Volume One, Number 5
Friday, July 27, 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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RUSSIANS THREATEN TO SHUT DOWN SALVATION ARMY, JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES…

Russian authorities are threatening the Salvation Army with closure of its Moscow branch. Colonel Kenneth Baillie, commander in Russia of the British-based church, told Reuters on July 25 that Russian courts are cranking up pressure on non-traditional religions and misunderstand the purpose of the Salvation Army's military-style ranks and uniforms by labeling it a "paramilitary organization." In rejecting an appeal, the Moscow city court confirmed that the Salvation Army had applied too late to register as a religious organization and does not fit that criterion in any event. Also facing a shut down are the Jehovah's Witnesses, after the city court in May upheld charges accusing them of breaking up families, infringing on individual rights and converting minors without parental permission. Both organizations say they suffer under a 1997 law that requires all religious groupings to submit to a tortuous registration process which, non-traditional groups charge, throws numerous obstacles in their way. Russia's Orthodox church rejects criticisms of the law as discriminatory, contending that the law is needed to stop "dangerous sects" that "flood the spiritual vacuum" created by 70 years of Communist rule. The Salvation Army is considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Baillie told Reuters: "We feel like the sword is poised overhead, and our necks are on the block."

… ORTHODOX MONASTERY SCORES JUDAISM AS A RELIGION OF SATAN. There is yet another dark side to the religious revival in countries of the former Soviet Union. Commenting in the Kiev newspaper "Den" on the recent papal visit to Ukraine, Prof. Vladimir Voytenko mentions in passing that Kiev's Monastery of the Caves, the holiest shrine of the Russian Orthodox Church, recently published a brochure accusing Jews of being devil worshipers. Voytenko cites one passage in the brochure, which has the monastery's imprimatur: "Russian Orthodoxy is called upon to preserve the wholeness of the Church's teachings, as opposed to the kike religion of Satan."

MOSCOW VIGILANTES PLAN TO DRIVE OUT VENDORS FROM THE CAUCASUS. Viktor Gosudarev, deputy chief of the Moscow Interior Ministry's criminal investigation unit, said that young people have formed vigilante groups to drive out of Moscow markets vendors who come from the Caucasus, according to an article in "Rossiiskaya Gazeta" on July 10 cited by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Gosudarev added that the vigilantes fall under the category of "extremist groups" and suggested that the FSB (the former KGB) "will take care of them."

EXTREMISTS SUE REGISTRATION OFFICE AFTER TURNDOWN. The Latvian branch of the neo-Nazi organization Russian National Unity (RNU) filed a lawsuit in Riga on July 23, contending that the Latvian government's Enterprises Register had no legal grounds to turn down its application, according to the local Russian-language newspaper "Vesti Segodnya." In refusing registration, the Enterprises Register explained that the group carries the same name as "a radical extremist organization in Russia, the activities of which are aimed against the sovereignty of Latvia." RNU leader Yevgeny Osipov told the newspaper that after the court starts considering the case, he will resubmit the application again, for the third time.

LATVIAN OPINION LEADERS CONDEMN RACIST BOOK. Representatives of Latvia's non-governmental organizations and higher education institutions have asked nationalist parties to condemn the racism and xenophobia expressed in a book of essays entitled "We Will Not Give Latvia to Anybody" recently published in Latvian and circulated among the country's elite. According to the Baltic News Service, the July 26 open letter was signed by the director of Latvia's Human Rights and Ethnic Studies Center, Nils Muiznieks; the president of the European Movement in Latvia, Ainars Dimants; the chairman of the Free Trade Unions Association, Juris Radzevics; the director of the Latvian Foreign Policy Institute, Atis Lejins; the chairman of the Riga Jewish Community, Grigorijs Krupnikovs; and the chairman of Transparency International subsidiary Delna, Inese Voika. The addressees were leaders of the For the Fatherland and Freedom Party and the Social Democrats – two parties whose MPs have praised the book. The letter called the book a "provocation" by the Vieda publishing house, which put the book together from essays written by young people who were offered cash prizes in a contest. The Russian Foreign Ministry protested, calling the announced themes of the contest "openly chauvinistic" and "Russophobic," and describing the book as "full of racist and fascist remarks which lay grounds for future ethnic cleansing in young souls." According to a July 14 article in the leading Russian newspaper "Chas" published in Latvia, one essay says the following: "We are fighting so that every race and nation lives on its own soil, and in that way we are for peace in the whole world. But the real inciters of animosity and war are the global cosmopolitans like the kike billionaire [George] Soros, whose goal is to mix up together various races and peoples... People who support this deserve the most severe punishment, including the death penalty...  We will have faith in the bright future of the planet, in the victory of nationalism!"

TURKMEN BAPTIST BACK IN PRISON. Turkmen Baptist prisoner Shageldy Atakov has been returned to prison in Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk), Keston News Service learned. In May he was unexpectedly transferred to the capital Ashgabad, where the KNB (former KGB) tried to persuade him, his wife and his mother to agree to emigrate to the United States. They declined. KNB chief Muhammed Nazarov was one of those personally pressuring Atakov, who was arrested on what fellow Baptists believe are fabricated charges meant to punish him for his work in the Baptist church in Turkmenbashi. He has been in prison since December 1998; his sentence runs until December next year.

SERBIAN PROTESTANTS PROTEST DRAFT LAW ON RELIGION. Several of Serbia’s Protestant communities have expressed concern over the draft of the new law on religious freedom prepared by the Ministry of Religion, Keston News Service reports. While Baptists and Pentecostals held press conferences charging the introduction of a state religion in a secular state, the Ministry of Religion has asked for time to work further on the law, promising that the final draft will follow the traditions of European democracies. "The new commissars are wearing crosses instead of red stars," Dr. Alexander Birvis, president of the Baptist Union of Yugoslavia, told the press conference in Novi Sad on July 18. Birvis said that the state should not divide religious communities into categories such as "traditional" and "others." The controversy was sparked by the preamble which singled out the "traditional" communities: the Serbian Orthodox, Catholic, Islamic, Jewish, Lutheran (mostly Slovak) and Reformed (mostly Hungarian). These communities are partners with the government in recently announced religion classes slated to start in September. Students will choose between religious education organized by individual faiths and the study of democracy and ethics. "We are against religious education in schools," Dr. Birvis told Keston, "because this should be done by the churches for their members and their children. The state should be separate from the churches, and not promote some and downgrade others." Bishop Aleksandar Mitrovic of the Protestant-Evangelical Church in Vojvodina charged that in preparing the law, the authors failed to consult the "non-traditional" groups.

CZECH ROMA TO SET UP SELF-DEFENSE PATROLS. Following a recent attack on a group of Roma (Gypsies) by right-wing youths, Roma in Ostrava, north Moravia, are planning to organize self-defense patrols, the Czech news agency CTK reported on July 18. But, according to the police, the Roma have no reason to set up such patrols. A police spokesman said: "The police can handle extremism. We clear up to 100 percent of cases." On July 20, a 22-year-old skinhead stabbed to death a Roma in a disco in Svitany in northern Moravia. According to Czech television, the skinhead was charged with racially-motivated murder. The same program quoted local Roma leader Vaclav Miko, who predicted that Roma will flee the country en masse and will not be stopped by countermeasures authorized by the Czech government, such as the pre-clearance checks of London-bound passengers, carried out by British immigration officials at the Prague airport.

LEADING FRENCH PAPER CALLS FOR FRIENDLIER REFUGEE POLICY. France gives short shrift to the right of asylum, declared the National Consultative Committee on Human Rights (CNCDH), a group attached to the prime minister's office. On the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Geneva Convention, which established the international norms of refugee status, CNCDH published a report sharply criticizing France's policy on accepting asylum seekers and calling for a "comprehensive overhaul" of a long list of practices, such as the state's failure to interview the majority of asylum seekers, a lazy approach by appeal judges and a shortage of refugee reception facilities. In an editorial on July 11, "Le Monde" praised the report's suggestions as "bold." The left-of-center daily wrote that "by allocating a mere 25 cents per head of population to the international protection of refugees and by nurturing suspicion of asylum seekers at home, France does no honor to a cause which it claims to champion."

* * *  QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * *
"If Russia becomes a full-blown democracy in the next 10 years, then the prospects for conflict between the
U.S. and Russia, be it over the Latvian border or the balance of nuclear weapons, will be reduced dramatically," writes Michael McFaul of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Christian Science Monitor of July 26. "A democratic Russia moving toward entry into the European Union and even NATO will also make possible the unification of Europe and the final disappearance of East-West walls (be it through visa regimes or military alliances) that still divide Europe."

UCSJ BOOSTS MONITORING NETWORK IN RUSSIA
report from Moscow

by Nickolai Butkevich, UCSJ's Research and Advocacy Director.

UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union is significantly boosting its antisemitism monitoring network in Russia by enlisting new monitors in 45 regions across the country. At a training seminar in Moscow on July 12-13, UCSJ leaders heard several hours of reports on antisemitism in each of the monitors' home regions. While some reported improvements, others noted that serious threats to Jewish safety persist in the Russian provinces, including active extremist groups, attacks on Jewish sites and widespread distribution of illegal literature inciting violence against Jews.  

Reactions from local authorities to such antisemitic activity are decidedly mixed, ranging from positive gestures toward the local Jewish community and condemnation of antisemitism in some regions, to indifference and even collaboration with hate groups in others. In Bryansk, for example, police mount joint patrols with the neo-Nazi group Russian National Unity, the regional authorities openly blame Jews for the country's economic crisis, Jews have been fired in some local enterprises by antisemitic bosses, and the local Jewish school and Jewish gravestones are regularly vandalized. In Ryazan, skinheads responsible for an attack on a Jewish school last year have still not been arrested, even though press reports suggest that the police know who did it, but simply don't care. Even in regions where the situation is better and local officials are somewhat responsive to the anxieties of the Jewish community, problems persist. For example, in Yekaterinburg, skinhead groups are becoming more active, and the local Russian Orthodox hierarchy is spreading antisemitic literature. UCSJ's monitor in Yekaterinburg characterized the Jewish situation as "relatively stable," but expressed fears that this stability may only be temporary and that in Russia, the situation can change overnight.      

Oleg Mironov, the Russian Federation's Ombudsman for Human Rights, briefed the UCSJ meeting on his activities, which he said were expanding. But, he added, the Kremlin still does not pay sufficient attention to human rights. "Antisemitism is no longer a government policy," he said, "but antisemitism is unfortunately still here." Surprising some of the activists in the audience, he warmly praised the work of UCSJ and the Moscow Helsinki Group, whose chairwoman Ludmila Alekseeva called xenophobia "a serious human rights issue in Russia."

Later in the week, Leonid Stonov, director of UCSJ's international bureaus, gave a copy of the new Russian translation of a UCSJ report on antisemitism in 72 Russian provinces to Vice Premier Valentina Matvienko, calling it "a roadmap" for President Vladimir Putin to follow through on his promises to combat antisemitism. Matvienko said she would take the report for Putin to read. She acknowledged the accuracy of the antisemitic incidents reported by UCSJ and added that Putin and the government have resolutely condemned antisemitism. She assured UCSJ that a bill intended to make it easier for the government to crack down on manifestations of political extremism would be adopted soon by the State Duma, which has resisted passing the law for many years. Just as importantly, she acknowledged the need to amend the 1997 law on religion, which human rights groups have blasted as a partial return to Soviet era controls over freedom of conscience.

UCSJ announced that it is exploring with its Russian human rights partners the possibility of dropping its longstanding objection to "graduating" Russia from the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which ties normal trade relations between Russia and the U.S. to freedom of emigration, in exchange for yet-to-be-determined positive action by the Russian government on the problems of antisemitism and human rights.  A menu of appropriate actions on the part of the Russian Federation is currently being debated within UCSJ, which was the amendment's earliest supporter among Jewish activist groups.   

In contrast to the indifferent and even hostile reception the original English language version of the UCSJ report received in the Russian press at the time it was published in January, the press coverage of the Russian language version was both extensive and positive. This difference perhaps signals growing awareness in the country of the problems of political extremism, especially among youth, and discrimination against Jews and other groups.

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