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Moscow Times, Russia
Oct 18 2004
3 Killed in 2 Days as Racist Attacks Grow
By Nabi Abdullaev
Staff Writer Attacks on dark-skinned people have soared after the
terrorist strikes in August and September, with three people killed
in the last week alone in assaults that appear to be racially
motivated.
The attackers, usually members of radical groups of young men, seem
to be exploiting a surge of xenophobic sentiment among the general
public -- a natural reaction for a population that feels defenseless
in the face of terrorism, observers said.
Four men beat and stabbed two Uzbek citizens in the town of
Dolgoprudny outside Moscow on Thursday. Ihtier Sanoyev, 39, died of
his injuries in a hospital, while the other victim, Shaborjon
Mirsoliyev, refused to be hospitalized even though he had suffered
numerous cuts to his head and chest, Interfax reported Friday, citing
Moscow regional prosecutors.
In the Siberian city of Chita, two intoxicated teenagers killed a
Chinese citizen on Thursday, Interfax reported.
And on Wednesday night, a mob of up to 18 young men attacked Vu An
Tuan, a 20-year-old Vietnamese student at St. Petersburg Politechnic
University, as he walked to the metro after a birthday party.
When he ran away, they chased him down and stabbed him to death.
The number of the nonfatal attacks is also on the rise after the
Sept. 1-3 Beslan school hostage-taking, but only the most shocking of
them have made national headlines.
Within days after the Beslan attack, a group of young men attacked
three Armenian and Azeri cafes in Yekaterinburg, killing one person
and injuring two.
Former cosmonaut Magomed Tolboyev, a native of Dagestan, was
assaulted by Moscow police during a document check.
An Armenian, an Azeri and a Tajik were beaten and stabbed in the
Moscow metro by dozens of skinheads.
Attacks against dark-skinned people also spiked after Moscow's
Dubrovka hostage crisis in 2002, but no killings were reported.
Two major factors are contributing to the recent racial violence: a
growth in the number of skinheads and other nationalist-minded young
people and a widespread sense of helplessness in society after the
Beslan tragedy, which left 344 hostages dead, half of them children,
said Alexander Tarasov, a sociologist from the Moscow-based Feniks
think tank.
"In the past year alone, reports about skinheads have begun to come
in from many new Russian towns," Tarasov said. "And given their
aggressive subculture, the probability of them becoming violent will
grow accordingly."
President Vladimir Putin may have helped provoke the problem by
stressing several times in public addresses after Beslan that unnamed
enemies have encircled and infiltrated the country. His remarks
ostensibly were an attempt to mobilize the nation.
But massaging the notion of an omnipresent enemy adds to xenophobia
and causes people to look with suspicion on anyone who differs from
them, Tarasov said.
In such an atmosphere, extremist elements among nationalist youth
begin to feel that the public and police will be more likely to look
the other way, said Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think
tank.
Indeed, police and prosecutors involved in all of the recent cases
have reportedly refused to call the attacks racially motivated.
Pribylovsky said he has the impression that police officers
themselves are just as guilty as youth groups -- if not more -- in
carrying out racially motivated attacks.
"But, of course, there are no statistics available," he said.
In a recent example of possible police abuse, an Afghan student,
Abdula Hamid, was found dead after suffering severe brain injuries in
St. Petersburg on Oct. 2, Kommersant reported Friday.
The leader of the city's Afghan diaspora, Abdul Halim Abasi, told the
newspaper that Hamid had been detained by the police just hours
before his body was found.
Oct 18 2004
3 Killed in 2 Days as Racist Attacks Grow
By Nabi Abdullaev
Staff Writer Attacks on dark-skinned people have soared after the
terrorist strikes in August and September, with three people killed
in the last week alone in assaults that appear to be racially
motivated.
The attackers, usually members of radical groups of young men, seem
to be exploiting a surge of xenophobic sentiment among the general
public -- a natural reaction for a population that feels defenseless
in the face of terrorism, observers said.
Four men beat and stabbed two Uzbek citizens in the town of
Dolgoprudny outside Moscow on Thursday. Ihtier Sanoyev, 39, died of
his injuries in a hospital, while the other victim, Shaborjon
Mirsoliyev, refused to be hospitalized even though he had suffered
numerous cuts to his head and chest, Interfax reported Friday, citing
Moscow regional prosecutors.
In the Siberian city of Chita, two intoxicated teenagers killed a
Chinese citizen on Thursday, Interfax reported.
And on Wednesday night, a mob of up to 18 young men attacked Vu An
Tuan, a 20-year-old Vietnamese student at St. Petersburg Politechnic
University, as he walked to the metro after a birthday party.
When he ran away, they chased him down and stabbed him to death.
The number of the nonfatal attacks is also on the rise after the
Sept. 1-3 Beslan school hostage-taking, but only the most shocking of
them have made national headlines.
Within days after the Beslan attack, a group of young men attacked
three Armenian and Azeri cafes in Yekaterinburg, killing one person
and injuring two.
Former cosmonaut Magomed Tolboyev, a native of Dagestan, was
assaulted by Moscow police during a document check.
An Armenian, an Azeri and a Tajik were beaten and stabbed in the
Moscow metro by dozens of skinheads.
Attacks against dark-skinned people also spiked after Moscow's
Dubrovka hostage crisis in 2002, but no killings were reported.
Two major factors are contributing to the recent racial violence: a
growth in the number of skinheads and other nationalist-minded young
people and a widespread sense of helplessness in society after the
Beslan tragedy, which left 344 hostages dead, half of them children,
said Alexander Tarasov, a sociologist from the Moscow-based Feniks
think tank.
"In the past year alone, reports about skinheads have begun to come
in from many new Russian towns," Tarasov said. "And given their
aggressive subculture, the probability of them becoming violent will
grow accordingly."
President Vladimir Putin may have helped provoke the problem by
stressing several times in public addresses after Beslan that unnamed
enemies have encircled and infiltrated the country. His remarks
ostensibly were an attempt to mobilize the nation.
But massaging the notion of an omnipresent enemy adds to xenophobia
and causes people to look with suspicion on anyone who differs from
them, Tarasov said.
In such an atmosphere, extremist elements among nationalist youth
begin to feel that the public and police will be more likely to look
the other way, said Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think
tank.
Indeed, police and prosecutors involved in all of the recent cases
have reportedly refused to call the attacks racially motivated.
Pribylovsky said he has the impression that police officers
themselves are just as guilty as youth groups -- if not more -- in
carrying out racially motivated attacks.
"But, of course, there are no statistics available," he said.
In a recent example of possible police abuse, an Afghan student,
Abdula Hamid, was found dead after suffering severe brain injuries in
St. Petersburg on Oct. 2, Kommersant reported Friday.
The leader of the city's Afghan diaspora, Abdul Halim Abasi, told the
newspaper that Hamid had been detained by the police just hours
before his body was found.