Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Bigotry Monitor: Volume 3, Number 14

News

Bigotry Monitor: Volume 3, Number 14

(April 4, 2003)

Volume 3, Number 14
Friday, April 4, 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
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STATE DEPARTMENT’S ANNUAL REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS SCORES VIOLATORS. “Spreading democratic values and respect for human rights around the world is one of the primary ways we have of advancing the national security interests of the United States," declared the State Department’s annual report on human rights practices, released on March 31. “Democratic values have also been at the heart of America’s most enduring and effective alliances, partnerships which continue to help us meet the challenges of tyranny and deprivation." Covering 196 countries, the report singled out Iraq’s government as the worst offender and cites executions and torture of people “for simply associating with an opposition group" or for belonging to the Shia community. By contrast, the report found "dramatic improvements" in human rights and democracy in Afghanistan, named the worst human rights violator in last year’s report and where the U.S. war on terror helped topple the repressive Taliban government in late 2001.

Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus continued to receive a negative assessment of their human rights performance, although Moscow was praised for a new Criminal Procedure Code that for the first time applied constitutional provisions where people may be arrested, taken into custody, or detained only upon a judicial decision. “The changes appeared to be having an effect on police, prosecutorial behavior, and the judicial system," the report asserted, “although there were reports of non-compliance in some regions."

The report blamed both the Russian government and Chechen rebels for continued “serious human rights violations." “Government forces committed extrajudicial killings and at times used indiscriminate force, which resulted in civilian casualties," the report said, while “Chechen rebels increased their killings of civilian officials and militia associated with the Russian-appointed Chechen administration."

On the issue of religious freedom, the report found “increasing indications that the security services may be treating the leadership of some minority religious groups, particularly Roman Catholics, as security threats." In a similarly guarded language, the report cited evidence that “the Russian Orthodox Church increasingly enjoyed a status that approaches official." In contrast, the report noted “campaigns of legal harassment" occurring against minority religious denominations. The report mentioned the difficulties of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Salvation Army, The Church of Scientology, and the Mormons. Muslims, Russia’s largest religious minority, “continued to face societal discrimination and antagonism in some areas," the report said, and “discriminatory attitudes have become stronger since a group of Chechen rebels took 750 hostages in a Moscow theater in November." Next in the report are the Jews who “continued to face prejudice, social discrimination, and some acts of violence. Antisemitic leaflets, graffiti, and articles continued to appear in some regions." The report took note of the vandalization of synagogues, cemeteries, and memorials.

One paragraph dealt with desecrated tombstones “in cemeteries dominated by religious and ethnic minorities" such as Armenians and Muslims. At times, “swastikas and other ultra-nationalist symbols" were daubed on the stones.

“In Eurasia, several republics of the former Soviet Union resisted positive change," the report said, noting that in Turkmenistan “the human rights situation deteriorated markedly." Following an attack on President Saparmurat Niyazov’s motorcade in November, “serious violations of due process under the law" occurred, including “widespread arrests and forced evictions of suspects’ families, use of torture, threats of rape and summary trials."

In Kazakhstan, the report found that “the government’s poor human rights record worsened, including selective prosecution of opposition leaders and a pattern of media harassment suggesting an attempt to silence media critics." While in Uzbekistan the report pointed to “positive steps in the first half of 2002, such as registration of the first human rights NGO and abolition of prior censorship of the media, there were also setbacks that are a cause of concern, including at least four deaths in detention due to torture." The report noted that “the Kyrgyz Republic held a regional by-election in October, judged by independent monitoring groups to be marred by irregularities such as multiple voting and lax standards of voting eligibility. Harassment of media and civil society continued and police killed six unarmed protesters."

Unveiling the report, Lorne Craner, the assistant secretary of state for democracy and human rights, said U.S. funding for human rights and democracy projects in Central Asia has increased between 200 and 400 percent since 2001, when the region became key to the U.S. war on terror. Craner acknowledged that America's new allies were slow to change. He said, "Decades of Soviet-style political culture will not be changed overnight."

“The push to meet European Union entry requirements resulted in positive human rights developments in aspirant countries," the report declared, singling out Turkey for passing “extensive human rights reform packages." However, torture, although illegal, remained “a serious problem." The report welcomed “the first general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be conducted by local (not international) authorities since the Dayton Peace Accords" and Macedonia’s reaffirmation of its democracy through peaceful elections “while its parliament laid the legal groundwork for improving civil and minority rights by completing nearly all of the constitutional and legislative actions related to the Framework Agreement."

The State Department report received mixed reviews from human rights organizations. Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters: "Overall it's a candid report that pulls no punches, even with respect to key allies. The key question is: What are the implications for foreign policy? [How] does the department use these findings the other 364 days a year?" Amnesty International accused Washington of being "the Jekyll and Hyde of human rights" by praising the protection of basic rights but by "turning a blind eye" to the effects of its actions in the war on terrorism. “UCSJ applauds the report," stated its National Director, Micah Naftalin.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE URGES CHECHNYA WAR CRIMES TRIALS. On April 2, the Council of Europe, the continent's principal human rights watchdog, called for an international tribunal to try war crimes committed in Chechnya. "Those responsible for past human rights abuses committed by both sides to the conflict must be brought to justice without further delay," the council said.

RUSSIAN HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF URGES OPENING OF MASS GRAVES IN CHECHNYA. On March 31, Russia’s human rights Ombudsman Oleg Mironov called on the authorities to open mass burial sites in Chechnya to identify the bodies and establish the reasons for their deaths, Interfax reported. As Chechen civilians accuse the Russian military of committing crimes for which guerrillas are responsible, and so the opening of mass burial sites will help discover the truth, Mironov told a press conference.

Asked for his reaction to an initiative by Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) member Rudolf Bindig of Germany to set up an international tribunal for crimes committed in Chechnya, Mironov said: "There is no need to set up an international tribunal. There are enough organizations in Russia to investigate crimes committed there." Mironov expressed support for the idea of an amnesty that should cover Chechen guerrillas and servicemen who committed misdemeanors against civilians. But, he insisted, the amnesty should not extend to those guilty of “grave crimes."

COURT RULES CHECHEN INNOCENT OF KILLING RUSSIAN. On March 25, the Uglich City Court found an ethnic Chechen not guilty of a murder that had sparked anti-Chechen rioting last year in the Yaroslavl Oblast city. According to the regional newspaper "Zolotoe Koltso" of March 31, Judge Tatyana Baryshkova found Khasan Amaev, 18, not guilty of murdering Konstantin Blokhin, 17, on July 21, 2002. Blokhin, a Russian, was killed in a large-scale fight between Russians and Chechens at a local nightclub. Five days later, hundreds of local residents took to the streets and urged that Chechens be driven out of town. A car was seen driving around town with a sign reading "Death to the Chechens!" A mob burned down a building where the family of one of the Chechens who participated in the fight was thought to live with dozens of other Chechens. Chechens from nearby towns rushed in to support their brethren in Uglich, and eventually OMON troops from the city of Rybinsk were called in to restore order.

While Judge Baryshkova was skeptical of the credibility of Amaev's alibi witnesses -- all of them his relatives -- she based her ruling on the fact that the prosecution's case was sloppily prepared, according to "Zolotoe Koltso." Under recent reforms of the justice system, judges can no longer order "further investigations" of cases that prosecutors prepare badly. Instead, they now must make a ruling on the case, thus preventing the previously widespread abuse of defendants' rights inherent under the old system, when judges frequently ordered numerous "further investigations" until prosecutors could make a persuasive case for a guilty verdict, leaving defendants to languish in pre-trial detention.

While Uglich prosecutors are planning an appeal, the town is rife with rumors of another anti-Chechen riot.

JEWISH CEMETERY DESECRATED IN DAGESTAN. Unknown individuals destroyed 42 gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in Makhachkala, in Russia’s Republic of Dagestan, according to a local contact of UCSJ's Chicago affiliate. Chicago Action for Jews in the Former Soviet Union reported that their contacts in the Makhachkala Jewish community regard the desecration as a reaction in the predominantly Muslim region to the war in Iraq.

ARMENIAN COURT DOUBLES JEHOVAH’S WITNESS SENTENCE. The lawyer for Jehovah's Witness Hambartsum Odabashyan, whose sentence for refusing military service on grounds of his faith was doubled on April 1 to three years in labor camp, has described the sentence as "illegal," according to the religious news service Forum 18. "The court took no account of Armenia's obligations to the Council of Europe to end the sentencing of conscientious objectors," Razmik Khachaturyan said. But the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Dziunik Agadjanian, denied that the continuing sentencing of conscientious objectors has caused conflict with the Council of Europe. "It does not violate our commitments," she told Forum 18. At the same time she pledged that a "full stop" would be put to the practice of imprisoning conscientious objectors by the end of 2003.

However, a Council of Europe official told Forum 18 that the Armenian authorities' claim that imprisoning conscientious objectors did not violate their commitments was "absurd." "It is unacceptable," the official said." How can this continued sentencing be in line with the commitments Armenia made?"

Since the beginning of this year Odabashyan is the seventh Jehovah's Witness to receive a long prison sentence for refusing to perform military service. Eleven Jehovah's Witnesses are now serving long sentences in labor camps for the same reason, an additional seven are in pre-trial detention, and five more are awaiting trial at home. Eight more who have been freed early from labor camp must report regularly to police and have had their passports withheld. According to Forum 18, Armenia has the worst record of all the post-Soviet republics for imprisoning conscientious objectors.

GO TO NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES, EU MINISTERS TELL REFUGEES FROM IRAQ. The West European crisis over illegal immigration is reaching a new stage, as European Union (EU) ministers meeting in Greece warned refugees that might flee the Iraq war that they have to stay in neighboring countries rather than go to Europe. EU states are flouting the European convention on human rights with a new wave of deportations aimed at ridding the wealthy bloc of illegal immigrants, said on March 28 Farid Messaoudi of the Paris-based Human Rights League (LDH). According to Reuters, countries including France, Spain, Britain, and Germany are now embarking on high-profile mass deportations of refugees to destinations such as Afghanistan and Ivory Coast. Messaoudi said that an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights is now under study. According to a protocol of the European human rights convention, "collective expulsion of aliens is prohibited." However, refugee experts acknowledge that there is room for interpretation as to when deportations may be classified as “collective."

At a summit last year, EU leaders, alarmed by the electoral success of anti-immigrant parties, pledged to work out a strong common asylum and immigration policy. The leader of the crackdown on unwanted immigration is France, where anti-immigrant campaigner Jean-Marie Le Pen came second to re-elected President Jacques Chirac in last year's election.

Since flying 54 applicants for asylum back to Africa on March 3, France has organized two other flights taking 118 more immigrants. A flight from Madrid coordinated with Spain carrying 50 Roma (better known as Gypsies) landed in Paris on March 27, picked up 20 more deportees, and left for Bucharest. This week, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said that Paris and London were studying a group deportation of Afghans early next month.

So far, high-profile group deportations represent only a drop in the ocean of total expulsions, according to Reuters that noted that in 2002, Britain alone deported 13,335 people. Eve Lester, refugee coordinator at Amnesty International, said that returning refugees to Ivory Coast and Afghanistan is legally questionable because of the civil war conditions in those countries. However, experts suspect that the high-profile deportations reassure domestic opinion that governments are active and send a firm message to other potential migrants.

RACIAL VIOLENCE GREW FOURFOLD, MORE THAN HALF TARGETING JEWS. Reported acts of racial violence in France increased more than four times last year, and more than half of them are antisemitic, the National Consultative Commission of Human Rights (CNCDH), a top consultative body, disclosed on March 27. According to the CNCDH annual report, French authorities recorded 313 acts of racial violence last year, as against 71 in 2001. There were 193 antisemitic acts last year, or 62 percent of the total. "The 2002 total shows a record increase in racist incidents of all forms which have reached levels not seen in 10 years," CNCDH President Joel Thoraval told Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin when presenting the report. "It is more urgent than ever that the government reaffirms its political determination to fight against all forms of racism and xenophobia."

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * * In his new book, “Khrushchev: The Man and His Era" (W. W. Norton & Company, $35), William Taubman sums up Stalin’s successor: "Both true believer and cold-eyed realist, opportunistic yet principled in his own way, fearful of war while all too prone to risk it, the most unpretentious of men even as he pretended to power and glory exceeding his grasp, complicit in great evil yet also the author of much good."

ARE TATARSTAN MUSLIMS CALM OR SEETHING?

Star Reporter Lists Signs of TensionGauging the seriousness of dissent spilling over from one Muslim society to another is notoriously difficult. Shortly after the ayatollahs took over in Iran in 1979, “The New York Times" sent its reporters to the then Soviet Central Asia to assess the impact of Iran’s Islamic revolution. In a series of articles from each of the republics, America’s in-depth newspaper acknowledged that it could not define the impact with any degree of certainty but that the people seemed calm. A Washington reporter asked a usually outspoken Soviet diplomat what he thought of “The Times" series. “We too sent out our best observers to the same republics," said the diplomat well known in the journalistic community and widely suspected of serving as the KGB rezident. “And we too found the people calm. But we cannot be certain." He pursed his thin lips, then his conversational tone suddenly changed to an angry outburst: “And that is precisely what worries us! We do not know what the impact is and what the consequences will be!"

This time around, the redoubtable “Christian Science Monitor" sent its outstanding Moscow correspondent, Fred Weir, to Tatarstan, the self-described “Muslim oasis of calm in Russia" where more than half of the 5.5 million population are ethnic Tatars, to assess the impact of attempts from beyond the semi-autonomous republic’s border to radicalize the population. In an article published on March 31, Weir carefully balanced two trends. On one hand, he noted Tatarstan’s emergence as the leader in a “new liberal brand of Islamic thought – dubbed ‘Euro-Islam’ by its supporters -- that preaches democracy, tolerance, and acceptance of secular social values and government." On the other hand, he pointed out neuralgic zones of discrimination, prejudice, and tension.

1. The Headscarf as Symbol.
Weir began his dispatch by focusing on the mundane: the headscarf. Last month, Russia's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Muslim women to wear their headscarves, as required by Islamic law, when photographed for passport and other identity documents. The court sided with security officials who said that they could not make proper identifications unless ears, neck, and hair are visible. Weir found a quiet but stubborn resistance on the headscarf controversy. He described a Tatar woman as setting off “on a collision course with the Russian state," when she declared: "To take the headscarf off in the presence of a man is a terrible sin which violates my deepest convictions." Weir wrote: “Though the issue may appear minor, it has struck a nerve." He interviewed a number of people who expressed their surprise and disappointment that Moscow and especially President Vladimir Putin failed to understand the importance of the headscarf.

2. The Army Serves Pork and Insists that Muslims Fight in Chechnya.
Weir found that “the biggest complaints involve the army" where a two-year service is compulsory for all 18-year-old males. He cited human rights workers to the effect that Tatar recruits are often subjected to insults and abuse on the basis of religion and are given no alternative to pork and foods cooked in pork fat. Moreover, while Orthodox chapels and priests are allowed on army bases, Islamic services are banned, and Muslim conscripts are not given time to say daily prayers as required by their faith.

Rashit Vagizov, Tatarstan's human rights ombudsman, who is elected by the republic's parliament, is quoted as saying that many Tatar youths have deserted the army rather than fight fellow Muslims in Chechnya. He said: "We have raised these issues over and over again with the Defense Ministry, but the army is a state within a state that seems beyond normal laws." Vagizov and others have suggested that Tatar conscripts do their military service in Tatarstan. “But," he concluded, “we are not listened to."

3. The Primacy of Russian Orthodoxy.
Weir found “irritation" among Tatars with what he called the Kremlin's “intimate relations" with the Orthodox Church. "Putin is our president, too, so he should at least conceal his Orthodoxy," while performing his state duties, Weir quoted historian Rafik Moukhametshin as saying. "This is a secular state, but it leans toward the Orthodox majority. Different faiths should be treated equally."

4. Laws Made for Christians.
Weir found “some Tatars" complaining that that the laws are for the convenience of a Christian society. For instance, Sunday is the day off, which means that Muslims need a special permission to leave workplaces to attend their Friday services. In the same vein, some of the Tatars Weir spoke with consider it offensive to Islam that in Tatarstan alcohol is generally available, widely advertised, and consumed in public places.

5. Joining the Taliban.
Having spoken to Tatars who expressed moderate views, Weir concluded that “Middle East-style politicized Islam has little appeal among Tatars." But he is sketchy and his dispatch lacks quotes when discussing Tatars exposed to radical Islamic thought. Tatars acknowledged to him that in the 1990s, money flowed in from Persian Gulf countries to fund religious schools, “some of which are still operating." But Weir does not seem to have visited the schools or their students. He does not attribute his statement that the amounts coming in from abroad have dropped since September 11 and on account of “crackdowns" by Russian security services. In the same paragraph mentioning the religious schools, he observed that some Tatars had joined the Taliban in Afghanistan, and of three Russian citizens held in Guantanamo Bay, two are Tatars. But does than mean that radical Islamic fervor is smoldering in the hearts of outwardly calm Tatars or that such a fervor is present only in a small minority? The best reporter is not necessarily a psychologist or a prophet.

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