MINELRES: Bigotry Monitor: Volume 4, Number 27 (content)

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Volume 4, Number 27
Friday, July 30, 2004

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
___________________________________________________________ 

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FEARS FOR HR DEFENDER'S LIFE. Human rights
defender Dmitry Krayukhin has received numerous death threats in recent
months on account of his participation in the trial of a neo-Nazi
organization in Orel, western Russia. In a statement just released,
Amnesty International expressed fears that he is in serious and imminent
danger.

RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT TO DECIDE WHICH DONOR IS ACCEPTABLE. "The tame Duma
will probably pass the amendments" permitting the state to decide which
charity donors are acceptable, "Vedomosti," a financial newspaper
published in cooperation with "The Wall Street Journal," reported on
July 23 in an article subtitled "Charity Donors and NGOs Are Shocked."

FIRE DESTROYS IRKUTSK SYNAGOGUE. On the night of July 26-27, fire
destroyed a synagogue built in 1879 in the Siberian city of Irkutsk,
according to an item by Vesti-Irkutsk news agency also cited by RTR TV
in Moscow. 

JEHOVAH'S WITNESS CONGRESS DISRUPTED. On July 24, on the second day of
their annual Urals regional congress, more than 5,000 Jehovah's
Witnesses were forced to abandon the Yekaterinburg city stadium they had
rented, Forum 18 News Service reported. 

NATO, U.N. FAIL TO PROTECT KOSOVO MINORITIES. The NATO-led Kosovo Force
and U.N. international police "failed catastrophically to protect
minorities during the widespread rioting in Kosovo in March," according
to a 66-page report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released on July 27.

SERB EXTREMISTS TARGET MINORITIES IN VOJVODINA. Assaults on non-Serbs,
threats against ethnic Hungarian leaders, desecration of cemeteries,
vandalism, and the proliferation of racist, xenophobic, and antisemitic
graffiti is becoming "a near-daily occurrence" in Serbia's province of
Vojvodina, according to the New York-based Hungarian Human Rights
Foundation (HHRF). 

SWEDEN CUTS ASYLUM GRANTS. The number of refugees granted political
asylum in Sweden has dropped significantly over the past five years,
from 23% of all applicants in 2000 to only 10% in the first half of
2004, according to official statistics published on July 24 in the
Stockholm daily "Dagens Nyheter." 

ITALY WARNED ABOUT MIGRANT INFLUX OF 'EPIC PROPORTIONS.' In three days
starting on July 24, more than 400 illegal African immigrants reached
Italy, arriving in three boats on the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa,
the Italian news agency ANSA reported. 

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, THANKS FROM A REBEL * * * "I express thanks to
leaders of Ingushetia for keeping the munitions in such good quality,"
said Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev on a video, posted on a
pro-rebel web site on July 26, that showed him along with masked men
looting the arsenal of a police building in Ingushetia. 

ROMA MAKE MODEST GAINS
No longer repressed as a memory too painful to recall, the Nazi
massacres of the Roma are now publicly remembered once a year. At the
same time, taking cases of discrimination to the courts - once a
forbiddingly hostile place for the Roma - is becoming a well-traveled
path, and positive precedents are on the increase. 

1. MASS MURDER OF ROMA AT AUSCHWITZ SIXTY YEARS AGO MARKED. 
 
2.  EUROPEAN COURT FINDS HUNGARY VIOLATED HR CONVENTION. 

3. SOFIA COURT AWARDS ROMANI WOMAN. 

* * * *
_____________________________________________________________
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