MINORITY COMMUNITY LEADERS EXPRESS DESPAIR, ANGER AS RACIST MURDERS RISE

Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union
March 12 2008
DC

A meeting in Moscow at the end of last month between local police
officials and minority community leaders broke down in acrimony,
with several community leaders criticizing government policies
towards extremist groups, according to a March 3, 2008 article in the
independent national daily "Novaya Gazeta." There have already been
27 murders motivated by ethnic hatred in Russia since the beginning of
the year, a pace that, if maintained, would result in a doubling of the
2007 numbers. As Moscow’s police chief, who recently stated that there
are no organized neo-Nazi groups in his city, gave what the newspaper
described as a standard speech promising action, he was interrupted
by an Azeri diaspora leader who shouted, "Last year we sent 50 coffins
back to the our motherland! How many more can we expect this year?!"

Evgeny Kryshtalev, a member of the Union of All-Russia Azerbaijani
Congress, was quoted in the article saying that: "Ever day in Moscow
there is another attack. Every month, more and more deaths… We
cannot remain silent about this any more." He complained that Moscow
police were refusing to investigate an attack that neo-Nazis from
the Moscow region committed within city limits, claiming that it
is up to the Moscow region’s police to do that. "What, do they live
in another country?!" he asked. He added that Moscow’s police chief
stated that every year migrants commit 14,000 crimes in Moscow, but
what the officer didn’t say is that the vast majority of these crimes
are non-violent immigration offenses, hardly comparable to the wave
of violent crimes that migrants face.

Gegam Khalatyan, an Armenian diaspora leader, added that the number
of attacks on Armenians, whose homeland is a reliable ally of Russia,
could drive Armenia into the arms of NATO. "A day doesn’t go by in
Moscow without an attack on an Armenian," he said. "Armenians and
Russians have always been friends, but nowadays it is a kind of
one-sided friendship. Why do we need to put up with this, how much
longer can we tolerate the inaction of the authorities?… Russia
does not value its friends."

Abdulla Dovlatov, head of the Tajik diaspora, told a story that
had nothing to do with neo-Nazis in order to demonstrate the extent
to which xenophobia has penetrated Russian society. A week before,
police in Tver allegedly beat up two Tajik construction workers. They
stabbed them and then threw them out into the snow. The men hid in the
forest and somehow found their way to Moscow, where a doctor allegedly
refused medical treatment, saying: "We are sick of you and you dare
to want a medical report in order to bring charges against our people?"

"The police refuse to record hate crimes against foreigners… So
officially, nobody is being harmed and there is no xenophobia in
Russia," he added.

Alidzhan Khaydarov, president of Uzbek diaspora in St. Petersburg,
offered a dissenting view, claiming that nobody from his community
complains of racist attacks, despite reports of anti-Uzbek violence
to the contrary.