Volume One, Number 14
Friday, October 12, 2001

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 _____________________________________________________________

PUTIN LAUDS UNITY OF ANTI-TERRORIST ALLIANCE AFTER U.S.-BRITISH STRIKE. Both the Russian endorsement of the U.S.-British strike against Afghanistan and the American words of gratitude for Russian support were laced with hints of unannounced policy changes. Applauding the retaliation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the September 11 terrorist attack led to a "unity of humanity.'' Following the attacks, humanity "grew up,'' Putin said. The terrorists "counted on modern civilization becoming flabby, sluggish, and losing its capacity for resistance. They did not expect such a unity of humanity before the common enemy.'' With the new anti-terrorism coalition, terrorists can no longer "maneuver between various centers of power ... leaning first on one, then on another... That went on for many years,'' said Russia's leader, whom President George Bush had honored with an advance notice of the October 7 retaliation. U.S. ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow praised Russia as a country "vital for the success of the coalition against international terrorism'' and expressed gratitude for its "multifaceted support.'' Asked by the "Moscow Times" about Putin's hopes of blunting Western criticism on Chechnya, Vershbow replied that the Chechnya issue is "very tricky," requiring the U.S. "to walk a very fine line. We continue to have deep concerns about the Russians' military tactics, the loss of life to the civilian population and the human rights abuses against the civilian population." On the other hand, Vershbow added, "we have long recognized that Osama bin Laden and other international networks have been fueling the flames in Chechnya, including the involvement of foreign commanders, like Khattab." In the interview published on October 12, Vershbow disclosed that the U.S. is "working more energetically with the Russians to cut off those external sources of support" and trying "to get Georgia to tighten up controls" as well as "making clear to the Chechens that they should break their ties to these foreign terrorists and take up the offer for a dialogue that Putin raised on September 24."

In various statements, Putin noted that the U.S. death toll on September 11 was "twice the number the Russian Federation has lost during all ground operations against terrorists in Chechnya from 1999." According to the state-run RTR television, Putin told his senior ministers that "such colossal losses cannot be ignored, and cannot but lead to an appropriate response." He called Russia's war in Chechnya part of the global battle against international terrorism launched by Bush. Putin said that international terror groups were using illicit fortunes amassed from petro-dollars and drug money to fund "monstrous strikes, monstrous in their brutality" and sap the will of civilized countries to defend themselves.

The chief critic of Putin's turn to the West has been Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who condemned the U.S.-led operation in Afghanistan as "a war against Russia." According to the radio station "Ekho Moskvy," the leader of the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia said that the bombing of Afghanistan spelled the imminent destruction of Russia's 201st Division deployed in Tajikistan. He urged that Russia "urgently quit the international coalition, adopt a neutral position, not let foreign troops enter the Central Asian states, and warn the presidents of these states that we cannot guarantee their safety." He said the situation recalled 1941 when the USSR was a member of the anti-Hitler coalition but Russians were "used as cannon fodder to break Hitler's backbone, after which Churchill turned his policy against the USSR."

Chechen rebel President Aslan Maskhadov's special envoy to Moscow, Mayrbek Vachagaev, told "Ekho Moskvy" that "Chechnya would not be the best place for Osama bin Laden to seek shelter." He denied that Chechen rebel leaders had any contacts with bin Laden. "Those Chechen leaders who are suspected of having such links are either dead or removed from political life," he said. The decision of Afghan spiritual leaders to start a jihad "will remain within the framework of this country's Muslim community," he said. "We are in a completely different situation."

The September 11 explosions were organized by the "world government," and Russia, along with anti-globalists, should now unite with "Muslims -- the last defenders of real freedoms," said Geydar Dzhemal, chairman of a group called the Islamic Committee and contributor to racist publications such as "Zavtra." At a news conference in Moscow's Mir Novostey Press Center on October 9, Dzhemal asserted that those who ordered the bombings should be sought in the West. Without using the term "Zionists," he blamed an intelligence plot hatched in the West and claimed that "the September 11 events were planned by anti-Islamic forces aiming at general destabilization of the situation around the world, no matter who technically executed the attacks." (See the item "Warped Minds, Absurd Theories" in Bigotry Monitor #13, October 5) There is no such thing as international terrorism, Dzhemal argued, it is a myth created to mislead public opinion. "The counter-terrorist operation launched first in Chechnya and now in Afghanistan amounts to a new form of colonial war," he said, a continuation of "gunboat diplomacy."

STRANGE ALLIES RALLY AGAINST THE U.S. IN MOSCOW. Communists, Nazis, and Muslims mixed at a Moscow protest rally following the U.S.-British air strikes in Afghanistan on October 8. "Kommersant" reporter Valeriy Panyushkin watched as elderly Communists wandered around, carrying posters with slogans such as "The United States Is Hitler" and "Communism Means Peace and Reason." Next to them marched skinheads from the National People's Party in their black uniforms and with swastikas on their banners. "Who are you?" an elderly Communist woman asked the stormtroopers. "We are nationalists," came the answer. "Whom do you support?" she persisted. "Russia?" "Russia," replied a skinhead, "and we are opposed to the Muslim Caucasians who are devastating Russia." "Well, at least you are supporting Russia," the old woman said, while her leader, Duma member and blatant antisemite Viktor Anpilov, shouted to some Muslims standing at a distance: "Azerbaijani brothers! Come here!" He handed them Communist posters.

The skinheads' leader ordered his followers to have no contact with the press, keep in formation, and maintain discipline, and then called on the world's skinheads to unite and kick blacks in the teeth. Next came NPP leader Aleksandr Ivanov. "I greet the police, which is all Russian but subjected to non-Russian laws," he began. The reporter noted the presence of "a lot of police," but no police interference with Ivanov's speech, though he called for the overthrow of the government. "If our voices are not heard," Ivanov went on, "in a year's time American Negroes will be standing here. And everyone will be watching a television channel which will stand up for pederasts, lesbians, prostitutes, and other [Russian-Jewish media tycoon Boris] Berezovskys. Only an idiot could believe that the unfortunate half-sick bin Laden could organize such a magnificent show in Manhattan. This is a provocation, because America cannot protect itself, and wants Russian soldiers once again to stand guard between two hostile races. But the provocation will turn into revolution! And the Russian president should understand this if he is Russian."

"What is all this?" a confused Communist old lady asked. "Some kind of show?" Anpilov called out to the old ladies to leave, and they exited together just when Ivanov asked for a minute of silence in memory of the seamen of the submarine Kursk. "Reds, stop!" Ivanov shouted. "Soon you will be our Reds!"

But Anpilov and a dozen old ladies walked over to a rally at the entrance of the U.S. embassy. Someone in the crowd of spectators quipped, providing "Kommersant" reporter Panyushkin with the kicker: "Once again this is a small war between the Fascists and the Communists, and once again the United States will win this war."

TAJIKISTAN'S ISLAMIC PARTY 'DOES NOT OPPOSE' U.S. RETALIATION. "We condemn the acts of terrorism in the United States and sympathize with the Americans," Muhhiddin Kabiri, the deputy head of Tajikistan's Islamic Revival Party (IRP), declared on October 9 in the Tajik capital Dushanbe. "We do not oppose the use of Tajikistan's territory for revenge action against the terrorists. However, we will only support the United States if the battle is against genuine terrorists. It is exceptionally important that the revenge action now under way should not become a campaign against Muslims." Kabiri's interviewer was Igor Rotar, Central Asia expert of the Oxford-based Keston News Service. Founded in 1990, the IRP originally called for an Islamic state, but it now limits itself to suggesting a "worthy role" for Islam. In May 1992 the Tajik opposition (of which IRP members formed the backbone) tried to seize power by force from the leadership that consisted of former Communists. A year later the rebels fled to Afghanistan, but kept mounting armed sorties into Tajikistan. In the civil war, more than 40,000 people were killed, and hundreds of thousands left homeless. In 1997 the two sides reached an accord and formed a coalition government.

The IRP's reaction to the September 11 attack on the United States is important because the party unites the majority of those who call for an Islamic state in Tajikistan, Keston points out and predicts that Tajikistan will not become unstable even after the U.S. raids into Afghanistan. Keston explains the IRP's pro-U.S. stance as stemming from its close links with the ethnic Tajik leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, Ahmad Shah Masoud, who assassinated on September 15. The IRP members who fled to Afghanistan in 1992 joined his forces and fought the Taliban. The majority of Tajiks see Masoud as a national hero and are convinced that was killed either by the Taliban or by bin Laden's followers. However, a Tajik religious affairs official cautioned Keston, that while "most Tajiks condemn the acts of terrorism in the United States, there is a problem with Islamic radicals from the underground party Hizb-ut-Tahrir." In northern Tajikistan, Keston heard a different opinion. "Of course there is sorrow for the innocent people who died [in America]," said a local journalist, "but the majority of Leninabad residents believe that Washington itself provoked the acts of terrorism by its own anti-Islamic policy."

CENTRAL ASIA FACES HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS, SAYS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. Central Asian governments - especially Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan - use the war against terrorism as an excuse to "further restrict fundamental human rights and freedoms of particularly vulnerable groups and individuals," Amnesty International (AI) stated on October 11. The London-based organization said it "recognizes that governments have the obligation to ensure the safety of their citizens and to take appropriate measures to bring the perpetrators of acts that threaten the safety and the lives of their citizens to justice." However, AI stressed that such measures should also conform to international human rights standards. AI expressed concern for potential targets for abuse such as alleged supporters of banned Islamic opposition parties and movements, human rights groups, Afghan refugees, and ethnic minorities in areas bordering Afghanistan.

ANTISEMITES MAR THE FEAST OF THE TABERNACLES IN VOLGOGRAD. A sukkah - a ceremonial booth erected to commemorate the Jewish holiday Sukkot, known as the Feast of the Tabernacles - was burned to the ground near the Volgograd Jewish Public Center on the night of October 2, according to a local Jewish leader. The following night, a sukkah was stolen from the grounds of the "Or Avner" Jewish school in Volgograd.

SAMARA COMMUNISTS USE ANTISEMITIC SLOGANS TO PROTEST LAND CODE. As part of a nationwide rally against the Land Code that is designed to legalize some private ownership of land, protesters in Samara called for an end to the destructive influence of "Zionist oligarchs" and the U.S. on the Russian economy and agricultural policy. According to UCSJ's Samara monitor Aleksandr Brod, some 500 people attended the rally in Samara on October 5, including all the top leadership of the Samara Communist Party. Near the site of the protest, antisemitic and racist graffiti appeared, calling for violence against "kikes."

HAGUE COURT HANDS DOWN SECOND MILOSEVIC INDICTMENT. On October 8, Judge Almiro Rodrigues of Portugal of The Hague International Tribunal confirmed another indictment against Slobodan Milosevic. Yugoslavia's former dictator is now accused of 32 counts of persecution, torture, murder, plunder, unlawful imprisonment, destruction of religious institutions and schools, and other "inhuman acts" during the Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing in Croatia between August 1991 and June 1992. He is held responsible for orders leading to the murder of hundreds, as well as the expulsion of 170,000 non-Serbs. The indictment against him for what he did in Croatia is in addition to his previous indictment for alleged atrocities in Kosovo during the Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in 1999. Now prosecutors are at work on a third indictment accusing him of genocide in Bosnia. Knowledgeable sources say that while the number of Milosevic's supporters has dwindled since he was spirited out of Belgrade in June, two other men sought in The Hague, Radovan Karadjic and Ratko Mladic, have evaded arrest thanks to their powerful friends. Nevertheless, the expectation is that sooner rather than later they will surrender - or commit suicide.

CZECH SENATE PLANS COMMISSION TO WATCH POLITICAL EXTREMISTS. Manifestations of neo-Nazism must not be belittled, Czech Senate Speaker Petr Pithart told a hearing on neo-Nazism and other types of extremism on October 4 in Prague, according to the Czech news agency CTK. He recalled Adolf Hitler's obscure beginnings and the candid disclosure of his plans prior to becoming chancellor. Police Chief Jiri Kolar characterized extremism as "a social problem" and contended that the suppression of its displays is not a "panacea" because it addresses only the consequences. According to Kolar, extremism is embraced mainly by young people, and he acknowledged that some policemen tend in that direction, as 63 per cent of policemen are young. Pithart disclosed that the Czech Senate is considering the establishment of a working group focusing on the struggle against neo-Nazism, racism, and xenophobia. The establishment of a commission to track extremist organizations was proposed by Romani (Gypsy) activist Jan Fabry. Stanislav Penc from the Movement of Civic Solidarity and Tolerance said that the largest neo-Nazi meetings in the region take place in the Czech Republic because neo-Nazis know that in the Czech Republic nothing bad will happen to them.

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * * "Strategists both east and west should pay more heed to the danger that the heavy-handed anti-Islamic policies of Uzbekistan's President [Islam] Karimov might produce exactly the opposite of what he intends," writes Lawrence Uzzell, director of the Keston Institute. "Under the Karimov regime, a pious Uzbek who observes the Muslim rules of prayer and wears a beard may now find himself jailed for that reason alone; he will almost certainly face discrimination in schooling and employment. If emboldened to even greater excesses by his country's sudden new strategic importance, Karimov could end up inflaming Islamic extremism like that which toppled the complacent, secularist, and Western-supported shah of nearby Iran in the 1970s."

A CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS - BERLUSCONI'S AND OURS
reflections on a global gaffe

On two occasions in late September, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi delivered statements that insulted the Muslim world, embarrassed the European Union, and set back the cause of the anti-terrorist coalition President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have been busy cobbling together. Berlusconi's words also confirmed the judgment of many of his compatriots that he is a right-wing bigot whose worldview is not in tune with the civilization he claims to represent.

On September 21, speaking at an EU summit in Brussels, Berlusconi said that the United States "symbolizes Western civilization in opposition to the Muslim way of life." He declared: "Our civilization is superior to the others, a number of which are still in the Middle Ages." Unmistakably, he was out of line with the other speakers, who were eager to diversify the anti-terrorist front. Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel - whose own domestic coalition includes the rightwing demagogue Jorg Haider - urged Europeans not to lump all Muslims together. Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Guterres intoned: "No crusades." The press noted the understated public disapproval by Berlusconi's colleagues: Some of them left; others took off their headphones carrying the simultaneous translation of his speech. There were embarrassed smiles.

On September 26 in Berlin, Berlusconi repeated his themes, this time addressing the press. He declared that the crisis posed by terrorism offered the right moment "to be aware" that Western civilization is "superior" and is "destined" to spread across the globe. He said the West ensures "widespread prosperity" for its citizens as well as "respect for human rights and religious rights - which you don't have in Islamic countries - and political rights." He argued that one of the aims of Muslim terrorism was to stop Western civilization from contaminating the Muslim world. He said he found "a curious coincidence" between Muslim terrorism and the anti-globalization movement: While the first seeks to "provoke a violent reaction" from the West, the second "tries to make the West feel guilty" for its economic policies.

Berlusconi's putdown of Islam and the Muslim world hit a raw nerve. Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa called Berlusconi a racist and demanded an apology. Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who heads the European trio explaining the EU's position on terrorism, termed the remarks "unacceptable." His Spanish colleague spoke of them as a "profound error," and the Dutch prime minister murmured, "very unfortunate." "The 'clash of civilizations' is the terrorists' line," said Italian parliamentarian Fabio Mussi. "Bush has visited the mosque in Washington, and [EU President] Romano Prodi is to visit the Islamic Center in Brussels. Silvio Berlusconi is the only one not in the know."

Former Mayor of Venice Massimo Cacciari observed: "If we have any superiority over Osama bin Laden, it derives from the fact that, unlike Berlusconi, we do not think there is one civilization that is superior to the others." "A gaffe" bellowed "Le Monde," reminding its readers that "scarcely had we begun to forget Bush's unfortunate expression calling for a 'crusade.'" The left-of-center Paris daily, a model of intellectual elegance, accused Berlusconi of having "idealized the West's values while demonizing those of the rest of the world, at the risk of oversimplifying both."

Berlusconi's braggadocio occurs at a time when U.S. diplomacy pursues a delicate courtship to persuade a billion Muslims that the West is not their enemy. Endorsing a simplistic view of a clash of two global civilizations, one superior and the other fated to lose, strengthens the terrorists' hand. Bin Laden and his accomplices are determined to radicalize Muslims as well as the rest of us. We need not walk into their trap.
* * * *

Copyright (c) 2001. UCSJ. All rights reserved.

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