STATEMENTS TO COMBAT XENOPHOBIA IN MOSCOW’S POLICE MADE MORE THAN 10 YEARS
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.07.2009 16:47 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Various committees decide on the fight against
xenophobia for more than ten years, and all remains on paper every
time, Vartan Mushegyan, president of the Union of Diasporas of Russia,
told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, commenting on the a statement of
the Moscow Committee of Interregional Relations and National Policy.
According to him, in order to improve the situation changes
in legislation and in the information field are required. An
offender before committing a crime consider the possible
consequences. Mentioning that the punishment for a crime committed
on ethnic grounds should be severe, Vartan Mushegyan stressed that to
date, neither fomentation of ethnic hatred nor murder on the grounds
of national hatred are punished so severely to compel the offender
to stop.
"The second important factor is the information field. If the
media would help the different nations and faiths to understand
that they do much more in common then differ, then there would be
less ground for ethnic conflicts. Many people do not even guess how
similar can be sometimes the traditions and rituals of quite distant
cultures. Unfortunately, this is not done, the Moscow Committee of
Interregional Relations and National Policy does not have a tool to
influence a permanently changing situation.
"One can endlessly read the Gospel to young members of the militia, but
this is unlikely to be more effective than strengthening responsibility
for crimes and violation of ethics in intercultural relations ",
Mr. Mushegyan stressed. According to his estimation, to solve the
problem of xenophobia, an integrated system, preventing the crimes
on ethnic grounds, should be established.