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Volume 5, Number 22
Friday, June 3, 2005
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
__________________________________________________ _________
SKINHEADS KILL DAGESTANI COUPLE, ATTACK ARMENIAN. Skinheads in
Astrakhan, Russia are stepping up their violent activities, according to
the Committee for Cooperative Defense of Human Rights, a participating
NGO in a European Commission sponsored project to monitor xenophobia in
Russia. (UCSJ, the Moscow Helsinki Group, and the Moscow Bureau on Human
Rights are the main grantees of the project.) According to the
committee, in early May, a group of neo-Nazis burst into the apartment
of a young Dagestani couple and stabbed them to death. The couple's
two-year-old child had just stepped out onto the balcony and the
skinheads did not notice him. He stayed in the apartment with his dead
parents for two days before a neighbor heard him cry and called the
police.
In a separate incident, skinheads attacked an ethnic Armenian high
school student on the street on May 10. Passersby alerted his family,
but when his relatives tried to stop the beating, the skinheads beat
them too. As a result of the violence, the student received enough head
trauma that he does not remember the attack, and his father was put in
the emergency room. Police arrived too late to make arrests.
Police have started investigations into both attacks. No hate crimes
charges have been filed.
The Committee for Cooperative Defense of Human Rights also reported that
the court case of a racist and abusive teacher is continuing. After
parents of Caucasus origins complained that the teacher beat their
children, tied them up, and gagged them in class, police investigated,
but prosecutors refused to bring criminal charges against the teacher,
who is now back on the job. However, thanks to the committee's efforts,
a court ordered in May that a criminal case be opened. The teacher
allegedly remains confident that she will not be punished and continues
to voice her hatred of non-Russians.
MOSCOW SKINHEADS SENTENCED FOR MURDER. A Moscow court sentenced one
skinhead to six and a half years in prison and another to nine and a
half years for the murder of an Azeri and a non-fatal stabbing of an
Armenian, according to "Moskovsky Komsomolets" of May 25.
On December 18, 2003 the neo-Nazis, then aged 15, accompanied a group of
friends on a suburban Moscow train. Spotting an Armenian, the group
surrounded him and beat him in front of dozens of witnesses. One of the
defendants stabbed him in the back as he attempted to flee. Before they
could kill him, the threats of passengers to call the police scared off
the attackers. Two days later, the same skinheads murdered an Azeri,
stabbing him multiple times on Podemnaya Street, near a dormitory where
many migrants live.
SKINHEADS ARRESTED FOR STABBING AZERI. In an incident on March 27 this
year, two skinheads were arrested in the Moscow region in connection
with the stabbing and beating of an Azeri man on a suburban train,
according to "Moskovsky Komsomolets" of May 18. The crime took place
when ten skinheads taking the Serpukhov-Podolsk train spotted the Azeri
sitting alone. After splitting into two teams to ensure that other
passengers would not interfere, the skinheads attacked, yelling "Russia
for Russians!" One neo-Nazi stabbed the Azeri man several times, then
handed the knife to another, who also stabbed the victim. They then
broke a window and tried to throw the Azeri out of the train. But the
Azeri continued to resist long enough for the skinheads to be spooked by
threats by passengers to call the police.
__________________________________________________ ___________
Copyright (c) 2005. UCSJ. All rights reserved.
Bigotry Monitor welcomes use of its contents without prior approval on
the condition that full attribution is given to "Bigotry Monitor --
UCSJ's weekly newsletter". We would also like to see a copy of the
publication.
Send letters to the editor to: [email protected]
All issues available at http://www.fsumonitor.com
Friday, June 3, 2005
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
__________________________________________________ _________
SKINHEADS KILL DAGESTANI COUPLE, ATTACK ARMENIAN. Skinheads in
Astrakhan, Russia are stepping up their violent activities, according to
the Committee for Cooperative Defense of Human Rights, a participating
NGO in a European Commission sponsored project to monitor xenophobia in
Russia. (UCSJ, the Moscow Helsinki Group, and the Moscow Bureau on Human
Rights are the main grantees of the project.) According to the
committee, in early May, a group of neo-Nazis burst into the apartment
of a young Dagestani couple and stabbed them to death. The couple's
two-year-old child had just stepped out onto the balcony and the
skinheads did not notice him. He stayed in the apartment with his dead
parents for two days before a neighbor heard him cry and called the
police.
In a separate incident, skinheads attacked an ethnic Armenian high
school student on the street on May 10. Passersby alerted his family,
but when his relatives tried to stop the beating, the skinheads beat
them too. As a result of the violence, the student received enough head
trauma that he does not remember the attack, and his father was put in
the emergency room. Police arrived too late to make arrests.
Police have started investigations into both attacks. No hate crimes
charges have been filed.
The Committee for Cooperative Defense of Human Rights also reported that
the court case of a racist and abusive teacher is continuing. After
parents of Caucasus origins complained that the teacher beat their
children, tied them up, and gagged them in class, police investigated,
but prosecutors refused to bring criminal charges against the teacher,
who is now back on the job. However, thanks to the committee's efforts,
a court ordered in May that a criminal case be opened. The teacher
allegedly remains confident that she will not be punished and continues
to voice her hatred of non-Russians.
MOSCOW SKINHEADS SENTENCED FOR MURDER. A Moscow court sentenced one
skinhead to six and a half years in prison and another to nine and a
half years for the murder of an Azeri and a non-fatal stabbing of an
Armenian, according to "Moskovsky Komsomolets" of May 25.
On December 18, 2003 the neo-Nazis, then aged 15, accompanied a group of
friends on a suburban Moscow train. Spotting an Armenian, the group
surrounded him and beat him in front of dozens of witnesses. One of the
defendants stabbed him in the back as he attempted to flee. Before they
could kill him, the threats of passengers to call the police scared off
the attackers. Two days later, the same skinheads murdered an Azeri,
stabbing him multiple times on Podemnaya Street, near a dormitory where
many migrants live.
SKINHEADS ARRESTED FOR STABBING AZERI. In an incident on March 27 this
year, two skinheads were arrested in the Moscow region in connection
with the stabbing and beating of an Azeri man on a suburban train,
according to "Moskovsky Komsomolets" of May 18. The crime took place
when ten skinheads taking the Serpukhov-Podolsk train spotted the Azeri
sitting alone. After splitting into two teams to ensure that other
passengers would not interfere, the skinheads attacked, yelling "Russia
for Russians!" One neo-Nazi stabbed the Azeri man several times, then
handed the knife to another, who also stabbed the victim. They then
broke a window and tried to throw the Azeri out of the train. But the
Azeri continued to resist long enough for the skinheads to be spooked by
threats by passengers to call the police.
__________________________________________________ ___________
Copyright (c) 2005. UCSJ. All rights reserved.
Bigotry Monitor welcomes use of its contents without prior approval on
the condition that full attribution is given to "Bigotry Monitor --
UCSJ's weekly newsletter". We would also like to see a copy of the
publication.
Send letters to the editor to: [email protected]
All issues available at http://www.fsumonitor.com