Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Bigotry Monitor: Volume 8, Number 23

News

Bigotry Monitor: Volume 8, Number 23

(June 6, 2008)

Volume 8, Number 23
Friday, June 6, 2008

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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KGB SMEARS AMERICAN LAWYER ZELTSER WITH DRUG POSSESSION. On June 3, the Belarus secret police still known as KGB announced that their medical examination found American lawyer Emmanuel Zeltser in good enough shape to stay in pre-trial detention until his court date, which will be named soon, according to Jewish.ru. The KGB spokesperson claimed that Zeltser had been found in possession of about 100 pills, none of which was for his medical condition—a likely basis for drug charges against him.

Upon arrival in Minsk on March 12, Zeltser and his secretary Vladlena Funk were detained on charges of carrying false documents. In a letter to the prosecutor general earlier last month, UCSJ expressed "extreme concern" with reports to the effect that Zeltser was in involuntary confinement in a psychiatric institution and physically abused by police. The letter emphasized that Zeltser's diabetes makes it crucial that he and Ms. Funk be released on humanitarian grounds, a request also filed by the State Department which cited a sharp deterioration of Zeltser’s health, as reported by the U.S. consul who visited him.

MEDVEDEV DROPS LAW SEEKING MORE RESTRAINT ON THE NEWS MEDIA. On June 2, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev “in effect sank” proposed changes to a new law that would have given courts the power to shut down media outlets suspected of libel, Reuters reported. “The move could awaken hopes of greater media freedom” under Medvedev, the news agency added. Russia’s three main news agencies published Medvedev’s critical note to Boris Gryzlov, the parliamentary leader of the ruling United Russia party. "It is obvious,” the note said, “that the ... draft law could lead only to the creation of hindrances to the normal functioning of the media, and does not accomplish the declared aims--to defend citizens from the distribution of material that is libelous."

ONE KILLED IN RUSSIAN-CHECHEN BRAWL IN KRASNODAR. A brawl in Krasnodar between ethnic Russians and Chechens led to one death and the hospitalization of another participant, according to the web site of the Coalition Against Hate, citing a report by the human rights NGO Memorial. The brawl started late in the night of May 27. A Chechen student, Rustam D., died in the hospital from stab wounds, while another young man, identified only as a "resident of Krasnodar," was admitted to the hospital in serious condition. Another local resident, 22, faces manslaughter charges. Rustam D.'s friends claimed that neo-Nazis took part in the brawl, but local police deny that, saying that "there was no inter-ethnic motive to this incident."

15 INJURED IN INTER-ETHNIC BRAWL IN MOSCOW. Up to 200 young men, one side made up of ethnic Russians, the other of people from the Caucasus, brawled in the Moscow neighborhood of Marino, according to a June 4 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. The Russian side included mostly soccer hooligans who claimed that their opponents shot at them and threw bottles, causing several injuries. Police detained between 5-10 people; about 15 were hospitalized.

LAWYER WHO WON A CASE FOR FORMER NGO LEADER BRUTALLY BEATEN. Two men attacked and robbed lawyer Viktor Parshutkin on May 30, three days after his successful defense in Russia’s highest court of media activist and former NGO leader Manana Aslamazyan against currency-smuggling charges, Reuters reported. Parshutkin said the men attacked him with clubs at around 3 a.m. after a gypsy cab mysteriously picked him up and dropped him off on a dark street far from his apartment. "They beat me on the head several times, then one of them hit me especially hard in the face and blatantly shouted, 'We had an order to kill you,'" Parshutkin said. The attackers stole a bag containing his cell phone, identification papers, and a small sum of money, Parshutkin said. "I link this attack directly to my professional activity in the case of Manana Aslamazyan."

Parshutkin said he had been at a colleague's apartment discussing business before the attack. After he left and hailed a car to go home, the driver told him that he could only take him only halfway. He is convinced that his phone is tapped and he was followed.

POLICE CHARGED WITH BEATING AND TORTURING SUSPECT. A Batumi Kurd living in Khadyzhensk, Krasnodar Region, accused police in the nearby city of Apsheronsk of torturing her son Rashid and son-in-law Anatoly, according to an open letter she sent to President Dmitry Medvedev. Khanifa Gurzhiev wrote that police picked them up on May 16 in Khadyzhensk, beat them in a police car on the way to Apsheronsk, and then tortured them to get them to confess to drug charges. She said that the policemen used racist slurs "churki" and "black-ass" while beating the two men, and threatened to kill them. The next day the victims were barely able to move but were taken to a judge who sanctioned their arrest.

Officers of the State Drug Control Agency then came to the hospital where Rashid Gurzhiev was recovering from the beating and dragged him off, ignoring the protests of doctors that he was too injured to move. They allegedly hit his mother who says she was handcuffed to a bed after she protested.

NEO-NAZIS ATTACK ANTI-FASCISTS IN BRYANSK. Neo-Nazis attacked two anti-fascists in Bryansk, Russia, according to a June 2 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. The two activists were participating in a rally to feed homeless people called "Food Not Bombs." Participants in similar events have been attacked by neo-Nazis throughout Russia, and in one case killed. One of the activists ended up in the hospital with a concussion and a broken nose. This is the second time that one of the anti-fascists, Sergey Ilyukhin, has been attacked; earlier he was assaulted by a member of the far-right Movement Against Illegal Immigration.

TWO FOREIGN STUDENTS SET UPON IN ST. PETERSBURG. An Iraqi graduate student was stabbed in St. Petersburg and an African student beaten, according to a June 2 article in the national daily "Komsomolskaya Pravda." The first attack took place near the Baltiyskaya metro station late on the night of June 1: a fourth-year student from Africa was beaten and hospitalized with a concussion and a broken nose. A day earlier, an Iraqi graduate student, Wasin Abbas, was stabbed on a trolley bus by a man who ran off. Abbas was hospitalized. Police are investigating.

The article carried no information about the victims being robbed, which makes it likely that the assaults were hate crimes, especially given the city's recent history of attacks on foreign students.

NEO-NAZI GANG BATTERS AZERI IN MOSCOW. Six neo-Nazis attacked an Azeri man in Moscow, according to a May 30 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. The 41-year-old victim was attacked on May 11 near the Sviblovo metro station, thrown to the ground, and kicked multiple times. He was hospitalized with six fractured ribs and a ruptured kidney.

ARSON AND GRAFFITI IN DZHERZHINSK SYNAGOGUE. Antisemitic graffiti were found on the walls of a synagogue in the town of Dzherzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Region, according to a June 2 report by the Nizhny Novgorod Telegraphic Agency. On Sunday night, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at the building's window. The bottle did not break the glass and the fire it caused was confined to the window frame, Interfax reported. There were no injuries. Presumably, the fire was due to arson, police said.

IN MOSCOW, NEO-NAZIS ASSAULT GAY RIGHTS MARCH. Neo-Nazis attacked gay rights activists marching in Moscow, according to a June 2 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. The rally was not approved by city authorities who have taken a harsh stand against similar actions in the past, including the use of police violence against Russian and foreign gay rights activists. According to Sova, the police protected the marchers from the neo-Nazis, stepping in to break up the violence before it escalated. Some protesters hung up a sign criticizing Mayor Yury Luzhkov, but the banner was torn down by others. Police detained people from both sides. Sova listed 15 detentions but a report by the Sedmitsa news agency put the number at 36.

IN TATARSTAN, NEO-NAZIS CONVICTED. A group of neo-Nazis were convicted on various charges in the majority Muslim Russian republic of Tatarstan. According to a May 26 report by the Regions.ru news web site, six members of Russian National Unity (RNU) ranging in age from 18 to 32, were given prison sentences of up to 7 years after a court found them guilty of extremism, inciting ethnic hatred, extortion, assault, and possession of explosives. Atypically, the RNU cell was led by a woman, Yekaterina Melnikova, 28.

According to a May 27 report by the local newspaper "Vechernyaya Kazan," the trial took place with a high degree of secrecy; no journalists were allowed to attend, in contrast to "extremism" trials of accused Islamic radicals. The RNU members were first charged with "hooliganism" after a violent confrontation in a Kazan cemetery in 2006. Police detained three more members of the RNU cell after an October 6, 2006 attack on a foreign student from Mali. The charges soon escalated to "organizing an extremist organization." Further investigation revealed an attack in 2005 on people from the Caucasus, and shakedowns of local businessmen. Melnikova allegedly ordered her comrades to put together some explosives as a way to further intimidate extortion victims. They also allegedly planned to attack a police station in Kazan in order to acquire weapons.

CRIMINAL CASE OPENED INTO STIRRING INTERETHNIC ENMITY ON THE INTERNET. Authorities in the Russian seaside resort of Anapa, Krasnodar Region, have opened a criminal case into the publication of nationalistic materials on a local Internet forum, Interfax reported. The case was opened on charges of instigating hatred or enmity and humiliating human dignity in connection with the publication of nationalistic materials on the Kuban.ru forum, following a complaint by the Presumptsia human rights committee, the regional investigative department said in a statement on June 2. "The linguistic analysis of the above materials shows that they contain lexical, semantic, and syntactic elements of humiliating character towards persons of Armenian descent," the statement said.

EX-MVD HEAD BLAMES MIGRANTS FOR CRIME AND DAMAGING ECONOMY. In a report presented to the State Duma, the former head of the Ministry of the Interior (MVD) accused illegal migrants of costing the state $8 billion a year, according to a May 29 report by the RIA-Novosti news agency. Anatoly Kulikov, who now heads an organization called the Worldwide Anti-Criminal and Anti-Terrorism Center, also stated that the majority of open-air markets in Russia "are under criminal influence, including ethnic [minority] groups." These criminal groups--Azeris in the case of agricultural products and Armenians in the case of wholesale goods--also engage in contraband, Kulikov said.

BELARUS KGB TARGETS HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS. After political opposition activists in Vitebsk, Belarus received mailed threats from the neo-Nazi group Russian National Unity (RNU) and two of them were assaulted, the local KGB reacted by accusing a local human rights activist of "inciting ethnic hatred," according to a May 27 report by the opposition web site Khartiya-97. On May 23, three KGB officials burst into the apartment of Leonid Svetka, a human rights activist who has helped the targets of the RNU threats in writing their appeals to the authorities. The KGB told him that he was a witness in the case and interrogated him for nine hours. They confiscated his computer and files and took him to the police station for further interrogation before releasing him.

Last year, Svetka was pushed out of his teaching job, most likely as a result of his human rights work. Boris Khamayda, one of the recipients of the RNU's threats, commented to the web site: "Instead of finding the real fascists, the KGB interrogated a man who fights against them. This is outrageous! I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the KGB has a direct connection to the writing of the letters from the neo-fascists.”

MOB BLOCKS CHRISTIAN BURIAL IN KYRGYZSTAN. A mob prevented the burial of a Baptist child in the majority Muslim village of Kulanak, Kyrgyzstan (Naryn Region), according to the national daily "Vecherny Bishkek" dated May 29. On May 18, the 14-year-old son of Baptist parishioner Alymbek Isakov died but when he tried to bury him the next day, fellow villagers refused to let him, arguing that the cemetery is for Muslims only. The fact that Isakov intended to bury his son in a strip of land set aside by local officials for Christians did not seem to make much difference to the enraged villagers.

Local officials claim that they persuaded Isakov to bury his son on the outskirts of Naryn. The Baptists tell a different story, blaming the local imam for inciting the mob by telling them that if they allowed the burial, they would have to convert to Christianity. Officials went to the Isakov residence on May 21 and allegedly told Isakov that his son could be buried in the village only if he renounced Christianity and gave the body to the boy's grandfather, a Muslim--or bury the boy in a Christian cemetery near Naryn in a ceremony in which he could not take part. Isakov refused the conditions, calling them illegal, at which point a mob gathered outside his house, threatening to burn it down. That night, police and soldiers surrounded the house, stormed it, and took the boy's body away. The next day, Isakov found his son's body in a shallow grave near Naryn.

The article ended by noting that villagers proceeded to cut off Isakov's water supply and that violence against religious minorities continues to break out in other villages in the Naryn Region. Ironically, on May 26 the same newspaper ran an article demonizing Jehovah's Witnesses and quoting the government's religious affairs officials as saying that the country needs more restrictive laws to crack down on "sects."

EU FAILING HUMAN RIGHTS AT HOME AND ABROAD, SAYS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. Sixty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, human rights abuses continue to be rife across the globe, including inside the European Union (EU), said Amnesty International (AI) on launching its annual report in Brussels on May 28. “Developments over 2007 indicate that the EU and member states are backtracking in terms of human rights protection,' said Nicolas Beger, director of AI’s EU office. “Complicity in the abuses carried out in the context of counter-terrorism is one of the most flagrant examples of this worrying trend.”

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, RUSSIAN OFFICIALS EXPLOIT XENOPHOBIA * * * “The Soviet Union was anything but tolerant,” Susanne Scholl, Moscow bureau chief of Austrian Public Television, wrote on June 3 in “The Moscow Times.” “But since its collapse, a gnawing feeling of inferiority has crept into Russian society. Both the state and openly racist, xenophobic, and antisemitic groups---of which there are dozens, as well as more than 100 clearly xenophobic publications--increasingly ignore the country’s multi-ethnic character. … The state hypocritically expresses its concern while doing nothing to oppose it, because too many officials are only too willing to exploit such sentiments.”

ITALY’S POLITICS OF FEAR
Premier Berlusconi Goes Tough on Those Who Make His People Afraid

“The Times” of London suggests that Italy may be succumbing to a wave of racism and xenophobia under its new center-right government determined to stamp out encampments of Roma migrants, better known as Gypsies, and to stop the influx of illegal migrants. In lengthy on-the-scene reports that began last week, one of the world’s most prestigious newspapers has offered vivid snapshots of the inhabitants of a “rubbish-strewn [Gypsy] camp, consisting of wood and corrugated-iron cabins and dilapidated caravans… next to a disused airfield, … due for demolition as part of a new crackdown on illegal immigration and crime. Already nearly 40 huts have been dismantled, and 150 of the camp's 800 inhabitants have left.”

The reporter quoted a Gypsy woman who migrated from the former Yugoslavia 20 years ago. “Where are we supposed to go?” she asked. “They say we are all thieves, but I work as a cleaner.” Her home is described as equipped with cupboards, a sink and a stove, “neat and well kept, in contrast to the dusty squalor outside.” Her husband said: “This government is stoking up fear. Most people in this camp are refugees from… the Balkans. We are used as scapegoats when what we need are jobs, housing, and status.”

At another Roma camp made of converted containers next to a bus depot, the reporter found Riccardo Di Segni, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, talking to Hanifa Rustic, an elderly Bosnian who told him that she came to Italy at age13, fleeing pro-Nazi Croatian Fascists in an earlier era of intolerance. “There are alarming signs of racism in Italy today,” said Di Segni, who was visiting the camp to express Jewish solidarity. Jews and Gypsies both ended up in Hitler's concentration camps, the rabbi pointed out. “We have to be on the alert, not only because of what is happening but because of what could happen,” he said. “First one group is singled out, then another. This must be stopped now.”

“We are treated like criminals even though most Roma people are honest,” Mioara Miclescu, a Romanian in a camp who runs a laundry employing Roma women, was quoted as saying. “We are living in fear.”

The reporter added that many illegal immigrants are “not the muggers and pickpockets of popular nightmare” but cleaners and caretakers for the elderly. The reporter recalled local headlines only two weeks ago when “youths on motorcycles and scooters hurled Molotov cocktails into a nomad camp at Ponticelli, outside Naples, a city brought to its knees by the unresolved problem of how to dispose of its rubbish. Smoke from the burning camp joined that already rising from mountains of rubbish set on fire by desperate locals.” According to the reporter, the Naples arson attacks were “apparently coordinated by clans of the Camorra, the Naples Mafia, which is also behind the rubbish problem.”

“The Times” reporter described “balaclava-clad gangs, some wearing bandanas emblazoned with swastikas, smashed shop windows with iron bars and baseball bats and beat up shopkeepers in a hitherto bohemian neighborhood of Rome.” Members of the gangs shouted “Get out, bastard foreigners” as they attacked Bengali shopkeepers in the explosion of xenophobic violence.”

Silvio Berlusconi, who won a sweeping election victory last month, put together a coalition with the anti-immigrant Northern League and the so-called post-Fascist Alleanza Nazionale. They agree with Berlusconi’s slogan: “Italians have the right not to live in fear”--which “The Times” reporter interpreted to mean “targeting those who make Italians afraid.”

Officials say that 600,000 illegal immigrants live in Italy, and hundreds more arrive every week at Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island near the North African coast. Some are sent back but most of them reach the mainland. In 2006, of 124,383 immigrants “detained for illegal entry” and ordered to be expelled, only 13,397 were actually “accompanied to the frontier” to make sure that they left. The rest were served with expulsion orders that were ignored.

Berlusconi has announced a crackdown on illegal immigration and street crime. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, deputy leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, said that the government was responding to the concern of Italians over immigration and personal security. He said that the government condemned vigilante attacks on immigrants, including arson attacks on Gypsy camps.

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