

Medvedev called on Western elites to stop thinking of Russia as an ideological heir of the Soviet Union and expressed the hope that the current escalation of tensions in Russia's relations with the West would be brief. But, according to Jonathan Steele of Britain’s “Guardian,” “not everyone present [at the Valday meetings] was convinced that this was the direction developments would take.”

On September 16, Georgian authorities released recordings of cellphone calls that allegedly prove that Russian troops began moving into South Ossetia on August 6, a day before Georgia attacked. Both “The New York Times” and “The Washington Post” seemed inclined to accept the authenticity of the intercepts that Russia’s Foreign Ministry promptly fobbed off as “not serious.”

5. GEORGIA WAR SWELLED THE NUMBER OF RUSSIANS DISLIKING U.S., POLL SAYS. Russians do not expect the current deterioration of relations with the West to evolve into another Cold War, the Kremlin-controlled polling agency All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) found, according to “Vremya Novostei” dated September 12. Valery Fedorov of VTsIOM also disclosed opinion polls that suggest that the old Soviet thesis "War is peace" is deeply implanted in the Russian consciousness.

According to VTsIOM, two months ago—before the war in the Caucasus—49% of respondents admitted that they liked America "just fine." But their number has dropped to 22% these days. The ranks of those who dislike the United States in the meantime swelled from 29% to 65%. Asked what they thought about Russian-U.S. relations, 37% found them strained, 11% hostile, and 29% cold.

6. LAVROV WORRIED ABOUT SPREAD OF ‘ANTI-RUSSIAN VIRUS.’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is concerned about the trend of worsening relations not only between the leaders of the Russian Federation and Georgia but also between the peoples of the two countries, Interfax reported on September 15. In a meeting with journalists following his visits to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Lavrov called the trend “dangerous” and argued that “the anti-Russian virus” has found “its way into the collective mentality.”

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