Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Bigotry Monitor: Volume 3, Number 13

News

Bigotry Monitor: Volume 3, Number 13

(March 28, 2003)

Volume 3, Number 13
Friday, March 28, 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
_____________________________________________________________

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CALLS ON RUSSIA TO END IMPUNITY FOR RACISTS. Discrimination on the grounds of race is a reality for many members of ethnic or national minority groups in the Russian Federation, Amnesty International (AI) warned in its just-released report, titled "'Dokumenty!' Discrimination on Grounds of Race in the Russian Federation." AI cites numerous cases that illustrate the organization's concerns: African students and ethnic Tajiks beaten by skinheads and left without redress when the police fail to take appropriate action; Meskhetian Turks being refused registration and arbitrarily denied recognition as citizens of the Russian Federation, leading to the denial of a range of basic human rights such as freedom of movement; ethnic Chechens being subjected to arbitrary document checks and detention; racist attacks on Jews and Roma. "The failure to hold to account those who commit, encourage or tolerate racial abuse frequently exacerbates the problem and helps create a climate of impunity for those who commit such acts," AI said.

"Racism is an attack on the very notion of universal human rights," the report stated. "It systematically denies certain people their full human rights because of their color, race, ethnicity, descent or national origin. The right to be free from racial discrimination is a fundamental principle of human rights law."

The Council of Europe, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the U.N. have all raised their concerns about racism and discrimination in the Russian Federation and have made recommendations to the authorities, AI pointed out. Russian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) continue to work to counteract racism, discrimination, and intolerance. "They face complicated problems which require long-term, consistent and careful work," the report quoted Alexander Ossipov from the human rights NGO Memorial as saying. "Although the anti-racist and pro-tolerance movement is new to the Russian civil society, it is growing and consists of human rights NGOs, ethnic and racial minority groups, organizations of migrants, anti-Nazi movements, and social research groups. They are gradually mastering the methods of monitoring, strategic litigation, legal and non-legal advocacy and awareness-raising campaigns, and understand the importance of coordination, shared perceptions, and common strategies."

AI also observed that "the clampdown on human rights across the world" following 9/11 "remains one of the most pressing human rights concerns. In situations of increased tension representatives of ethnic minorities, refugees, and internally displaced persons are the most vulnerable sections of society. The state must take responsibility to preserve the human rights of all its citizens."

The report is part of AI's worldwide campaign against human rights abuses in the Russian Federation, highlighting the discrepancy between human rights protections guaranteed by international and national law and the reality of widespread human rights abuses committed in a climate of impunity.

MOSCOW MUFTI CALLS FOR JIHAD AGAINST U.S. On March 25, Makhmud Velitov, mufti of Moscow City and Moscow Oblast, told "Izvestiya" that in the next few days he will appeal to all of Russia's inhabitants asking that they participate in a jihad against the United States. "Izvestiya" learned that at an extraordinary session of the Higher Islamic Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States this week in Moscow, a draft of the appeal will be coordinated with leaders of all the Muslim communities of the former USSR.

Meanwhile in St. Petersburg, the Muslim Tatarstan society has called on all the Muslims of Russia to boycott goods manufactured in the United States and Great Britain in protesting against the war in Iraq. Mufti Velitov said he would make the same appeal in his mosque.

Anti-American sentiments are mounting among Muslims in others regions of the country too, the newspaper's correspondents noted. "At the St. Petersburg mosque -- the biggest in the country, where up to 3,000 worshippers gather for prayers -- people pray for peace and for Allah to punish the aggressors," according to "Izvestiya."

CHECHENS APPROVE RUSSIAN REFERENDUM BY CLOSE TO 100%. On March 26, as the U.S.-led forces began their advance to Baghdad, Chechnya's Central Election Commission announced that 95.97% of Chechens voted in favor of the draft constitution, 95.4% backed the presidential election law, and 96.05% supported the draft law on parliamentary elections, according to Interfax. President Vladimir Putin declared that the people of Chechnya had overwhelmingly voted for “peace" and “Russia." Putin seemed to address his comments to Russians concerned about a further diminution of their territory. "We have done away with the last serious problem linked to Russia's territorial integrity," Putin said. He contended that rebels who still take up arms would be "fighting with their own people and contradicting the Chechen people's express will to live in peace."

"People said in essence that they wanted civic rights," Reuters quoted Putin's human rights envoy in Chechnya, Abdul-Khakim Sultygov, as having told reporters in Grozny. "They are tired of mere human rights. Now it is vital to ensure dialogue with those who were dragged into armed conflict."

However, Reuters reported, others expressed caution about long-term prospects for stability and many Chechens are doubtful if the referendum had any meaning. Rebel groups said the vote will perpetuate the war and reported attacks on polling stations. The landslide was "a foregone conclusion," wrote Nikolai Petrov, head of the Center for Political and Geographical Research, in "The Moscow Times." Petrov suggested that more important than the election results are the facts that Chechen fighters failed to make good on their threats to disrupt the vote while the "Kremlin demonstrated that it has the region under control."

Serious skepticism was indicated in a poll of 665 people in 17 regions conducted by the human rights group Memorial, many of them teachers, quoted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Seventy-eight percent said they did not believe proper conditions for a referendum existed; 43 percent said that without monitoring, it was hard to trust the results. As many as 76 percent of those polled said that in any event, Russian authorities would not obey the new constitution for which they had so carefully obtained a consensus.

In Washington, the State Department said it continued to have questions about the conduct of the referendum, while waiting for further information, "particularly with respect to voter registration numbers, the participation of Russian military personnel in the voting, voting by displaced persons in Ingushetia and the overall security environment during the voting."

MOSCOW COURT FINDS NOTHING WRONG WITH ANTISEMITIC TEXTBOOK. On March 24, Moscow's Meshchansky District Court ruled in favor of Moscow prosecutors who had twice refused to bring charges against the publishers of a school textbook that contains antisemitic passages, according to the movement known as "For Human Rights."

The legal wrangle began in June 2002 when For Human Rights first requested that criminal charges be brought against the editor and distributors of "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture," a textbook that has been distributed to schools in Moscow and other regions. The plaintiffs argued that the textbook takes a "primitive antisemitic position" on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, arguing that the crucifixion happened because the Jews were obsessed with "earthly well being and power over other peoples" rather than spiritual values. Lev Ponomaryov, the head of For Human Rights, compared this claim to Nazi propaganda, which attributed "amoral qualities to a defined ethnic group." However, the Ostankino District Prosecutor's Office refused to open a criminal case.

On January 13, Moscow's Meshchansky Municipal Court ruled that the judgment of the Ostankino District Prosecutor's Office was unfounded and ordered a second look. Less than a month later, the Prosecutor's Office issued a second refusal, sending the case back to the court, which ruled on March 24 that the refusal of the Ostankino District Prosecutor's Office to bring charges was justified.

According to For Human Rights, a senior prosecutor attending the latest hearing argued that antisemitism and xenophobia were not punishable under Article 282 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits the incitement of ethnic and religious hatred and has been used by other prosecutors against suspects accused of hate crimes. Senior Prosecutor V. V. Rybalko also tried to persuade the judge to include in the case appeals from religious figures calling for Article 282 charges to be brought against the group For Human Rights.

MOSCOW POLICE ORDERED TO STOP 'UNREASONABLE CHECKING' OF ID PAPERS. Moscow police have been "banned from checking people's documents on the streets in the absence of suspected criminal or other offences," the chief of the Moscow police force Lt.-Gen. Vladimir Pronin said on March 26, according to Itar-Tass. Pronin said the internal security department and the chiefs of police units will enforce the order. "For violations of the instructions, the police responsible will be disciplined," he warned, and invited Muscovites to report all violations of the order to a police telephone hotline.

SHEVARDNADZE PROMISES TO PUNISH PERPETRATORS OF RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE. Seven weeks after an ecumenical service was broken up by a mob led by the violence-prone defrocked Orthodox priest Basil Mkalavishvili, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze attended the re-run of the service on March 14 at the Central Baptist Church in Tbilisi, as did bishops and leaders of the Georgian Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Baptist churches, along with numerous ambassadors, according to the new Christian news agency Forum 18 News Service. "As the head of state and as a believer," Shevardnadze expressed "great sorrow and even anger that our unity, mutual respect and liberty of faith have been violated by some aggressors. I would like you to believe: the aggressor will be punished." Shevardnadze's promises have been echoed by Security Council Secretary Tedo Japaridze. Prosecutor General Nugzar Gabrichidze was equally confident. "The perpetrators are not above the law," he told Forum 18. "I give a guarantee that if the victims of the violence go to court, the perpetrators will be sentenced within a day or two."

Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili, head of the Baptist Union in Georgia, told Forum 18 that he believed the service will be "a milestone in the development of the religious life of Georgia." However, minority religious leaders and human rights activists remain skeptical of new pledges from political leaders to end religious violence, for which none of the known perpetrators have been punished. Levan Ramishvili of the Liberty Institute was highly skeptical. "President Shevardnadze's apology at the ecumenical service was positive but came too late," he said. "There is no willingness on the part of the government to end the persecution."

Since 1999, according to Forum 18 files, there have been more than one hundred violent attacks on religious minorities including non-Patriarchate Orthodox, Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, and Pentecostals. The attacks have mainly been the work of a group led by Mkalavishvili in Tbilisi and the Jvari organization in Rustavi, led by Paata Bluashvili.

FRENCH OFFICIALS CONDEMN ATTACK ON FRENCH JEWS BY PEACE MARCHERS. On March 24, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe condemned as "unacceptable" an attack on young French Jews at a demonstration against the war in Iraq, the Associated Press reported. He said: " In Paris, everyone must be respected in dignity, no matter what their culture, identity or spiritual faith." The following day in parliament, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said he spoke for the government in expressing "outrage." He warned disaffected Muslim youths not to use the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which France has steadfastly opposed, as a pretext for raising tensions at home.

According to the Hashomer Hatzair youth organization, several dozen assailants struck two of its members with metal bars on the sidelines of a protest demonstration on March 22. They were treated for bruises at a hospital. Two other members were wounded less seriously. The otherwise largely peaceful anti-war demonstration attracted 90,000 people, police said.

Over the last two years, France has suffered a wave of violence against Jewish schools, synagogues, and cemeteries that observers suggested was triggered by the Palestinian uprising. The violence peaked a year ago when a Marseille synagogue was burned to the ground. Since then, street-level government intervention has dramatically reduced antisemitic incidents and the center-left government pledged to confront the problem. However, Muslim-Jewish relations remain tense. In Western Europe, France has the largest Jewish community as well as the largest Muslim population, some of them in adjacent neighborhoods. Jewish leaders have publicly expressed their fear that the war in Iraq will renew tensions.

According to news agency reports, France has tightened security at 2,000 Jewish and Muslim buildings across France and doubled the number of servicemen deployed on domestic security detail to 800.

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * * "French Muslims infuriated President Jacques Chirac last year by booing the national anthem," Reuters began a dispatch from France on March 27. "But the U.S.-led war against Iraq has put them in tune with Chirac and most of France."

CLEANSING THE ETHNIC CLEANSERS
In Serbia and Croatia the Government Confronts Extremists

In the two dominant successor states of the former Yugoslavia, reform-minded governments now feel strong enough to move against current and past military, paramilitary, and special forces commanders and officers. In Serbia, the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic earlier this month gave the impetus to break up the units, which are widely believed to have been responsible for ethnic cleansing in the 1990s and have been closely linked to indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, as well as to organized crime. In Croatia, in a trial that lasted more than a year, three Croatians received long prison sentences for atrocities against Serbian civilians in 1991. In both countries, the era of impunity seems to be coming to an end for the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing, who have been able to survive and prosper in the postwar era and are still considered heroes by a substantial part of the population.

On March 25 in Belgrade, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic announced that police arrested Zvezdan Jovanovic, accused of having shot Djindjic on March 12. Jovanovic is a former assistant commander of the Serbian police special operations unit known as the JSO, often called the best-trained and best-equipped armed group in the country. Also arrested were JSO member Sasa Pejakovic, suspected of direct involvement in the assassination, and the JSO commander, Dusan Maricic, allegedly linked to the Belgrade criminal organization known as the Zemun Clan, which the authorities have blamed for Djindjic's killing. Another suspect in the assassination plot is still at large.

On March 26, the Serbian government disclosed that it had peacefully disbanded the JSO. Reuters reported that about 200 members of the unit, set up under Milosevic's rule, left their base near the northern town of Kula in buses and cars, wearing civilian clothes and carrying personal belongings. "There has been no resistance," Zivkovic said.

News agencies noted that Djindjic made enemies by declaring war on organized crime, which flourished in Serbia under Milosevic's rule. Djindjic also angered some Serbs by going after war crimes suspects wanted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands which is now trying Milosevic.

After Djindjic's assassination, the authorities in Belgrade promptly launched a massive crackdown, using the extra authority gained by proclaiming a state of emergency. According to news agency accounts, up to 3,700 people were taken in for questioning and 1,075 were put under a 30-day detention.

Not so coincidentally, the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which describes itself as "the human rights and democracy watchdog" on the continent, announced on March 26 that it was inviting the new country known as Serbia and Montenegro to join as its 45th member. The accession to the Council of Europe will take place on April 3, the Council stated. Any European state can become a member of the 54-year-old Council of Europe provided it accepts the principle of the rule of law and guarantees human rights and fundamental freedoms. Membership is regarded as a preliminary stage to entry into the European Union.

However, on March 25, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) -- which had earlier issued a statement mourning Djindjic as a champion of human rights -- called on the Serbian government to consider lifting the ban on contact between detainees and their lawyers and families, even though the state of emergency allows that stricture. "The Serbian government should be able to provide careful justification for every measure taken under the recently proclaimed state of emergency," HRW's letter to Zivkovic said. "Under international law, any measure derogating human rights must be limited to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation." HRW cautioned the Belgrade government that incommunicado detention gives rise to concern because of "repeated cases of reported ill treatment in police detention during the past two years."

On March 27, police tracked down two leaders of the Zemun Clan, one of them named as a prime suspect in the assassination plot, former JSO chief Milorad Lukovic, and shot them dead. According to the government web site, the two leaders, armed with hand grenades, “put up deadly resistance during the arrest, forcing police to respond in kind."

Meanwhile, in a rare war crimes trial in Croatia against a Croatian officer, on March 25 a court in Rijeka sentenced former Gen. Mirko Norac to 12 years in prison for the killing of Serbian civilians during the 1991 war of independence in the town of Gospic, news agencies reported. Norac was charged with ordering the roundup of about 50 Serbs who were dragged out of their homes and places of work, and executed outside the city. They included a woman who, prosecutors said, Norac himself shot. One of his subordinates, identified as the de facto commander of the area, received a 15-year prison term, and another, 10 years. They all protested their innocence, contending that they were defending Gospic from Serbian aggression.

Many Croatians admire Norac, now 34, as a war hero. Veterans gathered in front of the district court to protest the ruling. They shouted "Treason!'' In Norac's hometown in southern Croatia, supporters blocked the highway leading to the capital Zagreb.

Norac surrendered to the authorities in 2001 on the condition that he would not be sent to the tribunal in The Hague. He is the most senior Croatian army officer convicted for war crimes in a Croatian court, and the trial was one of handful of cases in which Croatians were prosecuted for war crimes. Many Croatians firmly believe that only Serbs committed war crimes.

The trial "tested the Croatian judiciary's capability and willingness to handle such a sensitive national issue," the Associated Press noted. According to the AP, some Croatian observers hailed the sentences as proof that Croatia's courts have reached the point when they can administer justice to Croatian war criminals, while others argued that the sentencing is evidence of “a regrettable tendency to place Croatian victims" on the same level as the "Serbian aggressors." Ivo Sanader of the opposition Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) said the sentences reflect the current pro-Western government's policy of "criminalizing" the 1991-95 war of independence that Croatians won in the end by throwing out the Serbian army from the one third of Croatia it had captured at the beginning of the war.
* * * *

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