Volume 9, Number 47
December 11, 2009
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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IS RUSSIA ABOUT TO IMPOSE INTERNET CENSORSHIP? New fears of Internet censorship spread in the Russian blogosphere after an Internet provider co-owned by Russian Technologies acknowledged blocking access to some web sites, “The St. Petersburg Times” reported on December 8, citing bloggers and the sites’ editors. Over the past few weeks, Moscow-based users of the Yota provider have been unable to access web sites of the Kremlin’s opposition such as Garry Kasparov’s Kasparov.ru, Solidarity’s Rusolidarnost.ru, and the banned National Bolshevik Party’s Nazbol.ru. Moreover, access was patchy until December 6 to the site of opposition magazine “The New Times,” its web editor Ilya Barabanov said.
“Critics say that the extremism law, which was widened in 2006, is being used to silence the opposition,” “The St. Petersburg Times” reported. “This strongly smells of political censorship,” the newspaper quoted Denis Bilunov, a senior member of Kasparov’s Other Russia movement, as saying. According to Bilunov, the most likely explanation was Russian Technologies’ involvement in Yota which denied that it was blocking the sites. But Denis Sverdlov, chief executive of WiMax operator Skartel which runs Yota, did acknowledge that Yota blocks access to sites that the Justice Ministry classifies as “extremist.” For instance, Yota users cannot open the Chechen rebel web site Kavkazcenter.com. “In November, we got an order from prosecutors recommending that we close access to extremist sites,” Sverdlov wrote in an e-mail. “Since we are a law-abiding firm, we put the order into practice.”
A 2008 court decision declared Kavkaz Center “extremist,” and that web site appears on the Justice Ministry’s list of more than 450 items classified as extremist. But, the newspaper noted, the list does not include any of the opposition sites that have complained of being inaccessible to Yota users. The newspaper added, “it is unclear why, with the exception of Yota, most national providers do not block access to Kavkaz Center.”
As for lack of access to the opposition web sites, Sverdlov blamed technical difficulties that arose after Yota introduced new IP addresses to cope with the rapid growth of its customer base. “On October 23, we were assigned a bloc of 65,536 IP addresses. After we put them to commercial use, we found that IT managers of some other sites could not exclude them from those IP addresses they filter,” Sverdlov said. To prove that there is no censorship, Sverdlov claimed that President Dmitry Medvedev’s official site at Kremlin.ru was at times inaccessible as well.
A representative at Yota’s technical support hot line told the Novy Region news agency on December 4 that Yota was blocking 29 extremist sites. The unidentified representative said that Kasparov.ru was not on the list--but the list had been updated a week earlier. Nevertheless, “The Times” characterized bloggers as “rattled by an audio file posted online Sunday in which a female voice--purportedly of a Yota support representative--says Kasparov’s and Solidarity’s sites are blocked because they are on that list.”
“Since over the past decade the state brought under its control most of the national TV channels and influential print media, the Internet has been called the country’s last bastion of free speech,” the newspaper pointed out. “Fears of a crackdown were expressed last month after a video address by police officer Alexei Dymovsky lambasting corruption unleashed a string of copycat whistle-blowers airing their complaints online. Also last month, top search engine Yandex stopped ranking popular blog posts after several entries exposed problems that embarrassed government officials.”
5 NEO-NAZI YOUTHS DETAINED, SUSPECTED OF KILLING HOMELESS MAN. Police in Kopeysk (Chelyabinsk Region) detained five youth members of a neo-Nazi group on suspicion of killing a homeless man, according to a December 7 report by the Sova Center for Information and Analysis. On November 20, the youths beat their 57 year old victim severely; he died ten days later in the hospital. The suspects reportedly face manslaughter charges but since they have allegedly confessed to membership in a neo-Nazi group, extremism charges might be tacked on at a later date.
Neo-Nazi groups mostly attack members of ethnic and religious minorities, but at times victimize ethnic Russian homeless people and drug addicts in their effort to "cleanse" the streets.
BOMBER OF ORTHODOX CHURCH LEFT BEHIND ‘EXTREMIST LEAFLET.’ Police in Vladimir are investigating a likely hate crime targeting a Russian Orthodox church, according to a December 7 report in the national daily "Komsomolskaya Pravda." On December 5, someone threw a bomb into the Orthodox church located on the campus of Vladimir State University. The bomber left behind a leaflet that contained "extremist content" according to law enforcement sources.
MEMORIAL CONDEMNS SCHOOL SEGREGATION OF ROMA IN RUSSIA. In a December 7 press release, the anti-discrimination project of the Russian human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) Memorial condemned the segregation of Roma (also known as Gypsy) children in Russian schools. The policies of segregation that many Roma children experience in Russian schools violate both national education laws which guarantee equal education for all Russian citizens, and international agreements that Russia has signed, Memorial charged, noting that Roma children have been placed in schools or classrooms only with other Roma, even in schools where many non-Roma students attend. Memorial also identified a disturbing tendency to classify groups of Roma children as requiring special education, which further marginalizes them. In many cases, these special education programs for Roma are little more than simplified versions of mainstream curriculum, a grave disservice to those children's educational needs, Memorial added, finding that no attempts are generally made to teach students enrolled in 100% Roma schools or classrooms anything about their native culture and language.
Memorial pointed out that schools with large Roma populations regularly subject them to medical examinations that are not required for mainstream students, and the fact that many are bi-lingual led at least one school in Tula to classify Roma children as suffering from "social deprivation--bilingualism." Roma parents fought this classification in court but their law suits were dismissed out of hand, which led them to file an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights, which last year ruled against the Czech Republic for instituting similar policies of segregation.
BELARUS OPPOSITIONISTS ABDUCTED AND DUMPED IN THE WOODS. In what could mark a new trend in President Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus, two prominent opposition activists were abducted by assailants they believe are linked to the secret services, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on December 8. Zmitser Dashkevich, the leader of the Young Front opposition movement, told RFE/RL that masked men seized him on December 5 from the doorstep of his apartment in Minsk. He was dragged into a minibus, blindfolded, and dumped in a forest 70 kilometers from the capital. The incident prevented Dashkevich from delivering a speech at the founding ceremony of a new opposition coalition called New Generation.
The next day, two men picked up Dashkevich's colleague, Yaugen Afnagel, as he stepped off a bus in Minsk. He says he was forced into a car and driven to a forest outside Minsk and dumped there. Four other opposition campaigners say they were also kidnapped and dumped in forests.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, some opposition members and a Russian TV reporter “disappeared” in Belarus.
The opposition has blamed the Belarus secret service still called KGB and suggested that it is testing new methods to intimidate dissidents ahead of next spring’s elections. The KGB has declined to comment.
UKRAINIAN MAYOR KEEPS UP ANTISEMITIC RHETORIC. In a December 3 interview with a Ukrainian news web site Rupor.info, Uzhgorod mayor Sergey Ratushnyak again made several antisemitic statements. He defended his use of the word "zhid"—the equivalent of “kike” in Ukrainian and Russian---and his claims that Jews control the Ukrainian media. According to him, a group of Ukrainian "Jewish clans" are plotting "the complete seizure of the means of production and the capital of this state" and have decided to take steps against him in order to silence his criticisms. He continued his attacks on presidential candidate Arseny Yatsenuk, characterizing him as a secret Jew, and lumping him with notorious Ukrainian Jewish businessmen and one of Russia's two chief rabbis, Berel Lazar.
Ratushnyak has so far escaped prosecution of his illegal hate speech against Jews. It is not clear from the report if any investigation of his latest statements will take place.
POLICE DETAIN YOUTHS FOR VANDALIZING HOLOCAUST MONUMENT IN UKRAINE. Police detained four youths in Kamenets-Podolsky, Ukraine on accusations that they vandalized a Holocaust monument, according to a December 9 report by the Forum news web site. The youths allegedly gathered stones from nearby gravestones at the Holocaust site and threw them at the monument, damaging it in several places. Two days later, police detained the suspects and charged them with desecrating gravestones, which carries a possible criminal penalty of up to three years in prison but usually results in nothing more than a fine or suspended sentence. The report offers no information to indicate if prosecutors plan on bringing hate crimes charges against the suspects.
SARKOZY URGES DIALOGUE WITH MUSLIMS TO BLOCK ‘A TERRIBLE RANCOR.’ Did French President Nicolas Sarkozy strike a balance between traditional pride in French identity and tolerance of the country’s restless Muslim minority? A national debate he formally launched on the subject is expected to take several months.
On December 8, in a statement published in the country’s leading newspaper “Le Monde,” Sarkozy first addressed “my Muslim countrymen” that “I will do everything to make them feel they are citizens like any other, enjoying the same rights as all the others to live their faith and practice their religion with the same liberty and dignity. I will combat any form of discrimination.” Then he went on to say that “in our country, where Christian civilization has left such a deep trace, where republican values are an integral part of our national identity, everything that could be taken as a challenge to this heritage and its values would condemn to failure the necessary inauguration of a French Islam.” In polished abstractions that recalled the prose of his predecessor Charles de Gaulle, Sarkozy explained that he “understood” the fears of many native French of “the growing visibility of Muslims in France,” constituting Europe’s largest Muslim population of about 5 million. “This muffled threat felt by so many people in our old European nations, rightly or wrongly, weighs on their identity. We must all speak about this together, out of fear that, if it is kept hidden, this sentiment could end up nourishing a terrible rancor.”
ANTI-ISLAM PROTEST IN ENGLAND. Eleven men were arrested and a policewoman was hospitalized after violence broke out at a far-right group's demonstration against Islamic extremism in England, Agence France-Press (AFP) reported on December 6. The policewoman hurt her arm while maintaining a cordon at the protest by the English Defence League (EDL) in Nottingham. No one else was seriously hurt in the skirmishes, police said.
“About 500 members of the EDL, a marginal group which has staged a number of demonstrations against radical Islam in recent months, sang the English national anthem and football songs as they gathered in the city,” the news agency added. “Many of them had their faces covered with scarves and hooded tops as they chanted: ‘We want our country back’ and held aloft placards saying ‘Protect Women, No to [Islamic law] Sharia’ and ‘No Surrender.’ A counter-demonstration by Unite Against Fascism, which calls the EDL A racist organization, took place nearby, despite police requests that they move.”
AUSTRIAN NEO-NAZIS TAUNT BASQUE SOCCER TEAM IN VIENNA. A soccer game between Atletico Bilbao and Austria Vienna was stopped for half an hour after neo-Nazis invaded the pitch brandishing banners emblazoned with the phrase “Viva Franco,” London’s “Telegraph” reported on December 4. The Basque soccer team was taunted by far-right extremists throughout the game in the Austrian capital. “Supporters from the home stands set off flares flooding the stadium with thick smoke, threw objects at the players, and eventually invaded the pitch when the Bilbao team scored its second goal in the 62nd minute,” the London newspaper reported. “Players from the Basque team raced to the shelter of their dressing room as riot police formed a line just outside the penalty area while the Austria team pleaded with supporters in an effort to calm the situation. Some of the Austrian fans, thought to be members of a neo-Nazi group, were seen waving banners with the phrase 'Viva Franco.' … Play was eventually resumed and Atletico Bilbao knocked Austria Vienna out of the [Europa] League with a 3-0 win.”
The Basque region in northeastern Spain suffered much during the 36 years of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco who even banned the Basque language.
* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, THE PLIGHT OF MINORITIES IN THE EU * * * “Unfortunately, anti-discrimination often remains a right on paper and ethnic minorities continue to face discrimination and exclusion,” wrote Mohammed Aziz, president of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) in a “Shadow Report” on racism released on December 3. ENAR represents 600 NGOs spread around the European Union (EU). “In the field of migration, the lack of political will and an essentially negative approach has meant migrants are often treated as second class persons. [Our] report highlights the urgent need for a concerted effort across the EU to overcome barriers and challenges that hinder effective equality for all.” The report, drawing on 22 national reports, warns that the “increasing popularity of anti-immigrant parties in many countries, restrictive migration policies, a negative political and public discourse on migration, and a security focused agenda have had a detrimental impact on the integration of migrants and ethnic minorities in Europe.”
RUSSIA’S TWO HIGHEST COURTS FACE CONTROVERSY The independence and the standards of Russia’s judiciary have been frequently questioned and President Dmitry Medvedev, stressing his professional interest as a lawyer, has repeatedly made some vague statements calling for reforms. Two events in one week suggested that the time may have come for specific actions.
1. TWO SENIOR JUDGES OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT QUIT. Two Constitutional Court judges are stepping down from senior positions after giving interviews that denounced mounting pressure on Russia’s judicial system, “The St. Petersburg Times” reported on December 4. Judge Anatoly Kononov will resign at the end of this month and Judge Vladimir Yaroslavtsev handed in his resignation as a member of the Council of Judges, court spokeswoman Yekaterina Sidorenko said on December 2. She stressed that Yaroslavtsev would remain at his job in the Constitutional Court, one of Russia’s two highest courts.
The resignations come after the judges publicly accused the Kremlin of crushing the independence of the country’s judiciary.
Valentin Kovalyov, a lawyer who served as justice minister under President Boris Yeltsin, told the newspaper that both resignations are unprecedented. “I know both of them personally as highly professional and principled,” he said. “The fact that they made this difficult decision means that they saw no possibility to do their job right.”
In an interview published on August 31, Yaroslavtsev told the Spanish daily “El Pais” that judges were increasingly subjected to pressure from the executive branch of government and the security services are running the country just as they did in Soviet times. “I feel like I have ended up on the ruins of justice,” he was quoted as saying.
As an example of the sweeping powers of the security services, Yaroslavtsev cited a Constitutional Court decision in May to dismiss a complaint from journalist Natalya Morar. The Federal Security Service (the FSB, usually identified as the KGB’s heir) barred her from entering the country after she published critical reports in the magazine “New Times.” Her case was dismissed without any request for evidence from the FSB, Yaroslavtsev said. “Nobody knows what [the FSB] will decide tomorrow,” he was quoted as saying. “There is no consultation or discussion.”
The interview infuriated fellow judges at the Constitutional Court, which has a total of 19 judges, and they accused Yaroslavtsev of breaching the ethical code for judges and a federal law on judges, “The St. Petersburg Times” reported. But instead of issuing a formal warning that could lead to impeachment, the judges decided to ask Yaroslavtsev to resign from his post as the Constitutional Court’s representative in the Council of Judges, a body that oversees judges throughout the country.
Yaroslavtsev has confirmed that he complied with the recommendation but declined further comment. Other officials were unavailable to discuss the matter.
In an interview with the magazine “Sobesednik,” Kononov defended Yaroslavtsev, saying he had been “whipped in the best tradition” at the plenary session. Kononov told his fellow judges that the magazine had improperly published off-the-record quotes, but the judges insisted that he step down to avoid a disciplinary hearing, “Kommersant” reported. “The interview was the last straw,” one judge told the newspaper on condition of anonymity. “Kononov had always behaved more like a human rights campaigner than a judge.”
Constitutional Court Chief Justice Valery Zorkin said that Kononov had cited health reasons in his resignation letter. But Zorkin added that judges had complained about Kononov’s public criticism in the past and they disapproved of the tone of his numerous dissenting opinions. “It is not true that judges are ousted because of a dissenting opinion,” Zorkin told reporters. “But it is one thing if he argues over whether something is constitutional and another if he only serves the purpose of saying that Auntie Manya speaking about the Constitution on the street is a fool.”
“The Times” have quoted political analysts as saying that control of the Constitutional Court is part of a Kremlin plan to help Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency if elections are called earlier than 2012, when President Medvedev’s term expires.
2. SUPREME COURT BANS JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PUBLICATIONS AND A CONGREGATION. On December 8, Russia's other highest court, known as the Supreme Court, upheld a Rostov-on-Don Regional Court ruling finding 34 Jehovah's Witness publications "extremist," thus ensuring that their distribution will be banned nationwide.
As part of the ruling, the court also upheld the liquidation of the Jehovah's Witness congregation in Taganrog as “extremist.” The congregation's property will now be confiscated, and it will be prohibited from meeting as a community. Asked why the country’s high court upheld the lower court decision, the secretary for the Supreme Court's Civil Cases Division, who would not give her name, told Forum 18 News Service: "The Jehovah's Witnesses are extremist." Asked if they have for example killed anyone, she responded: "To a certain extent, yes."
The Supreme Court ruling opens the way for the ban of the distribution of all Jehovah's Witness literature in Russia. Grigory Martynov of the Jehovah's Witnesses expressed disappointment, telling Forum 18 that "the decision was taken very quickly and they gave no explanation as to why they upheld the Rostov decision." He added that they will consider taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
According to Forum 18, which specializes in the subject of religious freedom in the former Soviet Union, perhaps the most significant impact of the ruling “will be on the many other cases brought by prosecutors against other local Jehovah's Witness congregations and publications elsewhere in Russia. Local courts are likely to look to the Supreme Court decision for guidance. Prosecutors are likely to be encouraged by the decision to bring yet more similar cases.”
As we go to press, President Medvedev is yet to be heard from.
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