Bigotry Monitor, Volume 1, Number 5

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Subject: Bigotry Monitor, Volume 1, Number 5

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Bigotry Monitor, Volume 1, Number 5


Volume One, Number 5
Friday, July 27, 2001
 
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
_____________________________________________________________
 
RUSSIANS THREATEN TO SHUT DOWN SALVATION ARMY, JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES�
Russian authorities are threatening the Salvation Army with closure of
its Moscow branch. Colonel Kenneth Baillie, commander in Russia of the
British-based church, told Reuters on July 25 that Russian courts are
cranking up pressure on non-traditional religions and misunderstand
the purpose of the Salvation Army's military-style ranks and uniforms
by labeling it a "paramilitary organization." In rejecting an appeal,
the Moscow city court confirmed that the Salvation Army had applied
too late to register as a religious organization and does not fit that
criterion in any event. Also facing a shut down are the Jehovah's
Witnesses, after the city court in May upheld charges accusing them of
breaking up families, infringing on individual rights and converting
minors without parental permission. Both organizations say they suffer
under a 1997 law that requires all religious groupings to submit to a
tortuous registration process which, non-traditional groups charge,
throws numerous obstacles in their way. Russia's Orthodox church
rejects criticisms of the law as discriminatory, contending that the
law is needed to stop "dangerous sects" that "flood the spiritual
vacuum" created by 70 years of Communist rule. The Salvation Army is
considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Baillie
told Reuters: "We feel like the sword is poised overhead, and our
necks are on the block."
 
..ORTHODOX MONASTERY SCORES JUDAISM AS A RELIGION OF SATAN. There is
yet another dark side to the religious revival in countries of the
former Soviet Union. Commenting in the Kiev newspaper "Den" on the
recent papal visit to Ukraine, Prof. Vladimir Voytenko mentions in
passing that Kiev's Monastery of the Caves, the holiest shrine of the
Russian Orthodox Church, recently published a brochure accusing Jews
of being devil worshipers. Voytenko cites one passage in the brochure,
which has the monastery's imprimatur: "Russian Orthodoxy is called
upon to preserve the wholeness of the Church's teachings, as opposed
to the kike religion of Satan."
 
MOSCOW VIGILANTES PLAN TO DRIVE OUT VENDORS FROM THE CAUCASUS. Viktor
Gosudarev, deputy chief of the Moscow Interior Ministry's criminal
investigation unit, said that young people have formed vigilante
groups to drive out of Moscow markets vendors who come from the
Caucasus, according to an article in "Rossiiskaya Gazeta" on July 10
cited by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Gosudarev added that the
vigilantes fall under the category of "extremist groups" and suggested
that the FSB (the former KGB) "will take care of them."
 
EXTREMISTS SUE REGISTRATION OFFICE AFTER TURNDOWN. The Latvian branch
of the neo-Nazi organization Russian National Unity (RNU) filed a
lawsuit in Riga on July 23, contending that the Latvian government's
Enterprises Register had no legal grounds to turn down its
application, according to the local Russian-language newspaper "Vesti
Segodnya." In refusing registration, the Enterprises Register
explained that the group carries the same name as "a radical extremist
organization in Russia, the activities of which are aimed against the
sovereignty of Latvia." RNU leader Yevgeny Osipov told the newspaper
that after the court starts considering the case, he will resubmit the
application again, for the third time.
 
LATVIAN OPINION LEADERS CONDEMN RACIST BOOK. Representatives of
Latvia's non-governmental organizations and higher education
institutions have asked nationalist parties to condemn the racism and
xenophobia expressed in a book of essays entitled "We Will Not Give
Latvia to Anybody" recently published in Latvian and circulated among
the country's elite. According to the Baltic News Service, the July 26
open letter was signed by the director of Latvia's Human Rights and
Ethnic Studies Center, Nils Muiznieks; the president of the European
Movement in Latvia, Ainars Dimants; the chairman of the Free Trade
Unions Association, Juris Radzevics; the director of the Latvian
Foreign Policy Institute, Atis Lejins; the chairman of the Riga Jewish
Community, Grigorijs Krupnikovs; and the chairman of Transparency
International subsidiary Delna, Inese Voika. The addressees were
leaders of the For the Fatherland and Freedom Party and the Social
Democrats - two parties whose MPs have praised the book. The letter
called the book a "provocation" by the Vieda publishing house, which
put the book together from essays written by young people who were
offered cash prizes in a contest. The Russian Foreign Ministry
protested, calling the announced themes of the contest "openly
chauvinistic" and "Russophobic," and describing the book as "full of
racist and fascist remarks which lay grounds for future ethnic
cleansing in young souls." According to a July 14 article in the
leading Russian newspaper "Chas" published in Latvia, one essay says
the following: "We are fighting so that every race and nation lives on
its own soil, and in that way we are for peace in the whole world. But
the real inciters of animosity and war are the global cosmopolitans
like the kike billionaire [George] Soros, whose goal is to mix up
together various races and peoples... People who support this deserve
the most severe punishment, including the death penalty...  We will
have faith in the bright future of the planet, in the victory of
nationalism!"
 
TURKMEN BAPTIST BACK IN PRISON. Turkmen Baptist prisoner Shageldy
Atakov has been returned to prison in Turkmenbashi (formerly
Krasnovodsk), Keston News Service learned. In May he was unexpectedly
transferred to the capital Ashgabad, where the KNB (former KGB) tried
to persuade him, his wife and his mother to agree to emigrate to the
United States. They declined. KNB chief Muhammed Nazarov was one of
those personally pressuring Atakov, who was arrested on what fellow
Baptists believe are fabricated charges meant to punish him for his
work in the Baptist church in Turkmenbashi. He has been in prison
since December 1998; his sentence runs until December next year.
 
SERBIAN PROTESTANTS PROTEST DRAFT LAW ON RELIGION. Several of Serbia's
Protestant communities have expressed concern over the draft of the
new law on religious freedom prepared by the Ministry of Religion,
Keston News Service reports. While Baptists and Pentecostals held
press conferences charging the introduction of a state religion in a
secular state, the Ministry of Religion has asked for time to work
further on the law, promising that the final draft will follow the
traditions of European democracies. "The new commissars are wearing
crosses instead of red stars," Dr. Alexander Birvis, president of the
Baptist Union of Yugoslavia, told the press conference in Novi Sad on
July 18. Birvis said that the state should not divide religious
communities into categories such as "traditional" and "others." The
controversy was sparked by the preamble which singled out the
"traditional" communities: the Serbian Orthodox, Catholic, Islamic,
Jewish, Lutheran (mostly Slovak) and Reformed (mostly Hungarian).
These communities are partners with the government in recently
announced religion classes slated to start in September. Students will
choose between religious education organized by individual faiths and
the study of democracy and ethics. "We are against religious education
in schools," Dr. Birvis told Keston, "because this should be done by
the churches for their members and their children. The state should be
separate from the churches, and not promote some and downgrade
others." Bishop Aleksandar Mitrovic of the Protestant-Evangelical
Church in Vojvodina charged that in preparing the law, the authors
failed to consult the "non-traditional" groups.
 
CZECH ROMA TO SET UP SELF-DEFENSE PATROLS. Following a recent attack
on a group of Roma (Gypsies) by right-wing youths, Roma in Ostrava,
north Moravia, are planning to organize self-defense patrols, the
Czech news agency CTK reported on July 18. But, according to the
police, the Roma have no reason to set up such patrols. A police
spokesman said: "The police can handle extremism. We clear up to 100
percent of cases." On July 20, a 22-year-old skinhead stabbed to death
a Roma in a disco in Svitany in northern Moravia. According to Czech
television, the skinhead was charged with racially-motivated murder.
The same program quoted local Roma leader Vaclav Miko, who predicted
that Roma will flee the country en masse and will not be stopped by
countermeasures authorized by the Czech government, such as the
pre-clearance checks of London-bound passengers, carried out by
British immigration officials at the Prague airport.
 
LEADING FRENCH PAPER CALLS FOR FRIENDLIER REFUGEE POLICY. France gives
short shrift to the right of asylum, declared the National
Consultative Committee on Human Rights (CNCDH), a group attached to
the prime minister's office. On the fiftieth anniversary of the
adoption of the Geneva Convention, which established the international
norms of refugee status, CNCDH published a report sharply criticizing
France's policy on accepting asylum seekers and calling for a
"comprehensive overhaul" of a long list of practices, such as the
state's failure to interview the majority of asylum seekers, a lazy
approach by appeal judges and a shortage of refugee reception
facilities. In an editorial on July 11, "Le Monde" praised the
report's suggestions as "bold." The left-of-center daily wrote that
"by allocating a mere 25 cents per head of population to the
international protection of refugees and by nurturing suspicion of
asylum seekers at home, France does no honor to a cause which it
claims to champion."
 
* * *  QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * *
"If Russia becomes a full-blown democracy in the next 10 years, then
the prospects for conflict between the U.S. and Russia, be it over the
Latvian border or the balance of nuclear weapons, will be reduced
dramatically," writes Michael McFaul of the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace in the Christian Science Monitor of July 26. "A
democratic Russia moving toward entry into the European Union and even
NATO will also make possible the unification of Europe and the final
disappearance of East-West walls (be it through visa regimes or
military alliances) that still divide Europe."
 
UCSJ BOOSTS MONITORING NETWORK IN RUSSIA
report from Moscow
by Nickolai Butkevich, UCSJ's Research and Advocacy Director.
 
UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union is
significantly boosting its antisemitism monitoring network in Russia
by enlisting new monitors in 45 regions across the country. At a
training seminar in Moscow on July 12-13, UCSJ leaders heard several
hours of reports on antisemitism in each of the monitors' home
regions. While some reported improvements, others noted that serious
threats to Jewish safety persist in the Russian provinces, including
active extremist groups, attacks on Jewish sites and widespread
distribution of illegal literature inciting violence against Jews.
 
Reactions from local authorities to such antisemitic activity are
decidedly mixed, ranging from positive gestures toward the local
Jewish community and condemnation of antisemitism in some regions, to
indifference and even collaboration with hate groups in others. In
Bryansk, for example, police mount joint patrols with the neo-Nazi
group Russian National Unity, the regional authorities openly blame
Jews for the country's economic crisis, Jews have been fired in some
local enterprises by antisemitic bosses, and the local Jewish school
and Jewish gravestones are regularly vandalized. In Ryazan, skinheads
responsible for an attack on a Jewish school last year have still not
been arrested, even though press reports suggest that the police know
who did it, but simply don't care. Even in regions where the situation
is better and local officials are somewhat responsive to the anxieties
of the Jewish community, problems persist. For example, in
Yekaterinburg, skinhead groups are becoming more active, and the local
Russian Orthodox hierarchy is spreading antisemitic literature. UCSJ's
monitor in Yekaterinburg characterized the Jewish situation as
"relatively stable," but expressed fears that this stability may only
be temporary and that in Russia, the situation can change overnight.
 
Oleg Mironov, the Russian Federation's Ombudsman for Human Rights,
briefed the UCSJ meeting on his activities, which he said were
expanding. But, he added, the Kremlin still does not pay sufficient
attention to human rights. "Antisemitism is no longer a government
policy," he said, "but antisemitism is unfortunately still here."
Surprising some of the activists in the audience, he warmly praised
the work of UCSJ and the Moscow Helsinki Group, whose chairwoman
Ludmila Alekseeva called xenophobia "a serious human rights issue in
Russia."
 
Later in the week, Leonid Stonov, director of UCSJ's international
bureaus, gave a copy of the new Russian translation of a UCSJ report
on antisemitism in 72 Russian provinces to Vice Premier Valentina
Matvienko, calling it "a roadmap" for President Vladimir Putin to
follow through on his promises to combat antisemitism. Matvienko said
she would take the report for Putin to read. She acknowledged the
accuracy of the antisemitic incidents reported by UCSJ and added that
Putin and the government have resolutely condemned antisemitism. She
assured UCSJ that a bill intended to make it easier for the government
to crack down on manifestations of political extremism would be
adopted soon by the State Duma, which has resisted passing the law for
many years. Just as importantly, she acknowledged the need to amend
the 1997 law on religion, which human rights groups have blasted as a
partial return to Soviet era controls over freedom of conscience.
 
UCSJ announced that it is exploring with its Russian human rights
partners the possibility of dropping its longstanding objection to
"graduating" Russia from the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which ties
normal trade relations between Russia and the U.S. to freedom of
emigration, in exchange for yet-to-be-determined positive action by
the Russian government on the problems of antisemitism and human
rights.  A menu of appropriate actions on the part of the Russian
Federation is currently being debated within UCSJ, which was the
amendment's earliest supporter among Jewish activist groups.
 
In contrast to the indifferent and even hostile reception the original
English language version of the UCSJ report received in the Russian
press at the time it was published in January, the press coverage of
the Russian language version was both extensive and positive. This
difference perhaps signals growing awareness in the country of the
problems of political extremism, especially among youth, and
discrimination against Jews and other groups.
 
****
_____________________________________________________________
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