Volume 3, Number 5
Friday, January 31, 2003

BIGOTRY MONITOR
A Weekly Human Rights Newsletter on Antisemitism, Xenophobia, andReligious 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
_____________________________________________________________

PUTIN'S ANTI-EXTREMISM DRIVE IS FAILING, RIGHTS GROUP CHARGES. President Vladimir Putin's repeated pledges to crack down on violence and extremism have gone unfulfilled, the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) said in its report on Russia's human rights record in 2002. The number of racist attacks against foreigners and minorities continued its upward trend in 2002, but police have refused to acknowledge the problem, MHG Executive Director Tatyana Lokshina told a news conference on January 28. "They call it hooliganism and deny that there is a racial component,"' she said.

According to the MHG, the anti-extremism law that went into effect last summer has done little to stop skinheads and other extremists. That law, strongly promoted by the Kremlin, defines extremism as any activity aimed at overthrowing the government, instigating social, national or religious hatred, or distributing fascist literature. Human rights groups have charged that the law gives law enforcement authorities too much discretion in labeling organizations extremist groups. Lokshina said that in one case a human rights group in the Krasnodar region has been threatened with charges under the extremism law. At the same time, she added, authorities have not applied the law to several obvious instances of extremist activity.

Lokshina cited the example of prosecutors closing a case against the Yekaterinburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church for selling antisemitic texts, including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The closing of that case indicates favoritism toward the Russian Orthodox Church, the MHG has said. Such favoritism is also evident in court decisions, said Sergei Lukashevsky, a MHG specialist. For example, he said, when a group of Orthodox believers objected to the use of mandatory tax identification numbers on religious grounds, a court ruled to exempt them. But when Muslim women asked to wear their traditional headscarves in their passport photographs, a court ruled that the Interior Ministry ban on head coverings in ID photos took precedence over their faith. The MHG said the government's blocking the entry into Russia of five Roman Catholic priests and rejection of a visit by the Dalai Lama constituted discrimination against minority faiths. Lukashevsky suggested that Putin and other top officials go beyond broad condemnations of nationalism and condemn specific racist acts and nationalistic statements by public figures.

RUSSIANS BLOCK U.S. DIPLOMAT'S TRANSIT DESPITE HER VISA. In the kind of demonstration that once signaled a heightening of tensions during the Cold War, Russian authorities have blocked a U.S. diplomat's transit through Moscow, thus escalating their recent expulsions of foreigners and denials of their entry to the country. On January 7, Meaghan Fitzgerald, a member of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) mission in Tajikistan, was denied entry into Russia as she sought to transit Moscow on her way to Dushanbe, the U.S. Mission to the OSCE reported to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on January 23. Fitzgerald carried a U.S. diplomatic passport and a valid Russian visa. She was given no explanation and was required to return on the next plane to New York.

"Cooperation is a core principle of the OSCE," the U.S. Mission to the OSCE noted and protested the lack of respect for that principle by the Russian authorities. Upon contacting the Russian authorities, the U.S. Mission received "only a perfunctory explanation" claiming "that she was denied entry due to considerations of Russian national security." The U.S. Mission rejected the Russian assertion that Fitzgerald poses a threat to the national security of the Russian Federation. "We look forward to a more substantive explanation," the U.S. statement noted.

EUROPE'S COURT TO HEAR CHECHEN SUITS AGAINST RUSSIAN ARMY. In January 2003, the European Court of Human Rights declared admissible six applications from victims of the war in Chechnya against the Russian Federation, marking the first time that the court will deal with the war in Chechnya. The six applicants allege that Russian forces violated their and their relatives' right to life in several incidents, such as bombing raids and summary executions in 1999 and 2000.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch (HRW) disclosed that it has extensive documentation on the cases and has assisted the Memorial Human Rights Center, a leading Russian human rights group, in preparing and filing the applications on behalf of the victims in April and May 2000.

Scores of innocent Chechens have been jailed and at least one beaten to death in a misguided anti-terror campaign by Moscow police, human rights advocates and detainees' relatives said on January 28. Beginning in late October, when Chechen gunmen seized a Moscow theater that security forces later stormed, leaving 129 captives dead, the capital's police have targeted ethnic Chechens, detaining them for identity checks and fingerprinting and often framing them for crimes, said Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the refugee aid organization Civic Assistance.Police allegedly beat to death one victim, Adam Ustarkhanov, 30. He was detained on November 22 because he did not have a Moscow residence permit, said his widow, Leila Shabaeva. Instead of imposing the usual fine, police beat Ustarkhanov, threw him on the street, and then called an ambulance, she told The Associated Press. "He was horribly beaten," she said. "His skull was fractured." Police threatened doctors who treated him, ordering them to deny proper care, Shabaeva said. On November 24, Ustarkhanov died in the hospital. Shabaeva said there were witnesses to the beatings and the hospital threats, but she has little hope anyone would be brought to justice. "It's unlikely that they will be punished because we're Chechens,"' she told AP. According to Mikhail Morev, the prosecutor handling the case, a criminal investigation has been launched. The police press service did not respond to a request for comment. Lyudmila Alexeeva, chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said that the police had become "a weapon of a genocide."

RUSSIA SPURNS EUROPEAN ADVICE ON CHECHNYA. Russia's line on Chechnya seems to be hardening, and this time Europeans got a resounding "nyet" to their proposal. Russia's delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) has rejected draft recommendations by Lord Judd, the PACE envoy to Chechnya, Interfax reported on January 27. Lord Judd suggested that the referendum on the draft constitution of the Chechen Republic that Russia has been promoting should not be held in March but at a later date. Using sharp language, Russian delegation leader Dmitry Rogozin, co-chairman of the Duma-PACE Working Group, told Interfax that during his recent visit to Chechnya Lord Judd either did not want to see anything or he traveled there with his ideas prepared in advance. Rogozin disclosed that the Russian delegation will insist on "relevant amendments" to the PACE report on Chechnya, and if the amendments are rejected, the Russians will ask for Lord Judd's replacement as chief rapporteur. If Lord Judd is not replaced, Russia will most likely leave the working group, Rogozin said.

MESKHETIANS FACING NEW HARDSHIPS IN KRASNODAR. Police in Krasnodar Kray have launched a show of force against the local community of ethnic Meskhetians, Tamara Karasteleva, director of the Novorossiisk Committee on Human Rights, told the web site polit.ru on January 27. She said that the Meskhetians are constantly reporting new complaints with the registration process. For example, in the city of Krymsk, the passports of five Meskhetians were seized. Karasteleva said that almost none of the Meskhetians living in the kray are registered, and many have been victims of extortion by local police.

PUTIN DEFINES HOW THE LAW SHOULD PROTECT THE CITIZEN. On the occasion of celebrating the 80th anniversary of Russia's Supreme Court on January 24, President Vladimir Putin said that "the level and quality of legal proceedings" determine "the social and political situation inside the country" as well as "the world's attitude to Russia." The protection the law extends to citizens must be "accessible, customary, and easy to understand." He expressed his confidence that Russia's highest court will continue "upholding the superiority of law and protecting the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens."

AN ALLIANCE TO LINK RUSSIA'S MAIN RELIGIONS AND THE STATE? Duma members are discussing a new bill aimed at uniting Russia's major religious faiths with state officials, on the basis of "social partnership," according to "Izvestiya" of January 24. The idea is that the clergy should take part in the state's social functions, in exchange for official status and state funding. "Over the past decade, lobbying for the interests of religious groups has been advantageous," the newspaper reported, "this tried and tested tactic will be useful for the parliamentary elections in December. Thus, certain Duma members and factions are once again offering their services to the clergy (or, to be more precise, to the organizationally and financially powerful structures of the traditional faiths: the Russian Orthodox Church, Islamic and Buddhist organizations, and the rabbis)." So far, personalities from only the three major religions are involved, but there are plans to add Judaism later. The well-informed daily notes the appearance of new players on this turf, such as the People's Party led by Gennady Raykov, now calling for the creation of a Duma alliance in support of "traditional spiritual and moral values in Russia."

What "Izvestiya" identifies as "the central idea" is that the state would hand over part of its social functions to religious organizations: for example, the daily lists children's homes, orphanages, old-age homes, and facilities for the handicapped. The bill's authors propose that religious organizations should be closely involved in the following issues: preventing drug abuse, countering vagrancy and idleness; monitoring foreign adoptions of Russian children; and providing free meals for the poor at churches and mosques. In exchange, the state would fund the social programs of religious organizations, give them free access to minister to their flock in the military and in the prison system, and allow clergy to teach in schools. The state would protect foreign assets of religious organizations and make efforts to restore their lost property.

POSTERS AT FAR-RIGHT PARTY RALLY SUPPORT CASE FOR BANNING IT. Russian Jewish leaders say that a January 26 demonstration by about 75 supporters of the far-right National Great Power Party (NDPR) outside the offices of a Jewish organization provides more evidence to ban the party, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports. "Our fight toward disbanding the party will be continued," said Valery Engel, executive director of the World Congress of Russian Jewry, a group that unites Russian Jewish organizations in several countries. Engel said his group would send photos taken during the NDPR demonstration to the country's chief prosecutor because the posters insulted the Jewish community.

Participants in the demonstration, which lasted about an hour, carried antisemitic posters and distributed antisemitic literature -- including the notorious forgery, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." One of the party's several co-chairs, Stanislav Terekhov, told reporters that the Sunday protest was held because the party "doesn't like it when people who don't have Russian citizenship or who have dual citizenship try to teach Russians how to live." Terekhov announced that on February 26, the Tagansky District Court will hear the NDPR's appeal against a Ministry of Justice warning issued recently to the party for inciting ethnic hatred. Last week, the NDPR filed a defamation suit against the World Congress and one of Russia's two chief rabbis, Rabbi Berel Lazar, following a Jewish appeal to President Vladimir Putin and the country's prosecutor general, Vladimir Ustinov, that characterized the NDPR as antisemitic and extremist. The World Congress was among the groups, including UCSJ, that protested the Justice Ministry's decision last year to register the NDPR as a political party. NDPR leaders have a history of making antisemitic statements, and earlier this month authorities indicated that they may disband the party.

NOVGOROD PROSECUTOR TO OPEN CASE AGAINST ANTISEMITIC NEWSPAPER. Novgorod prosecutors will soon open a criminal case against an antisemitic Novgorod publication under an article of the Criminal Code prohibiting the incitement of ethnic hatred, according to a January 24 report on "Izvestiya's" web site. City prosecutor Valery Zheltkov was quoted as saying that an expert study found that a November article in the newspaper "Russkoe Veche" about a "kike-Mason conspiracy" in the regional government constitutes "sweeping antisemitism." Therefore, the prosecutor said, a trial of the editor and founder of "Russkoe Veche" Pavel Ivanov is "inevitable." The paper came to the prosecutor's attention as a result of complaints from local Jewish leaders, especially the Jewish community in the Novgorod region town of Borovichi.

FIVE-NATION FLEET STARTS PATROLLING SEA TO STOP MIGRANT TIDE. Police, customs, and navy ships from Spain, Britain, France, Italy, and Portugal have begun patrolling Europe's Mediterranean coastline in an attempt to control the growing numbers of migrants trying to enter Europe illegally, "The New York Times" reported on January 29. According to the newspaper, this is the first time that European Union members, who are supposed to harmonize their migration policies, have collaborated this way. Announcing the project, called Operation Ulysses, was Spanish Interior Minister Ángel Acebes. The objective is to detain and deter the hundreds of small, overcrowded boats that head north from the African coast. Acebes told the press that the operation "could be and should be" the precursor to a common European border police force. Another phase, scheduled to start next month, will target the Atlantic around Spain's Canary Islands.

The first phase of the project, with patrols ranging from the Spanish port of Algeciras, at the mouth of the Mediterranean, to the island of Sicily, is to end on Feb. 8. A second phase, scheduled to start next month, will focus on the Atlantic waters around Spain's Canary Islands. According to official statistics, the number of immigrants detained in the Canaries has almost quadrupled in two years, to 9,756 in 2002 from 2,410 in 2000. Last year, Spain deported 74,467 foreigners -- including 23,381 Moroccans and 18,865 Romanians -- a rise of 58 percent from 2001. The Interior Ministry says that in 2002 it broke up 735 trafficking rings, compared with 362 the year before. The police found more than 1,000 boats arriving secretly and arrested 16,504 people.

"We hear a lot about the traffickers, but if European governments will not organize migratory flows properly, the mafias will step in," "The Times" quoted Francisco Ramos of Algeciras Acoge, a nongovernmental organization that assists migrants in Spain, as saying. "We must fight the mafias, but we cannot blame them for this. The root cause is the serious gulf between rich and poor countries."

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * * "It has been fashionable for a while to think of all national identities as invented," wrote Anna Reid in her just published book "The Shaman's Coat," that records the history of Siberia's natives. "But the native Siberians are an example of the opposite phenomenon; of how hard it is to disinvent nationalities, of how they persist in the face of governments' best efforts at their destruction."

DEBATE RAGES IN FRANCE, ACCORD IS BORN IN GERMANY
The Liberation of Auschwitz Is Marked Differently in Europe's Two Key Capitals

As European Jews commemorated the 58th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, Roger Cukierman, head of the CRIF umbrella group of Jewish organizations in France, charged that France is tolerating a new and pernicious form of antisemitism. According to Reuters, Cukierman warned that a "politically correct" antisemitism had wormed its way into the far-left amid a rising tide of protest against Israeli policies. He charged that a "brown-green-red" alliance of neo-Nazis, environmentalists, and left-wingers in France had started out criticizing Israeli treatment of Palestinians but slid into outright anti-Jewish views. "France is neither racist nor antisemitic. But some of our fellow countrymen on the far right and far left are," Cukierman said at the annual CRIF dinner on January 25 according to Reuters. Cukierman attacked what he called the "bizarre connivance" between left-wing groups and pro-Palestinian movements calling for a boycott against Israeli goods or institutions. "The good conscience of this vast group is assured by a progressive varnish that paints it as anti-racist," he was quoted as saying. Reuters reported that Gilles Lemaire, head of the Green Party, was outraged at being linked to neo-Nazis and antisemites and stormed out of the dinner in protest.

Cukierman's statement came after a French university called for (and then reportedly reversed) a severance of ties with Israeli academics in protest against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's hard-line stand against the Palestinian uprising and another university debated following suit. The statement also coincided with the publication of a book saying that teachers in some French schools can hardly teach about the Holocaust without being challenged by Muslim pupils who loudly deny that the Nazis killed six million Jews. Copies of the book were distributed at the dinner.

The following day, on January 26, the CRIF softened its tone, declaring that it wants to maintain dialogue with all political parties.

The atmosphere in France is so tense that the usually understated President Jacques Chirac used his strongest words thus far to speak up. According to news agency accounts, on January 27 Chirac told representatives of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) that antisemitism is a "cancer" and his government was determined to wipe it out. "We agree with him," AJC Executive Director David Harris told reporters after the meeting. "It is a cancer which infects democratic societies, it is a cancer which must be stopped."

Also on January 27, the Socialist Party called Cukierman's comments "excessive" and the anti-racist league known as LICRA defended the Greens and other leftists against the charge of antisemitism. Henri Hajdenberg, Cukierman's predecessor at the CRIF, tried to inject reason into the furious debate. "He used a hard-hitting expression, but I don't think he was aiming at the Greens," Hajdenberg told the daily "Le Parisien." "He was aiming at the green flag of radical Islam and its antisemitism."

In Berlin, the German government marked the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz -- January 27 is the state’s official Holocaust Memorial Day in Germany since 1995 -- by announcing a tripling of its financial support for the country's Jewish community and formalizing the relationship between the state and the followers of the Jewish faith. An accord signed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Jewish community leaders pledges three million euros a year (about the same in dollars) to help pay for Jewish education services maintained by the Central Jewish Council, which represents the interests of about 90,000 to 100,000 Jews living in Germany. With the agreement, the government put its relations on a legal footing and gave the Jewish organization the same status as the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches. News agency dispatches noted that when the Council was set up in 1950, Germany had only 15,000 Jews, as compared to 600,000 before Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933.

"This is a truly historic day for Jews in Germany,'' Paul Spiegel, the head of the Central Council of Jews, was quoted as saying at the signing ceremony. "No one -- but no one -- would have believed in 1945 that there could ever be Jewish life in Germany again…. Today, we are even tempted to speak of a coming renaissance of Jewry in Germany. No one could have imagined that a few years ago."

Schroeder said that signing the accord on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz underlined the importance of the civil rights and religious freedoms written into the constitution of democratic Germany. He said: "Remembering the Holocaust is thus bound up with a declaration in favor of a good and secure future for Jews in Germany.''

"The rebels and the courageous who resisted were a minority'' in Nazi Germany, Parliament President Wolfgang Thierse told lawmakers at a special session dedicated to the anniversary. The parliament was also addressed by Spanish writer Jorge Semprun, who joined the anti-Nazi underground in France and was imprisoned for two years at Buchenwald. He recalled the reaction of German civilians ordered to view the camp by liberating U.S. troops. "We didn't want this, we didn't know it," he remembered a German woman saying. A U.S. lieutenant replied: "It's possible you didn't know, but you didn't want to know."

* * * *

_____________________________________________________________
Copyright (c) 2003. UCSJ. All rights reserved.

Bigotry Monitor welcomes use of its contents without prior approval on the condition that full attribution is given to "Bigotry Monitor -- UCSJ's weekly newsletter". We would also like to see a copy of the publication.

Send letters to the editor to: cfenyvesi@aol.com

How to Subscribe
Send an email to bigotrymonitor@ucsj.com with the word "subscribe" as the subject of the message.

How to Unsubscribe
Send an email to bigotrymonitor@ucsj.com with the word "unsubscribe" as the subject of the message.

All issues available at http://www.fsumonitor.com

[HOME] [ACT] [CONNECT] [JOIN] [ABOUT] [SEARCH]