Racism fills Moscow with menace for foreign students

[azskeptic]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4274741.html

Racism fills Moscow with menace for foreign students
Seth Mydans, New York Times

Published December 18, 2003 MOSC18




MOSCOW -- The morning starts with 100 pushups for Constant Olivier Diboi Kath as he prepares for the most dangerous moment of his day -- his subway ride to chemistry class on the other side of town.

Diboi Kath, 23, is an exchange student from Cameroon, and he says he feels threatened by racist thugs every time he leaves his dormitory.

He has been abused, beaten and even shot during his five years at People's Friendship University, where about one-third of the students come from developing countries.

"At any hour, you must be ready to fight," he said over the sound of loud rock music in a campus cafeteria. "On the Metro, on the road, on the street, everywhere. So every morning you have to do your 100 pushups."

Racist attacks on foreigners in Moscow -- Asians, Arabs and especially blacks -- have been an ongoing problem. Victims have included diplomats and U.S. Embassy Marine guards as well as students.

Last year ambassadors from 37 African nations appealed to the Foreign Ministry for protection for their citizens. Human rights groups have documented widespread harassment, often with the acquiescence or support of police.

Nationalism, skinheads

Racist attitudes lie deep within the Russian psyche and are growing even worse now, said Aleksandr Brod, director of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, a private group that monitors discrimination.

The driving force is the proliferation of white-supremacist skinhead groups, which enjoy widespread support and are fueled by nationalist political groups and publications, he said.

As a result, "Literally every week in Moscow and in other regions of Russia, there are attacks by skinheads on members of minorities," some of which, he said, are fatal.

A suspicious late-night fire that killed at least 42 people at Friendship University three weeks ago has intensified fears among minority students. A number of them -- particularly Chinese students -- have cut short their studies and headed home, fellow students said.

Although the fire is officially described as an accident, most minority students are convinced that it was arson. They say that for weeks before and after the fire, bomb threats forced students into the cold streets during class or in the middle of the night.

The fire struck a dormitory for newly arrived foreign students, including students from Angola, China, Vietnam, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast and Tahiti.

Classes as usual

Survivors said the reaction of the college administration only added to their feeling that they are outcasts.

"They did not even give us one day off," said Sydney Ocran, 23, a journalism student from Liberia who videotaped the fire.

"There were students inside banging on the glass, calling for help," he said. "I took a close shot of the hands banging on the glass, and then their hands just went down the glass, sliding like that, and they were gone."

And that was that.

"They put out the fire at 4 or 5 a.m. and students went to school at 9 a.m.," Ocran said. "That is amazing to me. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I feel that they do this because most of the victims are foreigners."

At the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy, where many African students find spiritual refuge, the attacks have become a part of the worship service.

"Nearly every week, or every other week, someone stands up and says, 'Please pray for me, I had a run-in with skinheads,' or, 'Pray for my friend who was beaten by the police,' " said pastor John Calhoun.

Muslims can be targets as well. Last summer, a 19-year-old medical student from Malaysia was beaten at a McDonald's restaurant apparently because she was wearing a head scarf.

"Russia is for Russians,' that's their motto," said the woman, who declined to give her name.

[Miklos]

Please see my post at http://www.valuemd.com/viewtopic.php?p=54247#54247

Better luck next time

[azskeptic]

Originally Posted by Miklos

Please see my post at http://www.valuemd.com/viewtopic.php?p=54247#54247

Better luck next time

drats by 14 minutes....but realize what time it was when I sent that....4 in the morning in az..ha ha.....az skeptic

[bearbalu]

I am considering sending my 17 year old Niece in India to PFU. Any comments on how safe it is at PFU?

Any suggestions on some of the safest schools in Russia and why?

[opuscule]

These days, even the neighbors are getting beatings:


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?...ectID=10340638

Gang war threatens Russia and Poland's diplomatic peace
14.08.05
By Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW - Russia and Poland are on the brink of a serious crisis in their relations after accusations that a Moscow gang of nationalists were "hunting" Poles in the city to dole out punishment beatings.

The attacks are thought to be revenge for an assault on three Russian teenagers in a Warsaw park at the end of July, an event which saw 15 Polish skinheads viciously beat the trio and steal their mobile phones.

The three teenagers belonged to Russian diplomats and Moscow claimed their attackers shouted anti-Russian slogans and blamed Polish politicians for voicing anti-Russian sentiment too frequently and too vocally.

Unusually the attack attracted the attention of President Vladimir Putin who said it was "an unfriendly act that cannot be characterised as anything other than a crime."

Russian nationalists' response has been less measured.

Three Polish nationals have been beaten on Moscow's streets in the past week and the embassy pelted with rotten tomatoes and paint.

The first victim, Marek Reszuta, is a second secretary at the embassy, the second Andrzej Uriadko, a technical worker at the embassy, and the third, Pawel Reszka, a Polish journalist.

In all three cases the scenario was the same. A group of five or six well built men hit the victim on the head knocking him to the ground before "professionally" kicking and punching him.

All three attacks were unprovoked and often began with an apparently innocent request for a cigarette. All three were so badly beaten that they had to be hospitalised.

Yesterday Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski appealed to Mr Putin to put an end to the "well-planned" attacks and protect Polish nationals as relations between the two countries, never the best of friends to begin with, slipped towards the abyss.

"The attacks seem to be organised and directed towards accredited representatives of the Polish diplomatic mission and media," he said.

"These dangerous incidents have increased tensions in Polish-Russian relations and escalated feelings of enmity."

Russia has expressed its "deep regret" at the attacks and vowed to do everything in its power to find and punish the gang. Russian-supplied security at the Polish embassy has been substantially beefed up.

Ordinary Russians appear to have little sympathy with the attackers. A poll on Ekho Moskvy radio station yesterday found that 75 per cent of respondents felt "shame" that Poles were being targeted for punishment beatings.

However a similar survey on the website of nationalist newspaper Zavtra asking readers which of 12 nationalities they would most sympathise with "if beaten up on a street somewhere in Russia" drew a somewhat different response. Only 37 out of the 744 people who responded named Poles putting them just ahead of Chechens who got 36 votes.

Indeed there is a long history of mutual enmity between the two countries which dates back some 400 years.

Moscow liberated itself from the Polish-Lithuanian republic in 1612 only to occupy Poland in its Soviet guise from the end of the second world war until 1991.

[sukhtinder]

cant we all just get along?

[Chemist_11]

Originally Posted by bearbalu

I am considering sending my 17 year old Niece in India to PFU. Any comments on how safe it is at PFU?

Any suggestions on some of the safest schools in Russia and why?

hi, how at 17, she wouldn't have done the 10+2 (18 years) needed for maltriculation surely?