Confessions of a Misguided Trio

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Dark-skinned foreigners in Russia blighted
By HENRY MEYERASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


MOSCOW -- As a black man in Russia, Gabriel Anicet Kotchofa knows life means always being home by 9 p.m., never using public transit and hearing abusive remarks when he goes out in public with his white wife.
"Sometimes I even go to the shop with my wife and we go separately, so nobody knows that we are together," the native of Benin says.
Still, his experience has been milder than that of many blacks, Asians and dark-skinned Caucasians in Russia - he hasn't been killed, maimed or even attacked.
"I'm a very lucky person. I have never been aggressed, because I know where to go, when to go and how to behave myself," said Kotchofa, an academic.
Race-based attacks are rising sharply in Russia, a reflection of the xenophobia that was under the surface in Soviet times. In 2005 alone, 31 murders and 382 assaults were race-connected, according to the Moscow-based Sova human rights center.
Already this year, 14 people have been killed in racial attacks.
The attacks hit especially hard at natives of Third World countries who have come to Russia to study, because of the country's comparatively low tuition costs or because they are blocked from studying in the West by stringent visa regimes.
A few months after arriving from Gabon in 1999 for studies at People's Friendship University in Moscow, Juldas Okie Etoumbia was shocked by the beating death of a Guinean student in their dormitory. The victim had refused to open the door for a cleaning lady in the early hours of the morning and she returned with several men who bludgeoned him with a hammer.
Although he said he's never been attacked, he's lost count of the insults tossed at him. Once, traveling on the Moscow subway, he lost his grip and brushed the hand of a fellow-passenger - who demonstratively took out a handkerchief and wiped his hand clean.
In the Soviet era, when the Kremlin was promoting the worldwide spread of Communism, the government strongly preached racial tolerance and offered generous scholarships that brought tens of thousands of Third World students to Russia to study.
Kotchofa came in 1981 and says at that time, dark-skinned foreigners could go out day or night in perfect safety. Now a professor at the Gubkin Oil and Gas Institute, he laments the post-Soviet rise of nationalist politicians who openly spread xenophobic views. He suggests that certain "forces" have a vested interest in the proliferation of racial attacks.
Some observers claim the Kremlin has encouraged the growth of nationalism in order to cast itself as a bulwark against the far-right as parliamentary and presidential elections loom in 2007 and 2008.
"Our political leaders have an interest in this issue remaining prominent in the run-up to the election campaign," said Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Bureau of Human Rights.
President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that xenophobia is a problem and the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi has lent its support to the anti-racism campaign.
But prosecutions are rare, with many hate crimes treated as hooliganism, an offense that brings only short sentences. In one such case, seven teenagers were sentenced this year to terms of 1 1/2 to 5 1/2 years in prison in the stabbing death of a 9-year-old Tajik girl in St. Petersburg.


By Meg Clothier
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Racist attacks happen with shocking regularity in Russia and the government is shirking its responsibilities and failing to confront the problem, Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday.
Anyone who does not look ethnically Russian is at risk, the report said, be they an African studying in St Petersburg or somebody from the Caucasus trying to earn a living in Moscow.
Young Tajik children have also been targeted by gangs of young men -- and women -- with neo-fascist beliefs. Attacks on Jews also seem to be on the rise, it said.
Anti-racism campaigners and even fans of rap or reggae music have also suffered, Amnesty said, because the "skinheads", as those with racist views are called in Russia, think they are "traitors".
The report may make uncomfortable reading for President Vladimir Putin as he prepares to host leaders of Group of Eight rich nations in St Petersburg this July to showcase Russia's credentials as a responsible, modern state.
"Russia's record on racism is incompatible with the country's place on the international stage and undermines its standing in the world," Irene Khan, Amnesty International's Secretary General, said in a statement.
The chaos that followed the fall of the Soviet Union bred uncertainty about Russia's place in the world and anger at the perceived threat from immigration. Racist groups sprang up.


Ok....so what year are we in here? This definately scares me and it should scare everyone in this day and age. There is definately something wrong with this world! I have no more to say.

posted by Bonyo @ 2:38 PM