Minority safety

[Deborah Hoffman]

I'd like to thank all the inidivudals and groups who responded to travel and study concerns in Russia.  I'm particularly relieved that organizations such as ACTR have developed guidelines for their participants, and I will keep all this in mind, particularly the need to network and travel in groups.  Thank you!
  
  


------------------------------

Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 23:37:39 -0500

*****

> Subject: SEELANGS Digest - 30 Nov 2005 to 1 Dec 2005 (#2005-343)
>
>
> Subject: Re: BBC News on foreign students in Russia
> Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 09:39:17 +0300
> From: Peter Morley 
>
> For what it's worth, here's a personal view of St. Petersburg regarding=
racial problems. Unfortunately this view cannot be said to be as rosy as=
that painted by SEELANGERS of Moscow. If I recall correctly, non-white s=
tudents have been beaten up and in some cases killed at a rate of 1 a mon=
th or thereabouts for the past 18 months or so, and it seems as though te=
nsions are increasing. Going on personal experience, in the past few week=
s I have seen anti-Semitic as well as anti-Caucasian stickers in the metr=
o, which is a first for me in the 6-odd years I've been here. One African=
journalist I know says he has lost count of the number of times he's bee=
n stopped and beaten up by police.
>
> That said, racially motivated attacks do seem to be geographically conc=
entrated in areas outside the city centre, around educational institution=
s and dormitories known to have large numbers of African and Asian studen=
ts. (Of course, as we all know, none of these attacks are actually racial=
ly motivated, but merely cases of "hooliganism" - it must be true, the po=
lice keep telling us so.) The city centre has been largely violence free =
- although the recent murder of Timur Karachava at 6 p.m. on a weekday at=
the corner of Nevsky and Ligovsky was a shocking exception. It's unlikel=
y that Timur's murder was racially motivated (although I believe his fami=
ly is originally Georgian), but was rather because of his political activ=
ity as an anti-racist, anti-war, anti-fascist campaigner. However, that i=
t happened when and where it did, and that no-one has (as far as I know) =
been arrested, should give pause for thought. In addition, the students w=
ho have suffered have all been African and Asian rather than African-Amer=
ican - although this may be largely due to the geographical factor mentio=
ned above. One African-American student I spoke to recently here said he'=
d had no problems in the 2 months or so he's been here.
>
> However, please don't let this put you off coming to St. Petersburg - i=
t's a fabulous city, and not to come here would be missing out on seeing =
a wonderful place, and also giving the racists exactly what they want. I =
would also echo Renee's sentiments in that St. Petersburg is, for me at l=
east, just like any other large city (although God forbid that any real P=
etersburger should hear me say so), and that the same rules regarding do'=
s and don't's apply here as most other places.
>
> If you have any more questions, please do contact me.
>
> Best,
>
> Peter Morley
>
> 


Deborah Hoffman
Finance Chair, Graduate Student Senate
Modern and Classical Language Studies
Kent State University
http://users.ameritech.net/lino59/index.htm

Stop the Genocide in Darfur: 
http://www.savedarfur.org/

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