Volume 10, Number 4
January 29, 2010
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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Russian’s police are coming under increasing criticism.
1. RUSSIAN EDITORS URGE INTERIOR MINISTER TO SHIELD PRESS FROM POLICE ABUSE. On January 20, heads and chief editors of leading Russian mass media outlets wrote a sharply worded open letter to Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, asking him to investigate and to take measures to protect the public in general and journalists in particular from the law-enforcement agencies that violate people's rights and freedoms with impunity, the state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.
The letter was sent after the court in the case of RIA Novosti news agency photo correspondent Andrey Stenin ruled that the performance by a journalist of his professional duties was tantamount to an offense.
Filming an unauthorized protest on December 12, 2009 as assigned by his employers, Stenin was detained while the picket was being dispersed. He was taken to the Kitay-Gorod police station. Even though he produced his press ID, was in possession of professional photographic equipment, and provided an explanation which was taken down in the detention report, police took him to court as a participant in the protest, ignoring the evidence he presented.
The letter said that "numerous details in the Stenin case show that the detention report was filed in violation of the procedural law and was subsequently 'doctored' at the Kitay-Gorod police station; in particular, the testimony of witnesses from among the police was fabricated." The letter noted that "members of the journalistic community are very alarmed by this precedent, which can create a basis for the persecution of journalists pursuing their professional duties throughout the country.” What happened to Stenin, the letter continued, suggests that when a news organization sends out its correspondents, they are put “in danger of persecution by law-enforcement bodies. Not only a journalist, whose rights are protected by the law on the mass media, but any citizen of Russia regardless of profession and social status may become a victim of arbitrary actions based on distortion and false evidence."
Addressing Nurgaliyev, the heads of media outlets asked for an internal inquiry to be carried out into the policemen whose actions led to the journalist's unlawfully charged with administrative offenses.
Additional heads of other mass media are expected to join the protest. When sent out, the letter bore the signatures of those heading Channel One (state-controlled TV), NTV (Gazprom-owned TV), Russia Today (state-owned foreign-language news channel), Ekho Moskvy (Gazprom-owned, editorially independent radio station), City-FM radio, RIA Novosti (state news agency), Prime-TASS (state economic news agency), “Izvestiya” (pro-government newspaper), “Novaya Gazeta” (independent newspaper often critical of the government), “Vremya Novostey” (liberal small-circulation newspaper), “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” (privately-owned newspaper), “Anba Mosku” (Arabic-language newspaper published by RIA Novosti), “Moscow News” (English-language Russian newspaper), “Mediasoyuz,” “Russian Newsweek” magazine, “Gazeta.Ru” (privately-owned web site, often critical of the government), “Vzglyad” business paper, “INFOX.ru,” and Regnum news agency.
2. IN TOMSK, POLICE BLAMED FOR DEATH OF JOURNALIST IN DETENTION. Hundreds of people in the Siberian city of Tomsk have staged a demonstration against local police and in the memory of journalist Konstantin Popov who died in police custody, news agencies reported on January 24.
On January 4, Popov was detained for being drunk. He was severely beaten in the police detention area and taken to a hospital in a coma. He died from his injuries on January 20. Protesters in Tomsk carried banners reading "Policemen beyond control are worse than bandits" and others pinning "shame" on the police force and senior officers.
The chief of police in Tomsk and the policeman known to have attacked Popov have been dismissed and faces a number of charges in connection with the assault and subsequent death.
3. EXTREMIST CRIMES UP SHARPLY, OFFICIAL RUSSIAN STATS SAY. The head of the Interior Ministry’s (MVD) anti-extremism unit has released statistics on the number of extremist crimes in Russia, according to a January 26 report by the Sova Center for Information and Analysis. The figures announced by Gen. Yuri Kokov show a rapid growth in the number of such crimes over the past five years: from 130 extremist crimes recorded in 2004, the figure jumped to 460 in 2008 and 549 in 2009.
Despite criticisms in the press and complaints by human rights activists, once again the MVD statistics failed to distinguish between hate crimes and crimes connected to Islamic extremists and insurgents in Chechnya. What muddies the waters some more is that the statistics are believed to include the detentions of peaceful opposition demonstrators, whom police are targeting with increasing frequency by abusing anti-extremism legislation.
Kokov acknowledged that his statistics are not 100% reliable—which is popular and professional wisdom in Russia, where numbers released to the public often reflect what the government wishes to project for one reason or another.
Kokov argued that 549 extremist crimes do not seem like much compared to the overall crime number for 2009: 3 million. "Nevertheless," he said, "it ought to be pointed out that even one crime connected to the specific and delicate sphere of inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations can drastically destabilize or even explode the situation, not only in one specific region, but in the entire state... That is the main danger presented by extremist incidents. Sometimes, a typical bar fight or night club brawl can lead to unpredictable consequences, including mass disorders on inter-ethnic or inter-religious grounds. It's enough to remember what happened in Kondopoga, Salsk, and Kalmykiya.”
According to Kokov, 150 neo-fascist groups are active in Russia.
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TWO MOSCOW COLLEGE STUDENTS FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER—BUT NOT HATE CRIME. A jury in Moscow has found two college students guilty of murdering a Tajik man during an attack on him and three other migrants, according to a January 22 report by the Sova Center for Information and Analysis. The verdict found the students guilty of "hooliganism using a weapon" and "murder motivated by hooliganism." The jury was unconvinced by the prosecutor's argument that the defendants, who confessed that they killed the victim, had acted out of ethnic hatred. The jury recommended that one of the defendants receive a reduced sentence. The Moscow City Court is expected to announce its decision on sentencing in the near future.
FAR-RIGHT ACTIVIST SUSPECTED OF SHOOTING AN ANTI-FASCIST. St. Petersburg Police detained a suspect in the shooting of a member of an anti-fascist group, according to a January 21 report by the Regnum news agency. The suspect is a 29 year old man, a member of a far-right group. He faces charges of "hooliganism" and simple assault, though police are checking to see if they can tie him to other unsolved crimes.
COURT ORDERS SHUTDOWN OF FAR-RIGHT WEB SITE. In a rare application of anti-extremism legislation, a district court in Kirov ordered the closure of a far-right web site, according to the Nizhny Novgorod edition of the national daily "Kommersant" dated January 27. The Leninsky District Court acted in approval of the local Prosecutor's Office which moved to close the web site of the local branch of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI)--Russia's largest far-right group.
The Prosecutor's Office sent its motion to the court after viewing a video clip on the organization's site titled "Day of the Migrant." The prosecutor argued that this video clip called for "violent action against ethnic and social groups--Vietnamese, Armenians, Azeris, Gypsies, and homeless people." The prosecutor also asked that the clip be placed on the federal list of banned extremist publications.
DPNI’s Moscow leadership reacted by characterizing itself as an "opposition movement" being unfairly targeted by "corrupt" officials. The DPNI has been linked with anti-migrant riots and other acts of violence, but unlike most neo-Nazi groups, it is operates legally and often participates in officially approved marches and demonstrations, implying a certain level of official approval.
PUTIN FEARS CHAOS, MEDVEDEV YEARNS FOR A SHAKEUP. On January 22, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin identified the two dangers he believes that his country must avoid. In the presence of Russia’s political elite at a meeting chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev, he warned against “the 'Ukraine-ization' of political life in Russia” as well as a “slide in the other direction, “towards totalitarianism and despotism." He called for changes to be implemented “extremely carefully." To make it plain, Putin praised “a healthy level of conservatism. A political system shouldn't wobble like liquid jelly every time it's touched."
In other words, Russia needs him as the helmsman.
By lashing out at Ukraine, Putin might have been angered by the praises by international observers for the first round of Ukraine’s presidential elections last week. He would have preferred an emphasis on Ukraine’s political instability.
His harshest words were reserved for the Internet. He dismissed a call for officials to examine complaints on the Internet about vote rigging in Russia’s recent regional elections. "On the Internet 50% is porn material,” he said. “Why should we refer to the Internet?"
Once again, Putin's tough message contrasted with a speech by Medvedev who called for a shakeup of the country's political system, more space for opposition parties, and an end to "non-existent" competition in local government. Medvedev called "astonishing" the fact that almost 50% of deputies in regional councils are members of the ruling United Russia party. He said that Communists make up 2% of deputies, while A Just Russia has 1% and the Liberal Democratic Party less than 1%. "This situation is simply astonishing,” he said. “It shows that our parties, primarily the opposition ones, still work very weakly at a municipal level. Real political competition is virtually non-existent there."
"Our political system works,” was Medvedev’s final thought, a likely concession to Putin. “It's far from being ideal but it works."
RUSSIAN JOURNALIST FINED FOR SLANDERING WWII VETERAN. A Moscow court has bowed to the plaintiff’s demands in a defamation suit against Russian journalist and human rights activist Aleksandr Podrabinek, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on January 27. The court ordered Podrabinek to pay 1,000 rubles ($33) to the plaintiff, World War II veteran Viktor Semyonov, and to retract the following words used in an online article: "Your homeland is not Russia but the Soviet Union. Your country, thank God, has not existed for already 18 years."
Podrabinek used the words in a September article about a Moscow restaurant that changed its name from "Anti-Soviet" under pressure from local officials. His article on the ej.ru website recalled the Soviet prison camps and Stalinist-era crimes, and accused Russian authorities of trying to burnish the image of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin-created youth movement “Nashi” threatened Podrabinek’s life and held a picket outside his home.
But the court did not meet the prosecutor’s demand for a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $16,500). The fine of 1,000 rubles ($33) seems symbolic.
TWO BRITS AND ONE GREEK ARRESTED IN GREEK SYNAGOGUE ARSON CASE. On January 22, Greek police arrested two Britons and a Greek man suspected of two arson attacks against a medieval synagogue on the Aegean island of Crete earlier this month, Reuters reported from Athens. Police said they were still looking for a U.S. citizen, who is suspected of helping to set fire to the synagogue, now a museum, in the city of Chania on January 5, while the other three men watched. One of the Britons arrested is suspected of launching a second attack on January16, police said, damaging extensively the roof of the building, and thousands of books and computers.
The police official said that the Britons, both in their early twenties, and the 33-year-old Greek were nightclub employees.
“The attacks have alarmed Greece's 8,000-strong Jewish community,” Reuters reported. “I can't say I'm happy now; they should have arrested them earlier, after the first attack and not leave the synagogue unprotected,” Moses Constantinis, head of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, told the news agency. “We are worried, the Jewish community is worried.”
* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, WHY PUTIN WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012* * * Speaking on Ekho Moskvy Radio on January 19, prominent Russian political analyst Olga Kryshtanovskaya expressed her firm belief that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will run for president in 2012. "I think for Putin this will be the last chance to come back to the Kremlin,” she said. “In 2012 he will be 60. I think it will be too late in six years. Second, Putin is still national leader--all opinion polls show this; he is the most popular person in the country. Third, President [Dmitry] Medvedev still does not have his own team. Of course, the process is under way and it is being formed. However, of 75 people who hold key posts in the Russian Federation only two are Medvedev's people. He does not have his own party--this is a very serious factor. He does not have a social network as a base for his potential voters.” Kryshtanovskaya heads the Center for the Study of the Elite, Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences.
DIPLOMACY AT WORK
Once Quiet, U.S. Diplomacy Has Gone Public and Presses Ahead
1. U.S. COMMISSION QUESTIONS MOLDOVA PM ON MENORAH REMOVAL. On January 21 at a Capitol Hill hearing, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission) told Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat that his country has a long way to go to establish a strong legal system. In his opening statement, Filat referred to an incident on December 13 in which several scores of Orthodox Christians in the capital Chisinau chanted antisemitic slogans, tore down a large Hanukkah menorah, and put it upside down in another part of town.
The commission’s chairman, Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), praised Filat's government for condemning the removal shortly after it happened. But Cardin pointed out that the menorah was not returned to Europe Square where the Jewish community had placed it but received a far less prominent spot. He also charged that Moldova's justice system trivialized the incident. “It was almost like the vandals won,” he said.
Filat replied that his government did as much as it could, given the state of law he inherited from the Communists who had been in power for ten years. He said: "We want to build a society which is based on tolerance.” He noted that the incident was the first of its type since independence--“but even so, it is one too many.” He pledged a new investigation which he said he would share with the Helsinki Commission.
As this newsletter reported earlier, prosecutors in Chisinau refused to bring charges against members of the mob who tore down the menorah and claimed that there was no evidence of a crime.
2. U.S. URGES KAZAKHSTAN TO LEAD OSCE BY EXAMPLE. On January 21 in the capital Almaty, U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan Richard Hoagland urged Kazakhstan’s government to use its chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Europe's main human rights watchdog, to lead by example and improve its own record.
In its dispatch on Hoagland’s speech, Reuters pointed out that human rights groups have criticized the West for allowing Kazakhstan to assume the rotating chair of OSCE this month, calling the Kazakh government unfit to lead a group devoted to promoting democracy. The first ex-Soviet republic to take on the job of OSCE leadership, Kazakhstan has never held an election judged free and fair. Moreover, Reuters added, public criticism of President Nursultan Nazarbaev, in power for 20 years, remains taboo.
"The United States is eager to collaborate with Kazakhstan as it leads the OSCE by example and reflects in practice the principles of the organization in all three dimensions--security, economic, and human," Hoagland said in a statement. "The OSCE's work in the human dimension is a key priority and one where implementation of commitments must be taken most seriously. Kazakhstan has a critical and important opportunity to lead both by word and by deed."
Without referring to Kazakhstan in particular, Hoagland said that journalists in the OSCE region still face dangers and media pluralism is lacking. "Elections that fail to achieve transparency and reflect the will of the people have also been a source of concern," Hoagland said. "Judiciaries too often serve as a tool of the few rather than a safeguard for the rule of law for all citizens."
Hoagland did not mention by name veteran human rights activist Yevgenny (Eugene) Zhovtis who is serving a four-year sentence in a labor camp. Following a trial condemned by the State Department, the Helsinki Commission, UCSJ, and local and international human rights activists as politically motivated, Zhovtis was convicted in a criminal case. The trial was based on a traffic accident in which Zhovtis accidentally killed a pedestrian. The court ignored an expert's conclusion that Zhovtis did not violate traffic rules and was not drunk.
Reuters reported that Kazakh officials have countered the criticisms by saying that the OSCE was too focused on the "human dimension"--human rights and democracy--and paid insufficient attention to other issues.
“The United States is one of the biggest investors in Kazakhstan, Central Asia's top oil producer, and U.S. support was instrumental in Kazakh efforts to get the OSCE role,” Reuters pointed out. “Often a critic of political restrictions in many other transition economies, Washington has traditionally used softer diplomatic language toward Kazakhstan, where U.S. and other foreign oil companies control most energy deposits.” The news agency recalled that the OSCE has never recognized elections in Kazakhstan as free and fair.
The U.S. Helsinki Commission has a hearing scheduled for February 2 with “Kazakhstan’s leadership of the OSCE” as the subject.
3. DROP CASES AGAINST MEDIA ACTIVISTS, KAZAKHSTAN IS TOLD. The Kazakh government also faces new complaints about its human rights violations. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the prosecution of media activists in Kazakhstan and called on Kazakh officials to "immediately stop the unfounded prosecution" of Raushan Esergepova, wife of jailed "Alma-Ata Info" newspaper editor Ramazan Esergepov; Rozlana Taukina, the head of the Kazakh nongovernmental organization “Journalists in Trouble”; and Vladimir Kozlov, leader of the unregistered opposition group “Alga.”
On January 6, Taukina, Raushan Esergepova, and “Alga” opposition group leader Vladimir Kozlov participated in a flash-mob protest in central Almaty under the banner "Freedom for Journalists Convicted for Their Professional Activities." The rally was in support of jailed journalists, including Esergepova's husband Ramazan Esergepov, the editor of "Alma-Ata Info" newspaper; "Vremya" newspaper correspondent Tohniyaz Kuchukov; writer Alpamys Bekturganov; and "Law and Justice" editor-in-chief Tokbergen Abiev. Esergepov was found guilty in August of revealing state secrets. Abiev was convicted for investigating judicial corruption. Bekturganov was imprisoned after writing a critical article about West Kazakhstan Governor Baktykozha Izmukhambetov, who won a libel case against him.
On January 12, Kozlov was found guilty for violating a law on holding rallies and was ordered to pay a fine of about $50. On January 27, an Almaty court fined Taukina $500.
CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said that the Kazakh government "must demonstrate tolerance for freedom of expression that becomes their newly assumed role of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe chair."
The Kazakh government, which at first basked in the limelight of publicity as OSCE chairman for the year 2010, may find that its violations of human rights receive more attention than ever before.
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