Reuters, UK
June 9 2006
U.N. investigator to probe racist attacks in Russia
Fri Jun 9, 2006 8:51 PM IST
GENEVA (Reuters) – A United Nations human rights investigator will
visit Russia next week to probe a growing wave of racist killings and
beatings, a U.N. spokesman said on Friday.
Doudou Diene, U.N. special rapporteur for contemporary forms of
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance,
will meet officials and activist groups in Moscow and St Petersburg
during the June 12-17 trip, he said.
“There has been a very serious rise in the number of racist attacks
in the Russian Federation, including murders, especially in Moscow
and St Petersburg, and this will be the main subject of concern,”
U.N. human rights spokesman Jose-Luis Diaz told a news briefing.
A statement said that he would also visit “several communities that
are reportedly victims of discrimination”.
Diene, a legal and human rights expert from Senegal, will report his
initial findings to the General Assembly in a few months, it said.
His final report will go to the new U.N. Human Rights Council, due to
hold several sessions during the year.
Racism and xenophobia have mushroomed in post-Soviet Russia, and
President Vladimir Putin has described the trend as a threat to
national security. The visit is at government invitation but was
sought first by the investigator.
In May, a 19-year-old ethnic Armenian man was stabbed to death on a
Russian passenger train by youths shouting “glory to Russia”,
according to a radio station citing witnesses.
Immigrants from ex-Soviet republics are frequent targets.
In St Petersburg, Russian police last month detained a gang suspected
of carrying out a wave of racist murders in the city, which will play
host to the Group of Eight summit in July.