MINELRES: Bigotry Monitor: Volume 4, Number 29 (summary)

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Original sender: UCSJ <ucsj@ucsj.com> 


Volume 4, Number 29
Friday, August 13, 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
___________________________________________________________ 

RUSSIAN SENATOR CHARGES �ZIONISTS� WITH GENOCIDE IN RUSSIA. A Russian
senator Nikolai Kondratenko � the former governor of Krasnodar Krayand
prominent Communist leader known for his strident antisemitism was
invited to a recent conference in Beirut, and he used the opportunity to
accuse �Zionists� of committing �genocide� against Russia and to call
for Russians and Muslims to unite against a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. 
   
MOSCOW COURT SENDS SEVEN SKINHEADS TO JAIL. On August 4, a Moscow court
sentenced seven members of a skinhead gang to jail terms ranging from
four to 18 years for acts of violence that took place in June last year,
the Moscow Prosecutor's Office told Agence France-Presse. atment. 

NEO-NAZIS BEHIND MURDER OF JUDGE? The violent neo-Nazi group Russian
National Unity (RNU) may be behind the August 9 murder of a Moscow
region judge, according to "Izvestiya" and "Kommersant" of August 10.

UKRAINIAN MP FACES CRIMINAL CHARGES OVER ANTISEMITIC SPEECH.. The
Prosecutor's Office of the Ivano-Frankivsk region has launched a
criminal case against a member of the Ukrainian parliament Oleh
Tyahnybok (also spelled as Tyagnybok) for insulting national dignity,
Interfax-Ukraine reported on August 4. 

UZBEK POLICE KNEW SEARCH RESULTS BEFORE THEIR SEARCH. In the latest
series of trials of Uzbek Muslims, apparently simply because they are
devout religious believers, ten men have been sentenced to jail terms of
between 10 and 12 years, local human rights activist Akhmajon Madmarov
told Forum 18 News Service on August 7. 

WHY REGISTER CONGREGATIONS WHEN PERSECUTION GOES ON? Regardless of state
registration under the much-trumpeted "liberalization" of Turkmenistan�s
religion law, secret police raids and threats against a Baptist
congregation have not stopped, Forum 18 News Service has learned. 

CEMETERY DESECRATIONS IN FRANCE, THE CZECH REPUBLIC. In the latest in a
series of attacks on Jewish, Muslim, and Christian cemeteries in
France�s northeast, unidentified vandals painted swastikas on 15 Muslim
graves in a military cemetery in Strasbourg, Reuters reported on August
6. 

ITALY ARRESTS TWO SMUGGLERS OF MIGRANTS. On August 9 Italian police
arrested two crew members of a ship smuggling illegal African migrants
after 28 of those aboard died of cold and dehydration while trying to
reach Italy, Reuters reported. 

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, A GRIM REMINDER * * * On August 9, the
Committee to Protect Journalists sent a telegram to Russian President
Vladimir Putin that said: �The July 9 slaying of �Forbes� Russia Editor
Paul Klebnikov in the capital, Moscow, is a grim reminder of the
years-long pattern of deadly, unchecked violence against journalists in
Russia that is damaging your nation's international reputation and
depriving your citizens of the independent reporting essential to
democracy. Eleven journalists have been murdered in contract-style
killings during your tenure -- and four others have died as a result of
other violent, work-related circumstances -- yet no one has been brought
to justice for these killings.�

CRIME AND PREVENTION
U.N. Sets Guidelines to Curb Lawlessness Targeting Non-Citizens

1. MOSCOW POLICEMAN SHOOTS TAJIK. The murder of migrants has become
commonplace in Russia. �In the Moscow metro, a policeman walked up to a
Tajik man who had no ticket and asked if he was looking to get himself
shot,� wrote the respected Russian commentator Yulia Latynina in �The
Moscow Times� of August 11. �Before the man could answer, the policeman
shot him in the mouth. 

2. AFRICAN STUDENT IN VLADIMIR VICTIMIZED. A Cameroonian student in the
city of Vladimir is being victimized by corrupt university officials and
was recently beaten by racist thugs, according to Natalya Novozhilova, a
Vladimir-based participating monitor in a European Commission-funded
project to monitor xenophobia in Russia (UCSJ, the Moscow Helsinki
Group, and UCSJ's independent affiliate, the Moscow Bureau on Human
Rights, are all grantees under this EC project).

3. U.N.DEFINES NEW RIGHTS FOR NON-CITIZENS. The international community
is seeking to remedy the plight of non-citizens around the world. One
recent example is a set of new guidelines, adopted on August 9 by the
U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). * * *
*
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