Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Bigotry Monitor: Volume 8, Number 24

News

Bigotry Monitor: Volume 8, Number 24

(June 13, 2008)

Volume 8, Number 24
Friday, June 13, 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
___________________________________________________________

53 HATE CRIME SUSPECTS ARRESTED THIS YEAR SO FAR, INTERIOR MINISTRY SAYS. Russian authorities have arrested 53 suspects this year for violent attacks against dark-skinned foreigners across four regions, the Interior Ministry announced on June 6. According to “The Moscow Times” that carried the item on its front page, the suspects include members of 11 separate gangs that have carried out a total of 38 attacks--including 17 murders-- against foreigners in Moscow, the Moscow Region, St. Petersburg, and the Leningrad Region, said Gennady Ivanov, head of the ministry's criminal investigations department. He added: "Their involvement in other similar crimes is being investigated."

One of the gangs was responsible for the 17 murders and 17 other attacks on foreigners of non-Slavic appearance, Ivanov said. Of the gang's victims, 19 were citizens of either China or former Soviet republics. The ministry registered 101 attacks on foreigners, including 31 murders, in the four regions from January through March. Investigators have solved 19 of the murders and 11 of the other attacks.

SUSPECTS IN TWO MURDERS ARRESTED. St. Petersburg police detained two suspects in connection with two murders of ethnic minorities, according to a June 4 report by the local news web site Fontanka.ru. The two are accused of stabbing a Tajik citizen on February 13; the victim died in the hospital. On March 11, the suspects allegedly stabbed a 16 year old Uzbek to death.

The police solved the case after detaining one of the suspects, a 21 year old man named Alekseev, in the wake of an April assault on a 22 year old resident of St. Petersburg. The suspect gave up his comrade, a 21 year old plumber. Both face murder charges. So far prosecutors have chosen not to tack on hate crimes charges to the case.

Citing statistics by local law enforcement agencies, Fontanka.ru reported that 16 probable hate crimes have taken place already this year in the city, including nine murders. However, hate crimes charges were only applied in one of those cases, leading local officials to announce that the situation in the city, which has gained a reputation as unsafe for minorities, is improving.

NEO-NAZI MOB HUNTS FOR MINORITIES IN ROSTOV. A mob of about 60 neo-Nazis went after minorities in Rostov-na-Donu, Russia according to a June 7 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. Armed with clubs and other weapons, the young extremists walked down the city's main street, hunting for victims. They first chased a black man who saw them coming and escaped on a bus. They then spotted two women wearing hijabs (the scarf of devout Muslims) but as they prepared to strike, a group of police officers happened to pass by and the mob got scared. The report does not make it clear if anyone was actually attacked or if the police detained any of the extremists.

RACIST ATTACK IN YAROSLAVL. A gang of youths attacked an ethnic Yezid in Yaroslavl, according to a June 6 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. The youths attacked the victim on June 5 while screaming nationalist slogans but fled before police arrived. Yezids are related to Kurds but have their own distinct religious practices influenced by both Zoroastrianism and Islam.

KALININGRAD POLICE DETAIN SUSPECTS IN ATTACK ON BLACK LAWYER. Police in Kaliningrad, Russia detained three young men in connection with the stabbing of a black lawyer who works for the regional government, according to a June 9 report by the Regnum news agency. Aleksandr Burger-Gasanov was savagely attacked on the evening of May 9 near his home. The victim lost two liters of blood and was subjected to racist abuse, including the "N word" which has migrated from English to the lexicon of the Russian far-right. Nevertheless, a police spokesman denied that racism was a motive for the attack, citing the suspects' patently ridiculous claim that they couldn't tell that their victim was black because the attack took place at night. Nor are the suspects charged with attempted murder or aggravated assault. Instead, they face charges of "hooliganism.”

SUSPECTS IDENTIFIED AS VANDALS OF A JEWISH CEMETERY. Police in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia detained a suspect in a string of antisemitic vandalism incidents, according to a June 10 report by the Nizhny Novgorod Telegraphic Agency. The young man and three other suspects allegedly vandalized Jewish graves in the Krasnaya Etna cemetery multiple times over the course of May and June, including a previously unreported incident on June 9. In a rare departure from standard prosecutions of similar cases, the youths face charges not of “hooliganism” but a more serious "mockery of the bodies of the dead and their burial motivated by ethnic hatred."

THREE SUSPECTED OF ATTACKING CHUBAI’S CAR ACQUITTED. On June 5, a Moscow city court acquitted three suspects charged with the attempted murder of Unified Energy Systems chief executive Anatoly Chubais, “The Moscow Times” reported. Retired Col. Vladimir Kvachkov and two other former soldiers were cleared of all charges and released in the court room, one of the defendant's lawyers said. "They were acquitted by the majority of the jurors," Kvachkov's lawyer Ruslan Zakalyuzhny told Interfax. Zakalyuzhny said the judge is expected to issue on June16 a formal verdict affirming the jury's decision.

The case, which antisemites turned into a cause celebre, goes back to March 2005 when a bomb exploded near an armored car carrying Chubais. Following the explosion, his car and a second car carrying his security detail came under automatic weapons fire. Chubais was not injured in the attack. In the 1990s, economist Chubais presided over the now controversial privatizations under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin. Though hated by the right, liberal Chubais now heads Russia's state power monopoly.

The day after his release, Kvachkov told radio Ekho Moskvy that although he is innocent, Chubais does deserve to die.

ONE ’MURDER VIDEO’ VICTIM IDENTIFIED BUT NO SUSPECT ARRESTED. Interfax reported that the Dagestani man whose execution was filmed and posted last year on ultranationalist web sites have been identified by his relatives. He is Shamil Udamanov who worked in Moscow before his disappearance. The gruesome video created much consternation as it showed two dark-skinned men gagged and bound and identified them as a Dagestani and a Tajik. A masked man slit their throats with a hunting knife, and one of the migrants was shot in the head. However, no body has been found and no suspects have been detained in relation to the video.

UZBEKS ARREST HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST. Uzbek authorities have arrested former human rights activist Solijon Abdurahmanov, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on June 11. The former RFE/RL journalist was at first, charged with possession of narcotics after police claimed to discover drugs in his car after it was left in a repair shop. Then officials raided Abdurahmanov's home and personal computer and now claim to have evidence of his "anti-government" activity. RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin called the news “disturbing, although I'm sad to say it is not surprising. Uzbekistan has one of the worst records in the world regarding press freedom. If President Islam Karimov is eager to rehabilitate his country's reputation, he should stop treating free speech as a criminal offense and let Abdurahmanov and nearly 20 other journalists and human rights defenders out of prison immediately." The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders noted that the arrest happened just as the authorities were organizing a conference on media freedom in Tashkent. “It is proof of the cynicism of a government that continues to jail journalists and human rights activists,” the statement continued. “As in previous cases, the drug charge seems to be just a pretext for portraying a prisoner of conscience as an ordinary detainee.”

Abdurahmanov was an RFE/RL correspondent until 2005, when the Tashkent bureau was closed following the Andijon crackdown, in which troops loyal to Karimov opened fire on a crowd of protesters, killing about 700 people. Abdurahmanov,is a native of Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, and chairs the Karakalpak branch of the Miami-based International Human Rights Society. He contributes to the London-based Institute for War & Peace Reporting.

EU ASKED FOR JOINT COMMEMORATION OF VICTIMS OF STALIN AND HITLER. A group of deputies in the 785-member European Parliament have launched a drive to have the European Union (EU) declare August 23 a European Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported from Brussels. It was on that date in 1939 that foreign ministers of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed what came to be known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. If enough deputies sign the petition, the European Parliament will officially request EU member states to consider the issue.

Marianne Mikko, an Estonian deputy and one of the authors of the petition, told RFE/RL that the objective is to honor jointly the victims of both Nazism and communism in its Stalinist incarnation. According to Mikko, the petition has so far attracted more than 150 signatures. It needs 393 signatures before September 9.

The RFE/RL report acknowledged that the debate on the historical record of communism, requested by representatives of the former communist states, has so far led to “an impasse,” as “there is no unanimity among EU governments, with most in Western Europe loath to antagonize Russia and concerned that any indictment of communism could lead to a ‘relativization' of the crimes of Nazism, among them the Holocaust.”

The EU's executive, the European Commission, is still studying whether existing legislation--which outlaws the denial or trivialization of the crimes committed by Nazi Germany--needs to be complemented with a recognition of Soviet crimes. It has until April 2009 to make a decision

SERBIA NABS TOP WAR CRIMES SUSPECT. On June 11, the Serbian government captured near Belgrade a top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive and will hand him over to the U.N.’s Hague tribunal, earning praise from the European Union (EU) and the United States, Reuters reported. Bosnian Serb security chief Stojan Zupljanin, 56, was one of four suspects sought by the tribunal for war crimes in the territory of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Police and security agents found Zupljanin in an apartment 5 miles from downtown Belgrade and he will be extradited within 72 hours, officials said.

The arrest comes at a most sensitive time. Deeply split between nationalists and a pro-EU bloc after last month’s inconclusive elections, Serbian politicians are in the midst of intense coalition negotiations. Still in hiding 13 years after the war’s end are the Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, and Goran Hadzic, a local Croatian Serb leader. Handing them over to the Hague tribunal has been a principal condition of Serbia's progress towards EU membership.

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, RUSSIA’S GRAND PLAN * * * In a policy speech at the opening of the 12th St. Petersburg Economic Forum on June 7, President Dmitry Medvedev said: “How illusory it is to suppose that a single country, even if it is the most powerful, can assume the role of global government. Global governance institutions responsible for financial policy in effect do not have ways of influencing the strategies of those involved in the markets. … No matter how large the American market is and no matter how reliable its financial system is, it cannot serve as a substitute for global commodity and financial markets.”

Then came Medvedev’s main point: "Russia is a global player today, and, understanding our responsibility for the world's fate, we also want to be involved in drafting new rules of the game, and we want this not because of our alleged imperial ambitions but exactly because we possess both appropriate institutional capabilities and proper resources.” Medvedev promised to adopt an action plan aimed at turning Moscow into "a powerful global financial center, and turning the ruble into one of the leading regional reserve currencies."

MORE ASSERTIVENESS IN THE KREMLIN—AND AMONG RUSSIA’S MINORITIES
The New Mood Is Combative, Not Conciliatory

1. RUSSIA AS THE WORLD’S FINANCIAL CENTER? Dmitry Medvedev’s comments at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum “echoed in milder form and in the economic sphere the criticisms by his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, of U.S. attempts to dominate world affairs,” London’s “Financial Times” coolly commented on June 9. However, the respected business-oriented Moscow newspaper “Vedomosti” was more outspoken, calling the speech “harsh.”

The well-informed British newspaper with a great deal of interest in Russia pointed out that Russia’s new president addressed “thousands of delegates at an event Russia has aggressively promoted in recent years to the point where it rivals the World Economic Forum in Davos in size and its pulling power for senior global executives.” But the proposal that Russia should host an international conference of heads of financial companies and leading financial analysts to tackle problems in global markets—possibly an annual event—has not attracted enthusiasm in world capitals so far.

The article also cited U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez who told the forum that the United States had not engaged in “economic egoism”—another Medvedev charge--and was a strong believer in free trade. "Globalization is in the national interest," Gutierrez added.

The article did not cite any positive Western reactions to Medvedev’s presentation. Nor did it argue with his contention such as: "[The U.S.] failure to take proper account of the risks by the biggest financial companies in combination with an aggressive financial policy by the world's biggest economy led not only to corporate losses" but a host of other problems, such as rising food prices, as well.

The London paper reported the Russian plan respectfully, in a deadpan style that at times verged on sounding tongue-in-cheek. It made no comment on Medvedev’s offer to use Russian expertise in setting up new regulations for the world financial system and fixing the problems of U.S.-dominated international financial institutions. But it acknowledged that Russia’s clout in the world has grown, and it recognized Medvedev’s speech as a bold power play that combined blaming the United States for the world’s financial turmoil with promoting Russian’s plan to play a leading role in resolving the crisis.

2. CALL ON PEOPLES OF THE CAUCASUS TO UNITE. Another sign of growing assertiveness spreading in Russia is the formation of a new organization by the Russian Congress of Peoples of the Caucasus (RCNC) to provide both legal assistance to victims of anti-migrant violence and physical protection to migrants participating in public demonstrations or community activities. In his announcement on June 5, RCNC Vice President Denga Khalidov stressed the organization's commitment to non-violence and to working with the authorities. Paul Goble, a former U.S. government official specializing in the nationalities of the former USSR, predicted that the offer of physical protection to migrants is likely to “disturb many.”

In his blog, “Window on Eurasia,” Goble argued on June 6 that on one hand, the new organization represents “a clear indictment of the Russian militia, many of whose members openly sympathize with the skinheads in their attacks on what they call ‘persons of Caucasus nationality.’ And on the other, it is an indication of the desperation many migrants from the Caucasus now feel. They obviously believe that they can now count only on themselves.”

The organization, to be headed by Magomed Yandiyev, a former senior militia official, will consist of three parts: a legal assistance office, an analytical section, and "a group of physical defense” with “thousands of activists." “The Russian authorities are likely to welcome the first two, but they are certain to be nervous about the last,” Goble pointed out.

The physical defense group, Yandiyev said, will maintain order at meetings, demonstrations, and holidays. In addition, it plans to "take under control all Caucasus movements, including criminal groups," and to create "a data base about [their] opponents, including skinheads, the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), and "other anti-Caucasus groupings."

Yandiyev called attention to the fact "there are millions of us across Russia."

* * * *

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