Please read this important message about hate-crimes against non-Slavic peoples that are currently being committed in Russia, and what you can do to help.
From Andrey Boskhomdzhiev, April 22, 2010:
"Is the world paying any
attention to the hate-crimes in Russia
against non-Slavic peoples, even those who are Russian citizens? I
have not seen any news in the American press about the recent murders of Kalymk
people (Citizens of Russia from the Kalmyk
republic in the south). Yesterday, April 21st, Kalmyk young people bravely began acts of civil
disobedience to tell the world what is happening and I want to help them.
I am a Russian Kalmyk, Andrey
Boskhomdzhiev, a graduate student in Massachusetts,
and follow the news from home as well as from official Russian websites.
The most recent murder of a Kalmyk young man,
Dolgan Nikeev, has been acknowledged by the government on its website in
Russian, but is not included in the same website’s English language
page.
Earlier this year, Russian news acknowledged one more
case, the murder of 16 year old Kalmyk, a first-year college student in Moscow. He was
stabbed by Russian nationalists on January 12, 2009. Although it is not
the first case of attacks on Kalmyks, the official news has admitted
and issued statements to the press only for two cases (other one on march
23 2008 when 24 -year Kalmyk girl was stabbed to death right next to the store
in Moscow).
Other cases were never published or admitted, among them the murder of my
cousin on the Moscow
subway in 2007. There is a high increase in racism in Russia lately, and as result many
non Slavic victims, (even though they are citizens of Russia). http://www.interfax.ru/
Sincerely,
Andrey Boskhomdhziev
What are actions that you can take?
1) Send this information to your newspaper and ask that it be covered;
2) Send a letter to the SOVA Center supporting their call for government action against anti-Slav violence in Russia, and read SOVAs reports on nationalism and xenophobia here.
(Photo courtesy of flickr user squigglycircle, shared under a creative commons license.)
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