Volume 2, Number 7
Friday, February 15, 2002

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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Is President Vladimir Putin's slogan "the dictatorship of the law" being put into practice? Court rulings over the past few weeks suggest that the judicial system is of several minds about the law part of the slogan. Evidence #1: A court in the city of Samara closed a criminal case against an antisemitic politician-publisher whose violation of the law banning incitement of ethnic hatred was blatant. Evidence #2: The Yekaterinburg Prosecutor's Office has reopened a recently closed criminal case against two Islamic extremists who distributed literature inciting religious strife. Evidence #3: A court in Dagestan dismissed a National Bolshevik Party leader's defamation charges against a newspaper that called the far left party "fascist." Evidence #4: Russia's Supreme Court annulled a military secrecy order used in espionage and treason convictions that prompted protests among human rights advocates. Evidence #5: An Omsk court dropped the charge of "preparations to overthrow the state power by force" made against a leftist extremist whose coup attempt took place in public.

#1: CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST ANTISEMITIC EXTREMIST DROPPED. Last week Judge Andrey Morgunkov closed the criminal case against Oleg Kitter, a former deputy mayor of Samara who repeatedly stated at public events that it is necessary to "demolish all synagogues in Russia and expel the Jews." In February 2001 he issued the same call when interviewed on television outside the courthouse where his trial was taking place. The court sessions were often attended by General Albert Makashov -- a former member of parliament who himself has publicly called for violence against Jews -- and members of the neo-Nazi Russian National Unity, who wore black uniforms with stylized swastika armbands. The case opened over two years ago at the insistence of Aleksandr Brod, head of the Samara Jewish National-Cultural Autonomy and now UCSJ's Moscow bureau chief. Kitter was charged with inciting ethnic hatred, which is illegal in Russia under Article 282 of the Criminal Code. Despite overwhelming evidence that Kitter violated this law, Judge Morgunkov closed the case for lack of proof.

"The acquittal of one of Russia's most notorious antisemites doesn't just reflect the lack of will of Judge Morgunkov, it shows the impunity enjoyed by home-grown fascists," Brod told UCSJ. "The problem is that the standard of living for the average Russian has fallen and people easily fall into the hands of the national extremists, who point to the Jews as the source of all their problems. Over the past ten years in Samara Oblast, nobody has waged a decisive battle against the local antisemites, so it is not surprising how badly the judge, the Prosecutor's Office, and the local authorities look after this decision." Brod said he plans to appeal the decision and ask President Putin to intervene.

Kitter heads a security firm in Samara and publishes the newspaper "Aleks-Inform," which regularly prints antisemitic material such as "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and also attacks political opponents of Samara Governor Konstantin Titov. Kitter claims to have founded a "Secret Center for the Fight Against AIDS, Rats, and Kikes" and ran, unsuccessfully, for mayor last year.

#2. 'A HIGHER AUTHORITY' INTERVENES TO REOPEN CASE AGAINST MUSLIM AGITATORS. The Yekaterinburg Prosecutor's Office has reopened a criminal case, originally brought by the Sverdlovsk Oblast Prosecutor's Office in April 2001 under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code banning incitement of ethnic, racial, or religious strife, and recently closed for lack of proof, according to the Urals Federal District General Prosecutor's Office. The two suspects, identified as Uzbek citizen Merazhov and Azeri citizen Kerimov, were apprehended while distributing a book by the late Turkish Islamicist Sheikh Saidi Nursi. (See Bigotry Monitor of February 1, Vol. 2, No. 5). According to a January 30 report posted on the "Religiia v Rossii" web site, representatives of the Yekaterinburg muftiate, the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of Sverdlovsk Oblast, the Sverdlovsk Society of Jewish Culture, and specialists in Islam from the Urals State University agreed that the book is directed against a peaceful dialogue among followers of different religions. The government newspaper "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" of February 7 wrote that the two emissaries represented an organization, Followers of the Light, which Turkey has banned. The organization calls for uniting the Muslims of Central Asia and Russia in one Islamic state, Great Turan. The newspaper added that the closing of the case "provoked an indignant reaction from the public" and "a higher authority" has intervened, forcing a reopening.

#3. DAGESTAN'S NATIONAL BOLSHEVIKS LOSE IN COURT. On January 17, a Makhachkala court rejected the defamation charges pressed by the "commissar" of the Dagestan branch of the National Bolshevik Party, Igor Boykov, against the local newspaper "Molodezh Dagestana," according to an article in the same newspaper. Boykov’s suit followed an article in the newspaper that referred to his organization as "fascist." (See Bigotry Monitor of January 25, Vol. 2, Number 4.) The defense countered that the National Bolsheviks’ use of the swastika, borrowing of Nazi slogans, and propagation of extremist ideas deserve the label "fascist."

#4. RUSSIA'S HIGHEST COURT CANCELS 1996 MILITARY SECRECY LAW. On February 12, Russia's Supreme Court struck down a 1996 military secrecy order that has been used to slap espionage and treason convictions on whistleblowers such as journalist and former naval captain Grigory Pasko, twice convicted of treason. "The New York Times" called the action "a potentially crucial victory" for civil liberties advocates. The Supreme Court's military collegium dealing with cases involving the armed forces ruled that because the 1996 order was never published as required by the Constitution, Pasko could not be held liable for violating it. Human rights advocates believe that the ruling delivers a blow to the Soviet-era practice of punishing people for violating laws they could not have been aware of. Pasko's lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, was ecstatic. "We won," he told Reuters. Pavlov said he would ask that the case against Pasko be thrown out, based on the Supreme Court decision.

In its next session, on February 13, the Supreme Court struck down a 1990 Defense Ministry order that prohibited servicemen from engaging in unapproved contacts with foreigners. Pavlov said that the two court rulings showed that "the legal basis" for the Pasko case "simply does not exist," and other espionage prosecutions currently under way are also weakened. Pavlov thought that Pasko, who has so far served 22 months of his four-year prison sentence, now has a good chance to win his appeal.

#5. CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST FAR LEFT PLOTTER. What NTV called "a high-profile trial" in the Siberian city of Omsk ended unexpectedly on February 8 with the prosecution dropping the main charge -- preparations to overthrow the government by force-- "due to lack of evidence" and letting the defendant, former army lieutenant Andrey Mandrik, go free. Had he been convicted, Mandrik could have faced a 20-year jail term. Once the chairman of the Omsk branch of the radical left and antisemitic organization of retired military personnel called the Union of Officers, Mandrik was found guilty of a lesser charge: making public calls to change Russia's constitutional system. He was sentenced to one year in prison but received an immediate amnesty.

Originally, the investigators charged that Mandrik was plotting a far left military coup four years ago. He set up a professionally-designed military camp in the village of Turmakly, 200 kilometers from Omsk. Accompanied by 16 "local peasants" armed with "sporting guns" he went to Omsk to seize power with their assistance. Military facilities and the regional administration ranked first on the attack list. He also prepared an address to the nation and had leaflets with him. His "rebels," as he called them, broke into a military facility but were captured. At the trial, he denied all charges. According to Itar-Tass, Mandrik was one of the defenders of the anti-Yeltsin Supreme Soviet in 1993, and he now plans to run for a seat in the regional legislative assembly.

MILOSEVIC TRIAL OPENS AT THE HAGUE. The dictator himself thought it could not happen, and his followers swore that it never would. Even his enemies were losing faith that the new coalition government in Belgrade would – or could -- risk losing its tenuous hold on power by extraditing to The Hague the leader who swept along many if not most of his people with the grandiose claim that he was carrying out Serbia's historic destiny. Nevertheless, on February 11 the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia opened the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the first former head of state in the dock, on 66 counts of war crimes in the three wars he started, in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. The charges include genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws and customs of war. The BBC called the case the most important war crimes trial since those in Germany and Japan after World War II. The prosecution opened its argument by citing one incident in Bosnia: after Serbian forces set a house on fire, burning the parents alive, the screams of their baby were audible for two hours. Milosevic, who does not recognize the court's authority, listened to the presentation. His very ordinary face was devoid of emotion.

Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said: "An excellent tactician, a mediocre strategist, Milosevic did nothing but pursue his ambition at the cost of unspeakable suffering inflicted on those who opposed him or represented a threat [to] his personal strategy of power." Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch called the trial "a great step forward for justice, but equally notable are those indicted war criminals missing from the dock. Too many of the most senior Serb indictees remain at large. The blame lies with Balkan governments that have failed to cooperate with the tribunal, and with NATO, which has for six years operated in Bosnia without rounding up Milosevic's co-conspirators." Dicker expressed concern with the "major challenge" of the judges applying rules so that Milosevic gets a fair trial, but expressed satisfaction with the tribunal so far. He noted that "even though it would be easier for the judges and the prosecutor if Milosevic was defended by a lawyer, the tribunal is respecting his right to choose to defend himself without the assistance of counsel."

VATICAN MOVE WIDENS RIFT WITH RUSSIAN ORTHODOX. What the Russian Orthodox Church regards as Roman Catholic insistence on spreading the faith threatens a collision, with the Moscow Patriarchate zealously guarding its privileged positions in Russian lands. On February 11 the head of the Catholic Church in Russia, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, announced Vatican plans to upgrade its existing four apostolic administrations in Russia to dioceses in the cities of Moscow, Saratov, Novosibirsk, and Irkutsk, Keston News Service reported. Interviewed on Russian state television the same evening, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, charged that the plans indicated Vatican intentions "to preach to our people -- if you like, to convert them to the Catholic faith." According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Metropolitan Kirill went as far as saying that "It is likely that the Russian Orthodox Church will break off relations with the Vatican." His assistant, Fr. Vsevolod Chaplin suggested that the Vatican move was the equivalent of the Russian Orthodox Church appointing "an alternative to the Roman pope for Rome."

What the Catholic Church calls "the normalization" of its structures in Russia is linked by the Moscow Patriarchate to proselytism -- or "poaching converts from the Orthodox Church" -- and that in turn is identified as an impediment to patriarchal consent to a papal visit to Russia. On October 11, 2001 Hilarion (Alfeyev) -- now Bishop of Kerch who will be based in Britain -- complained to Keston that in Russia there were "ongoing attempts by the Catholic Church to get established in areas where there are few Catholics and to win those who are already in the Orthodox Church or on their way to it." He added that Patriarch Aleksi II was "prepared to meet the pope if he is ready to condemn proselytism." Keston quoted the dean of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ireland, Fr. Mikhail Gogolev, to the effect that Catholic missionaries were being sent from Poland to Russia "especially in order to convert people who have lost the Orthodox faith for various reasons." In his view, the main problem is the domination of the Catholic Church in Russia by Poles, and a solution would come only with the removal of Archbishop Kondrusiewicz who is "at odds with the Patriarchate," dictating policy and refusing to make concessions. Keston noted that though Russian government representatives have in recent weeks made their "warmest overtures" regarding a papal visit, Moscow Patriarchate representatives are raising "ever sterner objections." According to Keston's Catholic sources, the pope would only visit Russia by the invitation of the government and with the consent of Patriarch Aleksi II.

NEW BOOK CLAIMS JEWS AND TURKS ARE THE GREATEST ENEMIES OF ARMENIANS. A book, titled "National System," published in Yerevan identifies Jews and Turks as the greatest enemies of Armenians and "the carriers of evil in a most concentrated and aggressive form." Written by Romen Yepiskoposyan and printed in Armenian and Russian, the book denies the existence of gas chambers and calls the Holocaust "the greatest falsification of the twentieth century." The head of Armenia's Jewish community, Mrs. Rimma Varzhapetyan, attended the presentation of the book on February 8 in the building of the Union of Writers of Armenia. When she introduced herself, people in the audience shouted that Jews were guilty of the Armenian genocide in 1915.

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * * "Although they have been driven from power in Afghanistan, Islamic extremists still have fair chances of seizing power in several neighboring states," Igor Rotar and Lawrence Uzzell of Keston News Service wrote in an opinion piece in "The Wall Street Journal" of February 8. "One is the country that has shifted most dramatically toward the West during the recent crisis. Uzbekistan's ferocious policies designed to crush Islamic militants could end up having just the opposite effect…. If a wave of religious fanaticism should sweep out Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov, it would surge right through the artificial state boundaries inherited from the Soviet era."

'IZVESTIYA' EXPOSES WIDESPREAD RACIST VIOLENCE IN RUSSIA
The Federal Security Service Must Be Brought in to Help, Police Officer Says

"Izvestiya," one of Russia's leading newspapers, has discovered widespread racism in Russia and published two angry, well-researched articles exposing it. On February 7, reporters Sergey Bazavluk and Gennadiy Charodeev expressed outrage that their country-- proud of its multiethnic character, hospitality, and religious tolerance-- "is becoming openly racist. Fascist organizations operate openly here where practically every family has lost members in the most terrible war in the history of mankind against fascism. They celebrate Hitler's birthday. They smash up markets where they do not like the traders' faces. They beat to death people of 'non-Aryan' races and almost never appear in the dock."

The article charged that "Russian fascists have sympathizers in the special services and the police" and suggested that this may be the reason that their "dastardly deeds" go unpunished. It cited instances of violence targeting African diplomats, calling the beatings "a disgrace" that ought to be stopped by the state taking "tough, even ruthless action."

Kenya's ambassador to Russia, Meshack Nyambati, told "Izvestiya" that during his four years in Moscow he heard all the time from colleagues complaining about people on the streets who "jostle you or abuse you for no reason. There have been occasions when African students and even school children have been beaten up in the full view of passersby and the police. You can be killed in broad daylight. We have been forced to call the police to get the authorities to protect us from hooligans and restore order. But each day there are more and more incidents."

"Izvestiya" reported that outside the Dobryninskaya subway station on February 2, a group of some 20 thugs wearing black jackets with swastika armbands beat up Third Secretary Simon Koyma of the Kenyan embassy. "They were all youths," Koyma said. "The hooligans shouted: 'Blacks go home!'" Passersby did not intervene. Only one woman tried to help. "They are well trained and know where to hit you," Koyma added. "On the neck and the head. There were no police at hand. They only intervened after half an hour." At the police station where Koyma was taken, along with several skinheads, the police referred to him as a "piece of chocolate."

The reporters described one incident at the Moscow supermarket of Perekrestok. A young African, grimacing from pain, was being taken into an ambulance. His broken arm hung limp. He shouted through the window: "I am an Angolan student. Skinheads attacked me. I'm very scared!" But passersby who witnessed the incident shouted: "Blacks are everywhere, get them out of Russia!"

"Izvestiya" obtained the following statistics: Since May 2000, citizens of 23 countries have suffered at the hands of skinheads in Moscow, and in 104 incidents foreigners received serious injuries and ended up in a hospital. Four Africans died. The victims included diplomats and members of their families. Official notes sent to the Russian Foreign Ministry name victims from Kenya, Ghana, Chad, Benin, the Republic of South Africa, Mali, Angola, Sudan, Libya, India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.

On January 23, "Izvestiya" reported, a delegation of seven African ambassadors secured a meeting with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. However, Ivanov said he was busy, and the ambassadors presented their protests to his deputy, Aleksandr Saltanov, who said: "The Foreign Ministry is monitoring the [Koyma] case. Go to the police."

At the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), the reporters were sent to a local district police department. An officer at the Zamoskvoreche Central Administrative District MVD told them that the police detained some of the skinheads who attacked Koyma and charges of hooliganism have been brought against them. The officer said that since the large-scale disturbances at the Yasenevo and Tsaritsyno markets last yea,r the police are paying "serious attention" to the skinheads. But, he cautioned, "We will not manage on our own. To combat this social evil, a decision must be made 'at the very top.' The Federal Security Service must be brought in to assist the Ministry of Internal Affairs."

On February 8, "Izvestiya" published another report, titled "There Is No Chinese Student Who Has Not Been Beaten Up by the Skinheads." Citing information from the Moscow Antifascist Center, the newspaper wrote that more than 250 extremist organizations now operate in Russia and that in Moscow alone about 10,000 extremists advocate ideas of nationalism, monarchy restoration, antisemitism, and "National Bolshevism." "None of them calls itself fascist to avoid dealing with law-enforcement agencies," the article said. "But it is just a matter of terminology. In the regions, such associations are not organized so well but they are equally aggressive."
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