Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Bigotry Monitor: Volume One, Number 19

News

Bigotry Monitor: Volume One, Number 19

(November 16, 2001)

Volume One, Number 19
Friday, November 16, 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
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BUSH, PUTIN REAFFIRM HUMAN RIGHTS. The issue of human rights figured prominently in the emphatically positive language of the November 13 joint statement by Presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin on the first day of their summit meeting. The verbs "protect and advance" struck the right chord: "Reaffirming our commitment to advance common values, the United States and Russia will continue to work together to protect and advance human rights, tolerance, religious freedom, free speech and independent media, economic opportunity, and the rule of law. " The next sentence endorsed a little-known project, hinting at an expectation of progress in press freedom: "In keeping with these commitments, we welcome the initiative of Russian and American media executives, journalists, and independent organizations to convene a 'Russian-American Media Entrepreneurship Dialogue.'" The comprehensive list of specific human rights issues helped give substance to the statement's principal message: "The United States and Russia have overcome the legacy of the Cold War. Neither country regards the other as an enemy or threat."

BUSH PROMISED PUTIN TO DROP JACKSON-VANIK; CONGRESS MAY DELAY ACTION. "I have pledged to the Russian president that I will work to eliminate Jackson-Vanik," President Bush told Russian reporters on November 12 in the course of a White House meeting the day before the three-day summit began. "The message is the importance of getting rid of the vestiges of the Cold War." During the joint press conference in the White House after President Putin's arrival on November 13, Bush praised Russia for "important strides on immigration and the protection of religious and ethnic minorities, including Russia's Jewish community. On these issues, Russia is a fundamentally different place than it was during the Soviet era… Because of this progress, my administration will work with Congress to end the application of the Jackson-Vanik amendment to Russia." But, observers believe, it will take at least until early next year before Congress will be ready to vote on the elimination of the historic link between free emigration and normal trade relations with the United States. Among the numerous assurances that lawmakers of both parties seek from Moscow is that it will enforce hate crime laws, offer restitution for some communal property seized from Jews in the 1920s and 1930s, and keep emigration open. In Congress, critics do not share Bush's "bullish views" of his Russian counterpart and express concern with the level of Putin's control over the country. "Much depends on whether the war in Afghanistan will continue," said one Congressional aide involved in the consultations that have so far failed to occur on account of one cancelled meeting after another. "The Administration is using the argument that the extraordinary war situation demands extra speed and extra vigor to push ahead."

One of Russia´s two chief rabbis, Berel Lazar, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) that he is convinced that Putin is serious about fighting antisemitism and intends to "eradicate it completely." Rabbi Lazar was one of a half-dozen Russian and American Jews who met with Putin on November 13 at the Russian embassy in Washington. They said they were impressed by Putin´s warmth and his resolve to help the Jewish community in Russia. It is important to lift Jackson-Vanik so Russia can see that American attitudes have also changed, Rabbi Lazar told JTA.

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS CALL ON BUSH TO DEMAND END OF BRUTALITY IN CHECHNYA. The International League for Human Rights and Physicians for Human Rights appealed to President Bush to demand that President Putin end Russian "brutality in Chechnya." The two human rights groups quoted a recent report by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee: "[T]he civilian population is itself a target in the federal campaign in Chechnya." The November 12 letter addressing Bush continued that since the September 11 attack on America, international and local human rights monitors report "a new wave of crimes," as "cooperation between the United States and the Russian Federation in the war against international terrorism has fueled the sense of impunity with which the Russian military has prosecuted the war in Chechnya." The letter detailed "large-scale Russian military attacks on Chechen villages" plus "summary executions after passport checks, continued extortion at checkpoints and looting of villages during military sweeps, and allegations of beatings and torture in detention." The letter asked Bush to insist that Putin "take personal responsibility for ending abuses; comply with 1999 and 2000 resolutions of the UN Human Rights Commission and create an effective national commission to address human rights violations in Chechnya; hold perpetrators accountable, including unblocking investigations and prosecutions of those who have committed gross human rights violations; allow the UN's special rapporteurs and special representatives to travel to the region in compliance with the UN Human Rights Commission resolutions, and allow NGO human rights monitors free access."

HUMAN RIGHTS SHOULD BE THE CENTER OF THE NEW LINK WITH RUSSIA, HRW SAYS. The Bush Administration should make human rights protections a central part of the emerging new relationship with Russia, Human Rights Watch (HRW) appealed to President Bush in a November 13 letter. HRW urged Bush to seek new guarantees on political freedoms and on accountability for abuses committed in the Chechnya conflict. The United States should not be "associated with" Russian atrocities in Chechnya, emphasized Elizabeth Andersen, director of HRW's Europe and Central Asia division. The letter cited other human rights concerns as well, including press freedoms and a spate of criminal investigations of journalists and academics on highly questionable espionage charges. "President Putin wants Russia's integration with a larger democratic community," Andersen wrote. "But this can succeed only if he and his government uphold the principles of democracy and human rights at home."

'THE WASHINGTON POST' CALLS ON PUTIN TO MAKE RUSSIA LIVE BY THE LAW. In what is becoming a local tradition, "The Washington Post" editorial pages reminded a visiting head of state, President Putin in this case, of what he must do to earn American good will and to become "a genuine partner of the United States." In an op-ed article on November 14, Anna Politkovskaya of Moscow's "Novaia Gazeta" argued that "Chechnya provides the yeast for the growth of the great-power mentality, the basis of Putin's state morality. For that reason, Putin forgives the army for committing daily crimes and atrocities. In fact, by providing the ideological basis for its active struggle with Islamic extremists, Putin encourages the military's addiction to criminal irresponsibility in Chechnya." Politkovskaya, whose independent reporting on the war in Chechnya has led to numerous death threats, condemned as "betrayal" the compromises worked out between Putin and the West. On November 13, "The Post" published an editorial titled "Injustice in Russia," reminding Putin that Igor Sutyagin, "an academic researcher at the prestigious Institute for the Study of the United States and Canada in Moscow" has been imprisoned for two years "on trumped-up charges of espionage." Last week, the prosecutors asked for a prison sentence of 14 years. "He is one of a number of Russian academics subjected to bogus charges and secret trials since Mr. Putin came to power, in what Russian human rights activists describe as a systematic campaign to instill fear and silence dissent," the editorial said. It added that the decree which charges Sutyagin with disclosures of Defense Ministry secrets is itself secret, as are the specific charges themselves, and neither the defendant nor his lawyers have been permitted to read either document.

RUSSIAN NEO-NAZIS PROFILED. The average age of the Russian neo-Nazi is 20, and most of them are teenagers from the outer suburbs, school students, or unemployed, according to an article in Moscow's "Gazeta" on November 9. While some are active believers in Nazi ideology, others are "hit men" who do not care about politics but are ready to lash out at any "enemy." Though the two largest extremist groups in Moscow have a total of 1,000 members, the number of sympathizers is unknown, the paper said. Two days earlier, the weekly "Obshchaya gazeta" reported that neo-Nazis have killed at least 15 foreigners in Moscow over the past several years. In the new law designed to fight extremism, Russian Justice Minister Yuri Chayka proposes setting up "a federal center" to coordinate and implement action, Russian Public Television ORT reported on November 9. He said the draft envisages criminal prosecution of extremists and spells out the administrative means of dealing with their organizations, to be eliminated on the basis of court decisions.

GENERAL LEBED CLOSES AREA TO FOREIGNERS. On November 8, Krasnoyarsk Kray authorities announced that they will implement a new federal decree declaring the kray's north, including Norilsk, a city of 230,000 people, is "a zone closed to foreigners," according to Moscow's "Kommersant." The daily says that Krasnoyarsk Kray Governor Aleksandr Lebed lobbied for the decree. The former general and presidential hopeful persuaded the Ministry of Internal Affairs that "the uncontrolled flow" of emigrants from nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) such as Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan was taking away jobs from residents of Norilsk, which is the center of the world's nickel production, critical for the Russian economy. Norilsk Mayor Oleg Budargin says that some 6,000 CIS citizens visit the Siberian city each year, and about 1,500 of them stay. He said: "It is essential to end the uncontrolled movement of foreigners in our territory." According to the Azerbaijani newspaper "Ekho," Lebed justified his decision by citing the rising level of crime, drug addiction, and AIDS. The director of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's press service, Matin Mirza, told "Ekho" that he had just learned about a similar measure in the Russian Federation's Astrakhan Region as well. "How can one say that 23,000 of our compatriots living in Norilsk are swindlers and tramps?" Mirza commented. "Such people exist in every nation. Does this allow one to drive people out of a city or territory?

FORMER 'CATACOMB' ORTHODOX CHURCH VICTIM OF ARSON. The police established arson as the cause of the fires that recently devastated a chapel of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church in the city of Suzdal east of Moscow as well as an apartment-building owned by Father Feodor, archbishop of the church, according to the Moscow daily "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" of November 13. In Soviet times, the Orthodox Autonomous Church was one of the very few that functioned underground or "in the catacombs." Its revival "irritates power," and the double arson, committed during the same night, came from "the long-standing conflict of the church with those that dislike its position," a spokesman for the Pontifical Synod of the Autonomous Church in nearby Vladimir told the newspaper. The conflict has featured published accusations of mortal sins against an elderly bishop of the Autonomous Church, but ended with the court clearing his name and imposing a large fine on his slanderers. Tension rose again earlier this year when several emigre parishes in the United States requested affiliation with the Autonomous Church, which they described as the authentic representative of "the unimpaired Orthodox tradition."

ANTISEMITIC, ANTI-U.S. RALLY MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION. Some 1,500 people gathered to mark the anniversary of the Russian Revolution in Samara on November 7, according to UCSJ's local monitor Aleksandr Brod. Among the participants were some 30 members of the extremist, racist National Bolshevik Party. The antisemitic newspapers "Zavtra" and "Aleks-Inform" were distributed at the rally, which was addressed by General Albert Makashov, who three years ago publicly called for the murder of Jews. Speakers blasted "oligarch-Zionists," President Putin, and the United States.

SERBIAN CHAPEL IN KOSOVO BLOWN UP, TOMBSTONES DAMAGED. On November 8, dynamite explosions destroyed the Serbian Orthodox chapel in the village graveyard at Staro Gracko, 20 miles south of the Kosovo capital Pristina, Keston News Service reported. Tombstones within a radius of a hundred feet were also damaged. According to the NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR, no one was injured and an investigation has begun. Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren has condemned the attack, the third incident in a week targeting Orthodox sites in Kosovo. "The small chapel is perhaps of no particular cultural or material value," he told Keston, "except that it is as precious to us as any of the 110 religious buildings and sites destroyed in Kosovo since the international forces arrived in June 1999."

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * * "The extreme right in Russia today is first and foremost anti-Caucasian rather than antisemitic," sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky commented on November 13 in the "Moscow Times" on the subject of "the pogrom organized by neo-Fascists" on October 30. "They have simply changed their priorities. Muslims, or so-called 'chyorny,' are Enemy No. 1. And to give them their due, Russian skinheads are perfectly in step with their Western counterparts: In Germany, the pogroms of recent years have also been targeted against Muslims rather than Jews."

SEVEN QUOTES TO PUT THE SUMMIT IN CONTEXT

1. The Importance of First Impressions. President Bush's statement that he peered into the soul of his Russian counterpart during their first meeting in June and found him "trustworthy" prompted smirks around the world. But not from President Putin. When in an interview last week Putin was asked how he felt about the remark, he said: "Those who smile in response to [Bush's] words, well, there's one thing I can say: I believe it's not accidental that he became the president of the United States." In July, Putin said that Bush "sees better and deeper, and understands the problems more accurately.''

2. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? In the White House on November 13, Bush is said to have thumped on the table for emphasis when declaring: "Until the al-Qaeda is brought to justice, we're not leaving [Afghanistan]. As great nations, we're the most vulnerable targets.'' Then he turned to Putin and said: "You're the kind of guy I like to have in a foxhole with me.''

3. Words to Eat. Bush and his campaign team used to attack the Clinton Administration for establishing close personal ties to President Boris Yeltsin. Condoleezza Rice, then a foreign policy adviser to candidate Bush and now his national security adviser, called Clinton's policy toward Russia "too romantic.''

4. New Spin on Chechnya to Please Bush. Putin has revised what he wants the American public to believe about the war in Chechnya, and his rhetoric is now in line with Bush's. On November 12, Putin told American journalists: "What we know for sure… is that some international terrorists operating in Chechnya are connected with international criminal terrorist organizations, including [Osama] bin Laden's al-Qaeda… They trained in the same terrorist camps. They see bin Laden as their teacher. He trained them at his bases in Afghanistan. They jointly fought against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. After Russia withdrew from Chechen territory in 1995, according to modest calculations over 2,000 bandits were trained in Chechnya and later took part in fighting in other hot spots of the planet -- in Kosovo, Kashmir, Sudan, and Afghanistan. This is one system, one network. It is difficult to say what is its center and what are its branches."

5. Telling People What They Want to Hear. Putin knows what the American public would like to hear the most. So, on November 12, the day before his arrival in the United States on his first visit, Gen. Gennady Troshev, Russia's top military commander in Chechnya, announced that most federal troops will be withdrawn from Chechnya by next spring. According to Interfax, Troshev said that troops will begin leaving early next year, and that only units stationed in Chechnya on a permanent basis will remain. (A caveat: Similar troop withdrawals have been announced in the past but not put into effect.)

6. Advice from a Friend. Analyst Dimitri Simes of the Nixon Center offered friendly advice to both presidents during a call-in program of National Public Radio on November 13: "Russia is no longer a great power. But it wants to be taken seriously. The Clinton Administration did not take Russia seriously. President Bush recognizes that Russia must be taken seriously … and treated with respect." (A beneficiary of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, Simes could have mentioned its annulment as an example of treating Russia right.)

7. An Epitaph Made in Britain. In a fit of near-Churchillian eloquence. Manchester's venerable "Guardian" hastened to sum up the summit even before its change of venue to Crawford, Texas. In a November 14 editorial titled "Bush and Putin could change the world," the paper said: "More and more, a rudderless NATO needs Russia. The prize could be a revamped, retasked, even renamed alliance girdling the earth, purged of the last century's old thinking and dedicated to meeting the new, common dangers of the coming age -- together, not separately. As [Prime Minister Tony] Blair might say, events have shaken the kaleidoscope. Now what is needed is a vision."

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