RUSSIA HAS NO CLEAR MECHANISM FOR FIGHTING XENOPHOBIA – ABRAMIAN

ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 30, 2006 Tuesday

Modern Russia does not have a clear mechanism for the suppression
of xenophobia, Russian Armenian Union President Ara Abramian said on
the Ekho Moskvy radio on Tuesday.

“The nationalities question is acute. It is necessary to pool efforts
for elaborating common mechanisms of the suppression of xenophobia. I
call on all governmental agencies, religious and public organizations,
and citizens to work together for the solution of this problem and
speak of it daily,” he said.

It is necessary to develop a governmental and public policy for
educating the younger generation, he said.

Ethnic Armenian Vigen Abramiants was killed in the Moscow metro
on April 24, the Day of the Armenian Genocide, he said. Back then
Armenian young held a protest on Moscow streets. “Yet I think that
such protests are no way to fight xenophobia. They will not reduce
the crime rate,” Abramian said.

“A frank dialog with schoolchildren and college students is a way to
resolve the problem,” he said.

Another murder was perpetrated on Tuesday. Artur Sardarian, 19,
was killed near the Klyazma station of the Moscow railroad.