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Six African asylum-seekers were attacked by a gang of
“skinheads” wielding baseball bats and broken
bottles in August 2001. The attack took place outside
a refugee centre in Moscow run by the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR). One of the asylum-seekers, Massa
Mayoni, an Angolan national, was beaten unconscious and
died in hospital a few days later. In November 2001 a
young man was remanded in custody in connection with the
attack on charges of “serious, intentional wounding,
leading to accidental death” However, by mid-2002,
the charges had been reduced to “hooliganism”,
on the basis of a second expert opinion on the cause of
death, and the young man was released. The UNHCR's representative
in Moscow called on the police and the authorities to
take steps to stop the increasing number of attacks on
members of national and ethnic minorities in the city.
People belonging to certain ethnic groups or nationalities,
including Tajiks and Chechens, are commonly stereotyped
by Russian law enforcement agencies as “terrorists"
or drug dealers. The result of this “racial profiling”
has been a widespread police practice of targeting certain
people for checks of their homes and papers in relation
to "registration".
In 1991 the "propiska" system, under which people
had to obtain official permission to register or change
their place of residence, was abolished in favour of a
system of simple notification. However, variants of the
old system are still being enforced by some local governments,
including in Moscow. People who fall foul of the "propiska"
system – often members of specific ethnic groups
and refugees from outside the former Soviet Union –
are particularly vulnerable to arbitrary arrest and subsequently
to torture and ill-treatment by police.
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
has expressed serious concern that members of "visible
minorities", particularly in big cities and some
southern regions, appeared to be disproportionately subject
to checks of their personal documents and homes. These
checks were reported often to result in requests for bribes,
extortion of money and the imposition of other arbitrary
sanctions. The Commission also noted reports of arbitrary
detention and ill-treatment and torture.
Amnesty International continues to receive reports that
attacks on members of ethnic minorities by gangs, including
“skinhead” gangs, are not promptly and thoroughly
investigated. In several cases known to Amnesty International,
police were reluctant to classify the attacks as racially
motivated despite strong indications that they were.
The authorities have failed to take appropriate action
to combat racially motivated violence and discriminatory
policing. This creates a climate in which police officers
and others believe they can abuse members of ethnic or
national minorities with impunity.
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Adefers Dessu and his wife, Sarah,
pictured here with their refugee
documents, were
beaten in Moscow, in February 2001,
by a group of young people armed
with
chains. Like many victims of racist
attacks in Russia, Adefers and
Sarah
faced reluctance by both police
and medical staff to register the
incident
as racially motivated. The couple,
who came to Russia to escape political
persecution
in their native Ethiopia and Eritrea,
work as volunteers in a soup kitchen
in Moscow which helps provide hot
food
to the city’s elderly and homeless
people. © Paula Allen
 Video: Adefers
Dessu and his wife, Sarah, discuss
the rascist attacks they have
suffered in Russia (Real
Player required)
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