Volume 10, Number 5
February 5, 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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Police actions of questionable legality are on the rise across Russia.
1. POLICE RAIDS ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP, CONFISCATES COMPUTERS. On January 28, police raided the office of Baikal Wave, a Siberian environmental organization, and confiscated several computers, saying that they were searching for unlicensed software, a move that the group said was probably prompted by their criticism of a plan to reopen billionaire Oleg Deripaska's pulp plant on Lake Baikal, “The Moscow Times” reported on January 29. The newspaper recalled that the Baikalsk Paper and Pulp Mills, situated on the world's largest body of fresh water, has troubled environmentalists since the 1960s but the government has been reluctant to close the plant permanently because it is the largest employer in Baikalsk, a town of 17,000.
“Curiously,” the report noted, “the police raid came as Baikalsk's mayor and several employees of the plant were in Moscow for a news conference to drum up support for the mill and to deliver a thank-you note from workers to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin” who on January 13 signed a decree allowing the mill to reopen.
A local police spokesperson told the official news agency RIA-Novosti that Baikal Wave was raided after a citizen's tip that they were using unlicensed software. “The Times” pointed out that police have often raided nongovernmental organizations and opposition publications, claiming to look for pirated programs or extremist material.
"All of our programs are licensed. They confiscated the computers without checking the license documents, saying they didn't have experts to look at them," Galina Kulebyakina, a member of Baikal Wave, told “The Times” from the office of the Regional Prosecutor. She and six of her colleagues were taken there after trying to prevent officers from the Irkutsk police's consumer markets and extremism departments from leaving with their computers.
"There were about eight people. They started to remove the computers without showing any warrants," Kulebyakina said. "The police then called the Prosecutor's Office and said we were holding them against their will, so they sent more people to bring us here against our will," she said. She suggested that the raid was most likely caused by Baikal Wave's efforts to keep Baikalsk Paper and Pulp Mills closed.
2. DAGESTAN MUSLIMS RAIDED; MORE JEHOVAH WITNESS LITERATURE BANNED. Following a December 11 raid on a Makhachkala apartment by a busload of armed and masked rapid reaction police led by a Dagestani FSB security service investigator, some 30 readers of the works of the late Turkish Islamic theologian Said Nursi were taken in for questioning, Forum 18 News Service reported on January 28. Local law-enforcement personnel say that there will definitely be a court case, Ziyautdin Dapayev, one of those under criminal investigation, told Forum 18. He said that Nursi readers are becoming "victims to the incompetence of some employees of the law enforcement agencies." Dagestan FSB told Forum 18 that no one could answer questions about the investigation.
Nursi's works are banned in Russia despite a 2007 Turkish government statement that they "contain no statements whatsoever aimed at inciting religious hatred." Moscow Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed to Forum 18 that it had issued an extremism warning to Ravil Gainutdin, chair of the Russia-wide Council of Muftis, for inviting a Turkish Nursi follower to a Moscow conference.
A 3,000-word December 24 report by RIA Novosti Dagestan warned that "conspiratorial cells" of Nursi readers meet in "conspiratorial apartments" in the republic. The news agency claims that Nursi followers plan to unite all Turkic peoples around Turkey in a "Turkic empire" and are supported by the intelligence agencies of Turkey and the United States "whose aims are to weaken and then completely destroy Russia."
In a separate religious extremism case in the Siberian republic of Altai, Jehovah's Witnesses have lost their latest appeal against an extremism ban on more of their publications. A ban on 27 items of Jehovah's Witness literature was upheld on January 27.
3. POLICE OFFICERS FACE EXTREMISM CHARGES. Two police officers in Kaluga face extremism charges, according to a January 28 report by the Regnum news agency. According to prosecutors, on September 27, 2009 police detained two Uzbek citizens on administrative charges. The two officers then allegedly assaulted the Uzbeks out of racist motives.
Later, the officers allegedly forced other detainees to assault the Uzbeks, threatening to hurt them if they did not. The officers also face charges of "exceeding official authority"--the closest equivalent to a torture statute in Russia’s Criminal Code. If convicted on all counts, the officers face up to 15 years in prison.
Prosecution of police officers under hate crimes or extremism statutes is extremely rare in Russia although there are widespread reports of racial profiling and police violence against minorities.
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RACIST VIOLENCE DROPPED IN 2009, SAYS SOVA CENTER. While deeply distrusted by the population, statistics in Russia are widely interpreted as political statements. The Moscow-based group Sova Center for Information and Analysis, the leading monitor of hate crimes in Russia, routinely warns that its figures represent a fraction of hate crimes committed because many of them are not reported by the victims or their relatives. Even Gen. Yuri Kokov, head of the Interior Ministry’s anti-extremism unit, cautions that his statistics are “not one hundred percent accurate.”
Racially motivated violence in Russia dropped sharply in 2009 because of a more vigorous effort by police and a shift in tactics by extremist groups, the Sova Center said on January 28. It said that 71 people were killed and 333 wounded in racist attacks last year, down from 110 killed and 487 wounded in 2008. Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy head of Sova, called it the first significant drop in such attacks since the group began collating statistics in 2004.
However, two days earlier, Gen. Kokov released Interior Ministry statistics that show the rapid rise of “extremist crimes” in Russia and 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.
The sets of numbers are not quite comparable. Sova figures are based on reports it receives on hate crimes driven by ethnic, communal or religious hatred. Despite criticisms in the press and complaints by human rights activists, Interior Ministry statistics fail 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.
Sova’s findings appear to vindicate government claims that it is trying to combat racist violence, the Associated Press (AP) suggested. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that the number of racist crimes decreased twofold last year, as quoted by the AP. As in previous years, most of the victims listed by Sova in 2009 were dark-skinned, non-Slavic migrant laborers from former Soviet republics in Central Asia, mainly Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and the Caucasus.
Sova's annual report credits the decline of hate crimes mostly to police efforts to break up the largest and most aggressive extremist groups in Moscow and the surrounding Moscow Region. Prosecution and conviction rates for racist violence and propaganda are also increasing, Sova added.
Nevertheless, racist violence remains rampant across most regions of Russia, Sova emphasized.
Kozhevnikova said that ultranationalists have switched tactics and targets, increasingly turning to bombings, arson, and vandalism rather than random assaults on suspected foreigners. Increasingly, hate groups target police stations, officers investigating hate crimes, government offices and nongovernmental organizations, she said. "Last year, we can say with some certainty that we registered 20 such incidents," she said.
Sova's report observed that while explicitly racist propaganda is on the wane, extreme right-wing groups have publicly adopted the rhetoric of more mainstream patriotic groups. "Racist propaganda is becoming a matter for closed meetings," the report said, and pointed out that at the same time, some mainstream political parties have adopted xenophobic rhetoric to draw recruits and pro-Kremlin youth groups have used openly racist and nationalist messages in their government-sponsored campaigns.
5 RUSSIAN SKINHEADS FOUND GUILTY OF KILLING TAJIK. Five skinheads have been convicted for an ethnically motivated murder and city of Novosibirsk, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on February 3. Novosibirsk Oblast Court spokeswoman Irina Kosheleva said the leader of the group, Aleksei Noskov, was found guilty of "murder based upon ethnic hatred" and sentenced to 13 years in jail. Four other members of the group received suspended sentences ranging from seven months to one year as his accomplices.
In October, the group attacked and severely beat Tajik Abdulatip Tursunov before stabbing him. Noskov was the first to stab Tursunov who had a total of 29 stab wounds and died later in hospital. All the assailants were under 18 at the time of the attack.
TEENAGER CHARGED WITH INCITEMENT IN RUSSIA’S FAR NORTH. A teenager in Nyagani (Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug), faces incitement charges, according to a January 28 report by the regions.ru news web site. Prosecutors accuse the youth, 17, of putting video clips on line that incite ethnic hatred against migrants. Neo-Nazis routinely post footage of their assaults on line as a means of advertising themselves.
U.S. COMMISSION URGES KAZAKHSTAN TO IMPROVE ITS HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD. At a Capitol Hill hearing on February 2, leaders of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe balanced their praise for Kazakhstan’s leadership in organizing its current chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with calls on the newly-installed Chair-in-Office to lead the OSCE by example and improve its own domestic human rights record. Chairman Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) expressed support for the Kazakh suggestion to hold a summit of OSCE heads of state this year--provided the meeting be in Kazakhstan and the government follow OSCE practice, including a full implementation of all OSCE commitments to non-governmental organization participation.
Cardin praised the Kazakh government for “a superb job” preparing its chairmanship but urged Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev, present at the hearing, to ensure a focus on combating antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance. “However, the fact remains Kazakhstan is the first country assessed as ‘not free’ by Freedom House to assume the OSCE chairmanship,” Cardin pointed out. “This reality presents unique challenges and opportunities for Kazakhstan, for the United States, and for those of us committed to advancing principles of human rights. I hope the leadership of the Chair-in-Office will motivate its Central Asian neighbors to fully participate in the OSCE."
Cardin noted that the Chair-in-Office has received positive marks for laying out a clear agenda for the OSCE, however in Kazakhstan a restrictive media law, poor election record, and imprisonment of human rights activist Yevgeny (Eugene) Zhovtis are serious matters the Chair-in-Office should confront.
“As a previous president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, I hope that Kazakhstan will strengthen the role of parliamentarians in the organization,” said the commission’s co-chairman, Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL). “I also look forward to a continuing dialogue on European security issues. Nevertheless, I do hope that Kazakhstan is able to resolve some domestic human rights issues during it chairmanship.”
“The core of the OSCE mission includes promoting human rights, the rule of law, and democracy, all areas where several OSCE countries including the now Chair-in-Office are tragically deficient,” said Ranking Minority Commissioner Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ). “To receive support for the chairmanship, Kazakhstan promised at the 2007 Madrid ministerial to enact a series of reforms by 2008. Sadly, I am still waiting for them to live up to that promise.”
Saudabayev’s appearance before the commission is part of what has become a nearly-annual practice of the rotating Chair-in-Office appearing early during the one-year term. Kazakhstan has chosen trust, tradition, transparency and tolerance as major themes for the 2010 chairmanship. Saudabayev has highlighted specific issues high on his country’s leadership agenda, including further dialogue on European security and resolution of protracted conflicts as well as the struggle against terrorism, religious extremism, and drug trafficking. In the human dimension, he has mentioned the importance of judicial independence, the prevention of hate crimes, freedom of movement, and the situation of Roma and Sinti.
TURKMENISTAN IMPOSES EXIT BANS TO ISOLATE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES. Taken off an airplane in the capital Ashgabad just before departure in October 2007, Protestant pastor Ilmurad Nuliev has been unable to leave Turkmenistan since then, Forum 18 News Service reported on February 2. Like many who are on the exit blacklist, he gets no explanation from the Migration Service. He told Forum 18 that the ban could only have been imposed to punish him for his religious activity as pastor of Peace to the World Pentecostal Church in the town of Mary. The exit blacklist is part of the Turkmen government's long-standing policy of trying to isolate religious communities within the country from their fellow-believers abroad, which has included expelling legally resident foreigners who engaged in religious activity. In 2009, Ashgabad banned even the small number of Muslims allowed to go on the haj pilgrimage to Mecca.
* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, THE NEED TO LIMIT HATRED’S SPREAD * * * Surveying efforts by “iFascists” to exonerate Fascism on the Internet, Australian media and computer expert Andre Oboler defined in an op-ed published on the Internet the challenge as limiting “both the capacity for sharing hate, and the desirability for doing so. We must promote the message that society opposes antisemitism and other forms of discrimination. Companies like Apple and Facebook must play their part. They are in a position to directly limit the capacity of racists to spread their hate, but of equal importance, they are in the position to inform the public debate. Their statements are part of the debate that shapes the values and priorities of today's society. They help define what is ‘cool.’ We need to tell the neo-Fascists they are never going to be ‘cool.’ We need socially responsible companies to take a stand. Together we need to say ‘no’ to the iFascists of today and tomorrow.”
LARGEST OPPOSITION RALLY IN A DECADE UNITES CRITICS OF PUTIN
Unexpected Protest Shakes the Kremlin
Russian leaders are angry that the local government in Kaliningrad did not prevent the largest anti-government protest in a decade. In fact, the local authorities authorized the protest at a time when it was directed against a transportation tax. But after the local Duma dropped the plan, rally organizers went ahead anyway and shifted their focus on rising utility bills and unemployment—as well as the policies of the national government.
1. A PROTEST RALLY THAT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE. On January 30, up to 12,000 protesters called for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s resignation “in a rare outpouring of anger with the popular leader,” “The Moscow Times” reported. “The peaceful protest was the largest in a flurry of weekend demonstrations, all of which shared a common thread: growing frustration with the country’s leaders. … Opposition leaders trumpeted the rallies as a sign that ordinary Russians are increasingly disenchanted with Putin’s leadership and predicted further protests.” The opposition group Solidarity said that 12,000 people participated. Police put the figure at 6-7,000. The last opposition rally staged in the city of one million people attracted 5,000 protesters on December 12. Opposition leader Ilya Yashin said had not seen such a large, anti-government demonstration since 2001, when hundreds of people rallied in Moscow against state-owned Gazprom’s takeover of the last private national television channel, NTV.
Kaliningrad is part of a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea, sandwiched between two members of the European Union: Lithuania to the north and the east and Poland to the south.
Hundreds of police officers kept watch on the crowd but did not intervene. In Moscow, Russian leaders were angry with Kaliningrad authorities for not banning the rally and for not deploying police to disperse it, which stood in sharp contrast to events in Moscow where local officials prohibited an anti-government protest by human rights activists on January 31 and sent riot police to break it up, briefly detaining more than 100 of the 300 protesters, including veteran human rights activists Lev Ponomaryov of the group For Human Rights and Memorial director Oleg Orlov, as well as National Bolshevik leader Eduard Limonov.
Since May, human rights activists have been trying to hold a rally in central Moscow on the 31st of every month to defend their right to protest as guaranteed by the 31st provision of the Russian Constitution. On December 31, riot police brutally dispersed the rally, and the two dozen people detained included Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the 82-year-old veteran dissident and head of the Moscow Helsinki Group. But on January 31, Alexeyeva was not detained. In St. Petersburg, police broke up similar rallies on both occasions, detaining 25 of the 200 demonstrators in January.
The state-owned national television channels ignored the protests, just as they did with previous outbursts of public dissatisfaction. But a video posted on YouTube showed opposition leader Boris Nemtsov delivering an impassioned speech to cheers of “We’ve had enough!”
On February 2, United Russia charged that opposition groups had deceived Kaliningrad residents into participating in the protest. United Russia criticized the rally as “political” and “cynical.” “Representatives of the opposition are trying to draw people to the streets to act in their own interests,” senior party official Andrei Vorobyov said in a statement on the party’s web site. “Such a cynical position arouses feelings of indignation.”
2. OPPOSITION SEES KALININGRAD RALLY A POSSIBLE TURNING POINT. “The rally held in Kaliningrad might really be a sign of a change in the country,” the opposition Solidarity leader Ilya Yashin told “The Moscow Times.” He pointed out that the anti-Putin event united a large crowd with various political allegiances. According to Solidarity’s web site, the rally also drew included activists with the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, Yabloko, the Patriots of Russia party, the banned National Bolshevik Party, motorists’ groups, and several smaller opposition movements.
The Russian press has described the Kremlin as shaken by the size of the protest and blaming the regional governor, Georgi Boos, for his restraint. On February 1, President Dmitry Medvedev dispatched to Kaliningrad his envoy, Ilya Klebanov, to investigate. A day later, Prime Minister Putin sent off his own delegation from the ruling United Russia party. "We need to investigate the situation,… [and] look into how strongly the residents were misinformed by the opposition and how adequately the local authorities acted," said Sergei Neverov, deputy secretary of United Russia's general council. According to news reports, Kaliningrad's leadership had an intense brainstorming session.
Speaking to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on February 3, political analyst Nikolai Petrov of the Moscow Carnegie Center called the unexpected mass protest "extremely unusual," adding that against the backdrop of small social protests going on elsewhere in Russia, "suddenly a powerful wave appeared." According to Petrov, the authorities are desperate to avoid "the possibility of creating a precedent, that could lead to a repetition of something like the 'velvet revolutions' of the early 90's, when crowds took to the streets and demanded the replacement of their rulers."
3. CONFUSION IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT. In a statement released on February 1, Governor Boos called on the Kremlin to reinstate the "against all" option on voting ballots in order to help the authorities and political parties evaluate their popularity objectively. "This is the voter's point of view, and it will be worse if he can't express it," Boos said. But the following day, he denied in a statement posted on United Russia's web site that he had endorsed the return of the "against all" option. He is a member of United Russia's higher council and has made himself inaccessible to the press.
Opposition politicians have strongly opposed the removal of the "against all" option from ballots, a measure that United Russia pushed through the State Duma in 2006.
Boos, unpopular in the region, is said to be on the way out. According to press reports, United Russia is in the process of organizing a pro-government counter-demonstration this weekend. Observers think that such a show of force may lead for things to get out of hand. But United Russia has denied the reports.
In Vladivostok, about two dozen people rallied for freedom of speech and right of assembly, Interfax reported. They held posters reading “Russia Without Putin!” and “Russia Without Medvedev!” with portraits of the two leaders crossed out.
But Putin’s popularity remains high, “The Moscow Times” report on the Kaliningrad rally noted and quoted a poll by state-run VTsIOM: In January. his trust rating stood at 54%, the highest among politicians. Medvedev received 42%.
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