Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Bigotry Monitor: Volume 8, Number 29

News

Bigotry Monitor: Volume 8, Number 29

(July 18, 2008)

Volume 8, Number 29
July 18, 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
___________________________________________________________

MEDVEDEV HECTORS NEIGHBORS REVISING WORLD WAR II HISTORY. Addressing top Russian diplomats assembled in Moscow on July 15, President Dmitry Medvedev repeated his predecessor’s sharp warnings not to rewrite history, by which they mean criticizing Soviet actions during World War II and the Moscow-imposed communist dictatorship that followed. Ignoring the distinctions between historians’ research and nationalist attempts to exonerate local anti-Soviet guerrillas, Medvedev declared: "Next year will mark 70 years since the beginning of World War II. We just cannot accept attempts to reanimate the advocacy of a 'civilizing and liberating' mission of the fascists and their accomplices." It is tantamount to playing with fire, he said, and one must "respect history instead of engaging in sly interpretations."

In a combative spirit similar to former President Vladimir Putin’s, Medvedev urged that Russia “must turn to history regularly. Otherwise, for clear reasons, history will repeat itself in the most negative scenarios. One must learn lessons from history without attempting to reconsider it for the sake of momentary political interests.”

Without naming his targets, Medvedev noted: "An extremely dangerous situation has been observed lately, when politicians, instead of doing their direct business of building harmonious international relations and just dealing with their domestic tasks, prefer relegating historians to reshuffle history like a pack of cards to suit their personal views and to tackle momentary tasks."

He reminded neighboring states with substantial Russian minorities that “the protection of the rights of Russian-speaking people abroad” is one of the state’s top priorities. Repeating standard Putin charges against the United States and the European Union, Medvedev at the same time advised Russian diplomats to protect Russia's interests “without confrontation.”

At one point, he struck a philosophical, almost-Spenglerian note: "The world which has got rid of the Cold War cannot regain balance. Moreover, the slant towards the use of violent methods in a number of areas is increasing."

According to “The Moscow Times,” the 2008 foreign policy strategy enunciated by Medvedev “strongly resembles one approved by then-President Putin in 2000, reiterating Russia's interest in reasserting itself as an international player in a multipolar world where UN and international law reign supreme and unilateral actions by countries like the United States are unwelcome.”

Medvedev’s speech disappointed many observers. “The vague and somewhat incomprehensible expectations that there might be some kind of liberalization in foreign policy" under Medvedev have proven unfounded, Dmitry Trenin, political analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, was quoted as saying in “The Moscow Times” of July 16. The new foreign policy strategy, signed by Medvedev, also says that the prime minister will be allowed for the first time to implement foreign policy measures--a right previously the president’s. “The Moscow Times” called the ceding of the rights “unprecedented.”

FOUR NEO-NAZI YOUTHS ARE CHARGED WITH MURDER AND HATE CRIME. St. Petersburg prosecutors have filed hate crimes and murder charges against four neo-Nazi youths who stabbed an Uzbek man to death last year, according to a July 17 report by the Fontanka.ru news web site. According to prosecutors, the four suspects, two of whom are under-aged, traveled to the nearby town of Repino looking for a non-Russian to beat up. After walking the streets for a few hours, the extremists gave up. But as they waited for a train to go back to St. Petersburg, they spotted Ibragim Parmanov, 30, who had arrived in town a few days before to visit his sister and work as a house cleaner. He tried to flee his assailants, but they caught him and beat him, and then the two under-aged youths pulled out knives and stabbed him multiple times. He died of blood loss shortly before paramedics arrived.

Police detained the youths a few days later thanks to eyewitness testimony and footage from a security camera. A search of their apartments is said to have yielded neo-Nazi paraphernalia, and police discovered evidence of visits to neo-Nazi web sites on their computers. Some of the suspects also have neo-Nazi tattoos. Nevertheless, police insist that they do not belong to any neo-Nazi gang. Three have reportedly confessed and are free awaiting trial; the one suspect who has not confessed is held in pre-trial detention. They all face charges of murder motivated by ethnic hatred and of actions aimed at the incitement of ethnic hatred.

IN NOVOSIBIRSK, FOUR YOUTHS CHARGED WITH HATE CRIME MURDER. Prosecutors in Novosibirsk charged four youths, including two middle school students, with murder motivated by ethnic hatred, according to a July 7 report by the local news service Taiga.ru. On January 12, the youths allegedly beat a citizen of Turkey to death with baseball bats. Police found a video clip that the suspects made of the attack, along with unspecified neo-Nazi items.

IN MOSCOW, WELL-DRESSED EXTREMIST ATTACKS ARTIST WITH DREADLOCKS. On July 11, a man announcing the he is a fascist and that he planned to kill his victim attacked a well known comic book artist in Moscow, according to a July 14 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. The artist who goes by the name of Khikhus was near the Taganskaya metro station when a man approached him eyeing his dreadlocks and reggae clothing. (Neo-Nazis regularly attack Russian youths who dress that way.) Wearing a suit and tie, the assailant had brass knuckles which he used to strike his victim several times. The artist fought back and yelled, which scared his assailant off. The artist filed a report with the police, but no arrests have been made so far.

ANTISEMITIC EDITOR CHARGED WITH EXTREMISM. Prosecutors in eastern Siberia charged a local newspaper editor with extremism for a spate of antisemitic articles in February, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on July 14. Editor Alexander Yaremenko has faced a steady stream of criticism from local government officials in the town of Chita that the newspaper, which is the official publication of the local branch of the Union of Russian People, printed nationalist and extremist rhetoric. (In tsarist times, an organization by the same name was infamous for organizing pogroms.) According to the Prosecutors' Office, psychological and linguistic evaluations confirmed the charges that a local court approved on July 10. The newspaper's property has been seized. An aide to the prosecutor told reporters that the publication “insulted the honor and dignity of national or religious affiliation. It justified superiority of one nationality over another or inferiority of several ethnicities."

IN ORENBURG, SYNAGOGUE VANDALS ARE DETAINED. Police in Orenburg, Russia detained three young men suspected of vandalizing a synagogue in April, according to a July 9 article in the local newspaper "Yaik." The vandals painted swastikas and death threats on the walls of the synagogue. If convicted under hate crimes legislation, the suspects could face up to four years in prison. They reportedly have neo-Nazi tattoos and have confessed to the crime. A search of one suspect's apartment is said to have yielded extremist leaflets.

IN IVANOVO, SWASTIKA DAUBED ON DOOR OF JEWISH COMMUNITY LEADER. Vandals daubed a swastika on the door of the leader of the Ivanovo Jewish community, according to a July 16 report by the Regnum news agency. Ervin Kirshtein, whose door was vandalized on the night of July 15, expressed doubt that local law enforcement agencies would solve the crime. He told Regnum that "such incidents are not interesting for the Prosecutor's Office."

"This is yet another case of an organized fascist campaign in Ivanovo," a representative of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia told Interfax. “A fortnight ago antisemitic inscriptions appeared in front of the Kineshma community center. Following the comments by Ervin Kirshtein where he criticized actions inciting interethnic strife in the region, RNU [Russian National Unity] inscriptions with half meter sized swastikas were found near the home of the chairman,” followed by the vandalization of his door.

Police have not found the culprits in the recent vandalizing of 60 gravestones in a Muslim cemetery or those who produced antisemitic graffiti throughout Ivanovo, including on the walls of the Jewish community center.

NOVOSIBIRSK PROSECUTOR ASKS FOR BLOCKING ‘EXTREMIST’ WEB SITES. Internet providers are to limit access to “extremist web sites” for users. The Prosecutor's Office in Novosibirsk Region has sent a statement to the owners of the main Internet channels asking them to limit access for users of several web sites recognized as extremist by the Federal Prosecutor-General's Office, Natalya Markasova, senior adviser of the Novosibirsk Regional Prosecutor, told Interfax news agency on July 15. "We are monitoring the media daily for signs of extremism; we are taking prosecuting measures, even instituting criminal proceedings," Markasova said. The web sites to be blocked include Kavkaz Center, Chechenpress, Daymohk, Jamaat Shariat, Imam TV, Ichkeria Info, and Free Kavkaz Info. Their items are said to contain calls for forcibly changing the foundations of Russia's constitutional order and for engaging in the terrorist activity. According to the Prosecutor's Office, there are also items on these web sites that justify humiliating national dignity and inciting racial and religious hatred.

NEW VISA RULES PROMPT MORMONS TO STOP SENDING MISSIONARIES TO RUSSIA. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormons, will no longer send North American missionaries to Russia due to new visa laws, the Associated Press (AP) reported on July 15. Missionaries who have been prepared at the training center in Provo, Utah for service in Russia have been reassigned. North American missionaries already in Russia will remain to complete their terms, which run two years for men and 18 months for women.

According to AP, last year Russia began to require foreigners on humanitarian visas, which includes missionaries, to leave the country every three months in order to renew their visas.

Former Mormon missionaries say that the restriction shows that their church is growing in Russia. "I don't think that they would have done this had they not thought that the church can really thrive without American missionaries there," said former missionary Gavin Wilde.

NEWSPAPER OF STATE-FUNDED UKRAINIAN YOUTH GROUP CALLS JEWS ‘SATANIC.’ The newspaper of a government-funded youth group referred to Jews as "Satanic," according to a report by UCSJ's Lviv monitor. The July 12 edition of the newspaper "Redaktor" produced by the "Plast" organization complained that Jews were included in a Ukrainian music festival, arguing that "the people's musical festival of Ukrainian music" turned into "a place where the enemies of the Ukrainian people committed their Satanic rites." Earlier this year, "Plast" won a grant from the office of President Viktor Yushchenko, and in 2007 it was recognized as "the best public organization in Ukraine active in the patriotic education of youth."

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL VANDALIZED IN POLTAVA, UKRAINE. Unidentified individuals vandalized a memorial to thousands of victims of the Nazis, including 3,000 Jews, in Poltava, Ukraine, according to a July 14 report by the newspaper "Versiya.” Using euphemisms, the article reported that "a Ukrainian national symbol and insulting words directed against several ethnic groups" were painted on the monument, established on the site of the mass murder of 3,000 Jews on November 23, 1941 and 5,000 other victims over the course of the Nazi occupation. Police are investigating the incident.

BELARUS TERROR ESCALATES. On July 15, the Belarusian secret police, still called KGB, arrested a Russian national, bringing to 11 the number of persons jailed as the former Soviet republic continued a search for the perpetrators of a July bomb blast, the web site Earthtimes reported. Uniformed and plain clothes police took into custody student Vladimir Berlunin, 21, in the capital Minsk, his lawyers said.

KGB interrogators are questioning Berlunin and the other 10 suspects about their possible complicity in a July 4 bombing of an outdoor concert, which injured 50, six seriously. Suspects thus far have been held without bail, allowed no contact with relatives, or presented with formal charges. All 10 of the Belarusians detained are members of anti-Lukashenko groups. Berulin is the first foreigner held.

Spokesmen from Belarus' embattled opposition have accused dictatorial President Alexander Lukashenko, who was present at the concert but uninjured by the blast, of using it as a pretext for yet another crackdown on his critics.

Berlunin's parents through attorneys asked the KGB for the student's release on bail, saying their son was anorexic and would suffer irreversible injuries to his health if detained in prison. There was no response to the request.

UP TO 15 YEARS IN PRISON AWAITS UZBEK FOR READING ‘PROHIBITED’ CHRISTIAN TEXT. A Protestant from Nukus in Karakalpakstan, Aitmurat Khayburahmanov, faces a criminal trial later this month on charges of teaching religion without official approval and establishing and participating in a "religious extremist" organization, investigator Bahadur Jakbaev told Forum 18 News Service. The latter charge carries a penalty of imprisonment between five and 15 years. Justifying the accusation of extremism, Jakbaev said that Khayburahmanov gathered people in his home to read "prohibited" Christian literature. Jakbaev said the Bible is not banned but refused to specify what the prohibited books were.

Protestants told Forum 18 Khayburahmanov's body is "covered with bruises" from beatings administered in isolation cell since his June 14 arrest.

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, THE WAR TO BE STOPPED * * * “Many suspect that Crimea could be the next target if Moscow subjugates Georgia and then shifts its sights to Ukraine,” Ronald D. Asmus, head of the Brussels-based Transatlantic Center, wrote in “The Washington Post” opinion page in a July 15 article titled “A War The West Must Stop.” “Whatever the failings of these countries, they deserve better in the 21st century. They should be free to choose their own paths and to become normal democratic societies, including joining the European Union or NATO, if they so choose. That is why we should stand up for Georgia today. Accepting Moscow's demand for a sphere of influence was wrong in 1945. It would be wrong again today.”

TWO VARIETIES OF FEAR IN RUSSIA
Former Prisoners Charge Systematic Torture; Polls Show that Most Russians Fear the Authorities

1. NPR REPORTS EXTREME ABUSE OF PRISONERS. National Public Radio (NPR) broadcast on July 13 a report on the subject of Russian prisons specializing in torture.

When NPR correspondent Gregory Feifer visited a cell in Vladimir Central prison, one of Russia's seven main prisons, built more than 200 years ago, four prisoners with shaved heads said they have no complaints about their treatment. They spoke under the guard's watchful eye, the report said.

But former inmates have charged overcrowding and raging disease, and human rights groups say that the treatment of inmates at some jails is aimed at destroying people psychologically. It's so bad, they say, that it's comparable to conditions in the Soviet gulag. For instance, Vladimir Gladkov spent 15 years behind bars. Some of that time was in Vladimir Central and some of it in a place that's much worse: one of Russia's so-called torture prisons. He said that in the Kopeisk prison in the Ural Mountains, guards systematically abuse prisoners. "They would force us from our cells, order us to spread our legs and put our hands against the wall, and then beat us with batons until we had to help drag each other back to our cells," Gladkov was quoted as saying.

Another former Kopeisk inmate, Yuri Skogarev, said that those who tried to complain to the authorities were singled out for worse punishment. "Guards would take me out, handcuff me to a shower, then beat and kick me until I lost consciousness," he said. "Later, I'd wake up back in my cell."

According to Skogarev, much of the abuse was committed by prisoners forced to beat their fellow inmates. After four prisoners were killed at the Kopeisk prison in May, the authorities accused them of attacking prison guards. Human rights groups say the battered corpses indicate the prisoners were probably beaten to death for having protested their treatment.

In a video that human rights groups say shows prison torture, people who appear to be guards wearing facemasks force cowering inmates to strip outside. Then they beat them with rubber truncheons. Inmates are said to mutilate themselves to escape such beatings, sometimes by swallowing pieces of sharp wire.

NPR quoted human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov as saying that there are dozens of torture prisons across Russia, where over the past eight years conditions have become so bad that some prisoners are driven to suicide. "They're told they're not human," Ponomaryov said. "They're punished for trying to defend their dignity. The old Soviet term for that was turning people into gulag camp dust.” Ponomaryov showed NPR a page-long letter carefully handwritten in what looked like brown ink. In fact, it is the blood of an inmate who had no pen. The writer pleaded for help, saying he fears for his life.

The authorities deny the existence of torture prisons, saying all penal institutions are regularly inspected by government officials and all complaints investigated.

According to Ponomaryov, torture prisons exist to spread fear and compliance among the general prison population. He called that style of enforcement the product of Russia's new authoritarianism. "Torture prisons are places where totalitarianism rules," he said. "That's why it's so important to stop it, because if it takes root, that kind of system will spread to other parts of society."

"God help you," NPR quoted a former inmate as saying, "if you end up in a Russian jail."

2. MOST RUSSIANS FEEL THREATENED BY THE AUTHORITIES. The overwhelming majority of Russians feel vulnerable, and they usually perceive the source of danger in the arbitrary actions of the authorities, the police, the courts, and the tax officials, wrote Olga Mefodyeva in the web site Politkom,ru posted on July 9. She cited the latest poll by the independent the Levada Center that asked the question: "Do you feel protected against possible arbitrary action on the part of authorities, the police, the GIBDD [State Inspectorate for Road Traffic Safety], tax officials, courts, and other state structures?" A substantial majority of Russians—73%--answered that they feel unprotected in case of arbitrary action on the part of the authorities. Such sentiments are also aggravated by the fact that 62% of Russians do not consider it possible to defend their interests and rights if they are infringed upon.

Mefodyeva argues that “the feeling of vulnerability and the lack of opportunities to defend one's interests do not allow a person to become a rational agent of economic, social or political life, who strives to increase his profits in order to better his position. In this case, we should not expect any active entrepreneurial actions from Russian society, since it would be foolish, at the very least, to assume additional risks without clear-cut guarantees of adherence to civil rights and freedoms on the part of the authorities.”

But, Mefodyeva continues, “this unfavorable picture has some entirely positive aspects for representatives of the Russian power elite. First of all, the feeling of being unprotected, which is often associated with fear, makes it easy to manipulate society.” Of what she calls “many examples in Russian practical experience,” she cites the law on “Opposing Extremist Activity,” dated July 27, 2006, which makes it possible to classify public criticism of the authorities as extremist activity. * * * *

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