TOASTS TO TOLERANCE AS A TEENAGER DIES
By Kevin O’Flynn and Nabi Abdullaev, Igor Tabakov
The Moscow Times, Russia
Nov 17 2006
Some 80 people from different ethnic groups and nationalities sat down
to a sumptuous meal at City Hall on Thursday in an attempt to set a
new world record and to celebrate the United Nation’s International
Day for Tolerance.
But as they toasted friendship between peoples, news came that an
Armenian teenager had been battered to death in the Moscow region.
Narek Kocharyan, 15, was assaulted Saturday by a group of young men
who beat him, stabbed him several times and strangled him, the Union
of Armenians in Russia said Thursday.
A bandanna decorated with a skull and crossbones found at the scene
suggested that Kocharyan’s attackers belonged to an ultranationalist
group, the Union of Armenians in Russia said in a statement posted on
its web site. It also complained that law enforcement officials were
investigating the killing as a simple case of manslaughter rather
than a hate crime.
"Our esteemed guardians of law and order believe the killing was
inadvertent after a man was repeatedly kicked in the head, strangled
and stabbed," the statement said. "And not a word about a racial
motive for the attack."
Critics say the government’s response to rising extremism has been
inadequate.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Vyacheslav Lebedev, speaking before the
State Duma on Wednesday, said only six criminal cases related to
extremism had gone to court in 2005.
Police and prosecutors routinely disregard racial motives when
investigating such crimes because they can be difficult to prove
in court.
Vladimir Slutsker, deputy chairman of a joint commission on
nationalities policy affiliated with the Federation Council, said
Thursday that the current law on extremism was adequate for dealing
with "any manifestation of ethnic tension and xenophobia."
The problem, Slutsker said, is that law enforcement avoids enforcing
the law. "This is the most direct path to the disintegration of this
country," he said.
The Sova think tank says 39 people have died in hate crimes this year,
28 of them in Moscow, and more than 300 people have been injured.
The vast majority of the attacks were carried out by skinheads,
Sova’s director Galina Kozhevnikova said.
Back at City Hall, the organizers of the record attempt did their
best to maintain a festive atmosphere.
State Duma Deputy Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky was the guest speaker
at the banquet, which was organized by the Moscow Association of
Entrepreneurs. The event was designed to break the world record for
the most ethnic groups seated around a dinner table, as well as to
highlight Moscow’s multiethnic population.
Zhirinovsky was a somewhat surprising choice, since his Liberal
Democratic Party of Russia has often been accused of inciting racial
hatred, but the politician, a skilled chameleon, was on his best
behavior. When asked about immigration policy, he said: "Anyone who
wants to come to Russia can come."
Zhirinovsky also apologized to Aslanbek Aslakhanov for comments he
made previously about Chechens. Aslakhanov, an ethnic Chechen, advises
President Vladimir Putin on ethnic relations. Zhirinovsky blamed his
Soviet education. "We weren’t taught that they were also citizens."
With the tables piled high with food and drink, the event had a Soviet
feel to it as people from a host of countries and ethnic backgrounds
raised their glasses and toasted interethnic harmony.
The event was first held in Sweden in 2002, when 29 different
nationalities shared a sauna together in the town of Halmstaad and set
a world record. Last year, Moscow broke the record with representatives
of 57 ethnic groups and nationalities gathered around a table.
The lighthearted tone of the event could not conceal participants’
concern about the increasing frequency of hate crimes in this country.
"Things have gotten worse," said organizer Oleg Goryunov, who once
built a giant pyramid out of bottle caps to get into the Guinness
Book of Records. "Last year we had better relations with Georgia."
Guests bemoaned the lost era of Soviet druzhba narodov, or friendship
between peoples.
Ethnic harmony under the Soviets "was not a toy," Aslakhanov said.
"It was real. If someone got attacked it was a state of emergency,
because we were all together."
Now, he said, "it happens every day."
"My wife is Russian. I fear for my child growing up half-black,
half-white," said one of the guests, Ugandan Ambassador Sam Barteka
Sakajja.
"Enough is enough. My color does not matter. It is what is in my
brain," he said. "I appeal to Russia’s youth to grow up and forget
racism."