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Prosecutor: Slayings Of Foreigners Solved
By Galina Stolyarova, STAFF WRITER
The St Petersburg Times
#1057, Friday, April 1, 2005
NEWS
City Prosecutor Sergei Zaitsev on Wednesday announced that the
murders of two foreigners last year have been solved, and has stated
unequivocally that the motive was racial hatred.
He said the suspects in the killing of Khursheda Sultanova, nine,
who was stabbed to death on Feb. 9, and those who murdered Vietnamese
student Vu An Tuan on Oct. 13 have been charged. Both murders produced
reactions of horror, fear and condemnation from city leaders and
the public.
"Seven of Khursheda's attackers have been charged with hooliganism,
and one - with the racially motivated murder of a helpless person,"
Zaitsev said. "The guy who is charged with the murder was 14 years
old when the crime was committed."
Fourteen youths face charges over the slaying of Tuan near a student
hostel on Vasilyevsky Island.
The prosecutor refused to give any names.
The investigation revealed that the defendants, who were aged between
14 and 21, had committed other crimes against foreigners and Russian
nationals, Zaitsev said.
"Five new criminal cases have already been opened," the prosecutor
added.
Hooliganism is the usual charge against those who attack foreign
citizens in St. Petersburg, with law enforcement agencies apparently
reluctant to level more serious charges when racist motives are
alleged.
The city prosecutor's office has been criticized by human rights
advocates for ignoring such motives when witnesses report that
attackers have chanted phrases such as "Russia for the Russians."
Zaitsev acknowledged that the city has problems with extremist groups,
but said it should not be exaggerated.
"In many cases, crimes against foreigners and citizens of former
Soviet states have common, domestic, rather than racial or nationalist
motives," the prosecutor said.
Governor Valentina Matviyenko made an enthusiastic statement Wednesday,
saying that "all ethnically motivated crimes in the city have been
solved."
"Our city, which is known to the country and to the world for its
intelligentsia and tolerance, has several times been shocked by
horrible murders on racial grounds," Matviyenko said in her annual
televised speech. "We are not going to tolerate the escapades of
extremists. [...] I firmly say that we will confront all manifestations
of xenophobia, anti-Semitism and discrimination."
But some experts say it is much too early to trumpet
successes. Matviyenko's statement sounds overblown to human rights
advocates, who note that the murder of Nikolai Girenko, the country's
leading expert on ethnic crimes, who was gunned down on the doorway
of his apartment on June 19, 2004, hasn't been solved.
Vladimir Lukin, the federal ombudsman for human rights who released his
2004 report on Thursday, expressed concern about growing nationalism
and chauvinism in the country.
On Wednesday, Zaitsev also announced the start of a new investigation
against an extremist group.
Eight people have been detained in connection with the activities
of Mad Crowd, a group of young nationalists who have been attacking
natives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, China and Korea.
The group's organizer has gone missing, Zaitsev said.
Earlier this week web site Fontanka.ru reported that 15 Arab students
were planning to drop out of their universities in St. Petersburg
and leave the city in protest over the regular attacks on them.
The publication quoted Gannam Mohamad, head of the Union of Arab
students, as saying that "the situation has gotten to the point when
the students can only guess whether they will make it to the hostel
each night."
But on Thursday, Fontanka said Mohamad denied the earlier statement.
"There is no mass exodus of Arab students from the city, and there
won't be," he was quoted as saying in a letter to Alexander Viktorov,
head of the city committee for Science and Higher Education.
"The problem is currently in the process of being resolved positively,"
Mohamad added.
By Galina Stolyarova, STAFF WRITER
The St Petersburg Times
#1057, Friday, April 1, 2005
NEWS
City Prosecutor Sergei Zaitsev on Wednesday announced that the
murders of two foreigners last year have been solved, and has stated
unequivocally that the motive was racial hatred.
He said the suspects in the killing of Khursheda Sultanova, nine,
who was stabbed to death on Feb. 9, and those who murdered Vietnamese
student Vu An Tuan on Oct. 13 have been charged. Both murders produced
reactions of horror, fear and condemnation from city leaders and
the public.
"Seven of Khursheda's attackers have been charged with hooliganism,
and one - with the racially motivated murder of a helpless person,"
Zaitsev said. "The guy who is charged with the murder was 14 years
old when the crime was committed."
Fourteen youths face charges over the slaying of Tuan near a student
hostel on Vasilyevsky Island.
The prosecutor refused to give any names.
The investigation revealed that the defendants, who were aged between
14 and 21, had committed other crimes against foreigners and Russian
nationals, Zaitsev said.
"Five new criminal cases have already been opened," the prosecutor
added.
Hooliganism is the usual charge against those who attack foreign
citizens in St. Petersburg, with law enforcement agencies apparently
reluctant to level more serious charges when racist motives are
alleged.
The city prosecutor's office has been criticized by human rights
advocates for ignoring such motives when witnesses report that
attackers have chanted phrases such as "Russia for the Russians."
Zaitsev acknowledged that the city has problems with extremist groups,
but said it should not be exaggerated.
"In many cases, crimes against foreigners and citizens of former
Soviet states have common, domestic, rather than racial or nationalist
motives," the prosecutor said.
Governor Valentina Matviyenko made an enthusiastic statement Wednesday,
saying that "all ethnically motivated crimes in the city have been
solved."
"Our city, which is known to the country and to the world for its
intelligentsia and tolerance, has several times been shocked by
horrible murders on racial grounds," Matviyenko said in her annual
televised speech. "We are not going to tolerate the escapades of
extremists. [...] I firmly say that we will confront all manifestations
of xenophobia, anti-Semitism and discrimination."
But some experts say it is much too early to trumpet
successes. Matviyenko's statement sounds overblown to human rights
advocates, who note that the murder of Nikolai Girenko, the country's
leading expert on ethnic crimes, who was gunned down on the doorway
of his apartment on June 19, 2004, hasn't been solved.
Vladimir Lukin, the federal ombudsman for human rights who released his
2004 report on Thursday, expressed concern about growing nationalism
and chauvinism in the country.
On Wednesday, Zaitsev also announced the start of a new investigation
against an extremist group.
Eight people have been detained in connection with the activities
of Mad Crowd, a group of young nationalists who have been attacking
natives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, China and Korea.
The group's organizer has gone missing, Zaitsev said.
Earlier this week web site Fontanka.ru reported that 15 Arab students
were planning to drop out of their universities in St. Petersburg
and leave the city in protest over the regular attacks on them.
The publication quoted Gannam Mohamad, head of the Union of Arab
students, as saying that "the situation has gotten to the point when
the students can only guess whether they will make it to the hostel
each night."
But on Thursday, Fontanka said Mohamad denied the earlier statement.
"There is no mass exodus of Arab students from the city, and there
won't be," he was quoted as saying in a letter to Alexander Viktorov,
head of the city committee for Science and Higher Education.
"The problem is currently in the process of being resolved positively,"
Mohamad added.