Volume 9, Number 49
December 30, 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
_______________________________________________________
JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES WIN RARE VICTORY IN RUSSIAN COURT. In the midst of a crackdown on Jehovah's Witnesses in several Russian cities, a civil court in Orsk, Russia (Orenburg Region) has issued a rare ruling in their favor, according to a December 25 report by the Sova Center for Information and Analysis. On October 24-25, Jehovah's Witnesses in Orsk rented a building to hold a mass prayer meeting. Prosecutors charged the organizer, Konstantin Kvartyuka, with violating a law against unlawful assembly. Kvartyuka's side countered with the successful argument that under Russia's Religion Law, religious gatherings are exempt from the requirement of petitioning local governments for permission to assemble. It is not clear if prosecutors will appeal the verdict.
RUSSIAN POLICE FREE 15 KYRGYZ CHILDREN FORCED TO WORK IN FACTORY. Russian police have freed 15 Kyrgyz children who were forced to work in an underground factory in the Moscow Region, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on December 28. Police say that they discovered an illegal textile shop in Noginsk, about 50 kilometers from Moscow, where migrants from Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan were employed. Margarita Maslova, a spokeswoman for the criminal investigation department in the Moscow Region, told RFE/RL that the children were forced to work at night and were punished if they did not meet their work quotas. Numerous bruises and signs of a beating were found on the body of an 11-year-old boy employed at the shop. The children, from poor families, were reportedly selected by a native of Kyrgyzstan registered in the Moscow Region. Criminal charges of slave labor are expected to be filed against the operators of the factory.
SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TOUGH SENTENCES FOR RACIST KILLERS. On December 21, Russia's Supreme Court upheld the sentences given to members of a racist group in the city of Barnaul, RFE/RL reported. The regional court in southern Siberia's Altai Krai sentenced a group of young men to long prison terms for murder and attacks on non-Slavic people in Barnaul in 2007. The group, led by teenager Aleksei Kelber, called itself "Odin's Wolves." Kelber declared himself "Odin" after the chief god of Nordic mythology. Group members considered themselves representatives of the "superior Aryan race.”
In 2007, they killed two people of Altai and Azeri origin, attempted to kill two Tuvans and a Tajik, and severely beat a Chinese person. Investigators found black masks, excerpts of statements by Adolf Hitler, and nationalist literature in members' apartments. Kelber was sentenced to 23 years in prison, while other group members received jail terms of between eight and 19 years.
IN YEKATERINBURG, NEO-NAZIS ON TRIAL FOR HATE CRIMES INCLUDING MURDER. Four neo-Nazis are on trial in Yekaterinburg on charges of multiple hate crimes, including murders, according to a December 21 report by the news web site regions.ru. The extremists allegedly began their crime spree in September 2006 and filmed their attacks, posting video clips on the Internet. They then allegedly recruited six teenagers into their gang, which is also a crime. They assaulted their victims with knives, broken bottles, chains, and rocks. Several of the attacks ended in the deaths of the victims.
COURT SENTENCES YOUTH FOR RACIST ATTACK. A court in Kovrov (Vladimir Region) sentenced an 18-year-old man to four and a half years in prison for assaulting three Africans, according to the local supplement to the national daily "Komsomolskaya Pravda" dated December 28. The defendant and a group of friends beat and robbed the Africans while screaming at them to "get out of Russia." The other suspects in the case are still under investigation. It is not clear from the report if the defendant was sentenced under hate crimes laws, or solely for assault and robbery.
SUSPECT IN BOMBING OF ORTHODOX CHURCH DETAINED. Police in Vladimir, Russia detained a suspect in the bombing of a Russian Orthodox church, according to a December 14 report by the Regnum news agency. The 28 year old suspect, whose name was not released, is reportedly a member of a neo-pagan sect, a subculture that sometimes attracts neo-Nazis and other extremists. The suspect also allegedly sent a bomb threat to organizers of a rock concert by a well-known rock star who is openly gay. If convicted of bombing the Holy Kirill and Methodius Church on December 6, the suspect would face hooliganism and hate crimes charges. It is not clear what charges the suspect faces in relation to the earlier bomb threat.
NEO-NAZIS FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES IN TOLYATTI. Three neo-Nazis face unspecified criminal charges in Tolyatti (Samara Region), according to the local supplement to the national daily "Komsomolskaya Pravda" dated December 16. Maksim Iskander, the purported leader of the suspects that include two college students, has a criminal record for murder. In September of this year, the men allegedly heard someone in their apartment courtyard yelling an insult to Adolf Hitler, and when they ran outside to confront the person, they focused on a 25-year-old man sitting on a bench with his wife and another woman. After the women left, the neo-Nazis assaulted Evgeny Nuzhdin, who ended up in the hospital suffering from serious head trauma. It is not clear what charges the suspects face.
ANTI-HARE KRISHNA LEAFLET TAKEN OFF EXTREMISM LIST. A leaflet distributed by the youth wing of the United Russia party has been taken off the government's list of banned extremist materials, according to a December 25 report by the Sova Center for Information and Analysis. At a Hare Krishna event in the summer of 2008, members of the Young Guard/United Russia in Khabarovsk distributed the leaflets, which accused Hare Krishnas of being a "totalitarian sect" that murders people, deals drugs, and sexually exploits children,. A January 2009 court decision in Khabarovsk based on charges of inciting religious hatred classified the leaflet, titled "Beware: Sect!", as extremist material, which led to it being placed on the federal list of banned extremist publications.
This is the first known time a publication has been taken off the banned list of extremist materials, and it is probably not a coincidence that the ruling party's youth wing, rather than a marginal neo-Nazi group, was the first such beneficiary. The decision on the federal level was reportedly motivated by an appellate court's ruling in Khabarovsk reversing the lower court's finding against the Young Guard.
ORTHODOX CHURCH TAKES A STEP FORWARD ON HOMOSEXUALITY. Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said that although the church views homosexuality as a sin, homosexuality is a personal choice and that gays and lesbians must not be persecuted or discriminated against in any way, the Associated Press (AP) reported on December 23. Nevertheless, the church still opposes same-sex marriages.
The patriarch's statements, called by the AP “a breakthrough for the Russian church,” were made during his meeting with Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland who was on a visit to Russia.
“Opposition to gay rights remains widespread in Russia, where homosexuality was decriminalized only in 1993,” the AP pointed out and cited Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov who has described homosexuality as "satanic."
POLL FINDS MOST RUSSIANS REGRETTING USSR’S FALL. According to a new poll, 60% of Russians regret the breakup of the Soviet Union and think that it could have been avoided, a source at the independent Yuri Levada Analytical Center told Interfax. The number of those regretting the breakup reached its peak (75%) in December 2000, and over the past two years the decline of that percentage has been “minor,” the source said.
The sections of society who most regret the collapse of the union are pensioners (85%), women (63%), people aged between 40-55 (67%), those over 55 (83%), those with a low level of education (68%), those on low incomes (79%), and rural folks (66%).
The breakup could have been avoided, 57% of those polled believe. The percentage varied from 55% in 2008 to 65% in 2003 and 2004. But 28% of those polled now said that the breakup was inevitable—and that figure stood somewhere between 24-30% in previous years. The percentage of those calling for the restoration of the union has risen to 16% from 13% a year ago. Only 14% of those polled thought that all former Soviet republics should be independent.
MOLDOVAN ORTHODOX CHURCH BLAMES JEWS FOR ANTISEMITIC RALLY. The official reaction of the Moldovan Orthodox Church to an antisemitic rally in the country’s capital Chisinau led by an Orthodox priest singled out the Jewish community for criticism, according to a December 21 report by Interfax.
On December 14, a mob led by Father Anatoliy Chirbik tore down a Hanukkah menorah in the center of Chisinau and erected a cross in its place while Father Anatoliy incited the crowd with antisemitic rhetoric. Police reportedly watched passively as the action unfolded, even though it violated laws against the incitement of ethnic and religious hatred.
"We believe that this unpleasant incident in the center of the capital could have been avoided if the menorah had been placed near a memorial for victims of the Holocaust," the church's statement said, adding that the church also disagreed "with the form of protest chosen by the believers who gathered there" and that the church respects "the feelings and belief of other cults that are legally registered on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, and expects a similar attitude from their side." "At the same time,” the statement went on, “we think it inappropriate to put a symbol of the Jewish cult in a public place connected to the history and faith of our people, especially because Hanukkah is classified by the cult books of Judaism as a 'holiday of blessing' that symbolizes the victory of Jews over non-Jews."
Following the incident, UCSJ sent a letter to the Moldovan ambassador in Washington calling for criminal charges to be filed against members of the antisemitic mob seen in a widely distributed video. The Moldovan national government and Chisinau city government have condemned the menorah’s removal.
RIGHT-WING VIOLENCE IN GERMANY ON THE RISE. The upward trend in right-wing violence recorded over the past few years in Germany will likely to continue through 2009, Germany's federal criminal police director Joerg Ziercke said on December 17, Deutsche Welle reported. Ziercke disclosed that in 2008, more than 20,000 politically motivated crimes were committed, the highest number since the government began counting them separately in 2001. "On average, two to three right wing-motivated violent crimes are committed in Germany each day and about three antisemitic violent crimes each month," Ziercke told a press conference. Eighty-five percent of violent crimes ended in bodily injury, totaling nearly 1,000 in 2008. Three-quarters of these crimes were committed in public spaces such as train stations or streets near bars. Ziercke said alcohol often plays a role, and many of the crimes are committed spontaneously. The rise is attributed in part to the Internet, which right-wing extremists in Germany are increasingly using to spread propaganda, especially on foreign servers.
* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, WHY MODERNIZATION FAILS IN RUSSIA * * * In an interview published in “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” dated December 24, Mikhail Barshchevskiy, member of the presidium of the Russian Association of Lawyers, asked Ella Pamfilova, chairwoman of the President's Council to Promote the Development of the Institutions of a Civil Society and Human Rights, if President Dmitry Medvedev understands that “without corresponding movement from below neither the fight against corruption nor modernization of the country is possible.” Pamfilova replied: “There is enough understanding; what is missing is opportunity. The healthy part of society long ago reached the point of needing normal development, a fundamental reorganization of the whole law enforcement system and the court system, which could reduce the level of corruption that is disfiguring our development. There is unanimity in society today as never before that something needs to be changed. But at the same time the society has doubts that the government is ready for changes. In our country it very often happens, at all levels, that the government says one thing but in reality something different happens.”
UCSJ MOURNS THE DEATH OF ITS NATIONAL DIRECTOR
Micah Naftalin Was a Passionate Advocate of Soviet Jewry and Human Rights
Micah H. Naftalin, an inspired and inspiring leader in the human rights community who played a historic role in the struggle of Soviet Jews, died suddenly in Washington on December 23, at age 76. Since February 1987, he served as national director of UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, an independent grassroots human rights organization operating across the former Soviet Union.
"I am deeply saddened by the loss of such a great human rights leader within the Jewish community," said Larry Lerner, UCSJ's president. "Micah was a friend and colleague whom I admired for many years. He will be greatly missed. He was a very brave and humble man--for example, he played piano beautifully, but almost nobody knew that because he didn't advertise the fact."
Speaking on the Russian language service of the Voice of America, former Soviet dissident Leonid Stonov--now the director of international bureaus for UCSJ--recalled the first human rights conference ever held in Moscow in 1989 which UCSJ played a leading role in organizing. "He led this conference that gathered Soviet human rights activists right under the nose of the Lyubyanka!," Stonov said. "The people around him drew strength from him, because he was wonderfully well educated, but also very open and democratic, he had the ability to listen, and never dumped his affairs onto anyone. A lawyer by profession, he was actually more of a strategist and a lobbyist, in the best sense of the word. For him, the principles of human rights were above all other things. It was his personal struggle, because he was a genuine humanist of the [Andrey] Sakharov type."
U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow--ambassador to Russia from 2001 to 2005--wrote that “the human rights movement has lost one of its most effective, dedicated, and determined leaders. I first got to know Micah 20 years ago, when I was Soviet Director at the State Department and when it was the UCSJ that led the way in seizing the new opportunities under [Mikhail] Gorbachev to bring the Union of Councils' mission and message to the Jewish community inside the former Soviet Union. Two decades later, thanks to Micah's vision, the UCSJ is galvanizing new efforts to tackle the erosion of human rights and the rise of xenophobic nationalism in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus through the Coalition Against Hate. Micah leaves an extraordinary legacy.”
“We remember Micah as the most friendly person and the most reliable and trustworthy working partner for many years,” said a condolence message signed by veteran human rights leader Ludmilla Alexeyeva and seven other members of her Moscow Helsinki Group and the International Youth Human Rights Movement. “We are deeply grateful to him for the years of our cooperation and the very important things we have managed to do together in the field of protecting human rights values.”
“He was an inspiration to all activists who are concerned about the persecution of Jews throughout the world and specifically those in the former Soviet Union,” wrote Gideon Aronoff, president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). "His abiding concern for the security of Jews there--and his deep humanitarian impulse to bring transformation and reform to this area so that it becomes a democratic, tolerant, and pluralistic society--was unmatched.”
In its obituary, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency pointed out that under Naftalin’s leadership, “UCSJ monitoring has long been the principal source of primary data on religious discrimination and, especially, antisemitic and xenophobic hate crimes and propaganda across the FSU [the former Soviet Union], with special emphasis on Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. In early 2007, he initiated, with cooperation from the Moscow Helsinki Group, the Coalition Against Hate, an unprecedented consortium of 30 religious freedom and human rights NGOs from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, pledged to provide cooperative activism and monitoring of hate crimes.”
One of Naftalin's many strengths as a human rights leader was the active consultative relationships he maintained over the years with the White House, Congress, the State Department, and the media. He regularly briefed U.S. officials on antisemitism and the human rights situation in the former Soviet Union. In 1995 he represented the U.S. government as a public member of the U.S. Delegation to the OSCE Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw. In 1990, he presided over the founding of the Russian-American Bureau on Human Rights, the first Western human rights organization ever registered in the Soviet Union. Later on, he oversaw the establishment of six more human rights and rule of law monitoring bureaus in Tbilisi, Lviv, Minsk, Almaty, Bishkek, and Riga, some of which are now independent of UCSJ.
Before joining UCSJ, Naftalin served as chief counsel and deputy director of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Government Research and as a senior policy analyst with the National Academy of Sciences. In 1982, he joined Chairman Elie Wiesel on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, where he was appointed deputy director and, later, acting director. On his watch, the selection of the museum site adjacent to the Washington Mall and early planning of the program and fundraising, “A Campaign To Remember,” were accomplished.
Naftalin held a BA from Brandeis University (1955) and a JD from The George Washington University School of Law (1960). He served in Korea as an enlisted man in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957.
UCSJ's Lviv bureau chief Meylakh Sheykhet expressed the consensus of those who knew Naftalin well when he said, “Micah was a righteous man.”
His memory is a blessing.
* * * *
_____________________________________________________________
Copyright (c) 2009. UCSJ. All rights reserved.
Bigotry Monitor welcomes use of its contents without prior approval on the condition that full attribution is given to "Bigotry Monitor -- UCSJ's weekly newsletter". We would also like to see a copy of the publication.
Send letters to the editor to: cfenyvesi@aol.com
How to Subscribe
Send an email to bigotrymonitor@ucsj.com with the word "subscribe" as the subject of the message.
How to Unsubscribe
Send an email to bigotrymonitor@ucsj.com with the word "unsubscribe" as the subject of the message.
All issues available at http://www.ucsj.org