I.M.Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy
Trubetskaya street, 8-2
Moscow, Russia
119992
eng.mma.ru/
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20/04/2007 11:37
RUSSIA
Per il compleanno di Hitler universitari stranieri chiusi in camera per paura di attacchi razzisti
www.asianews.it/
Nei giorni in cui gruppi neonazisti ricordano il compleanno di Hitler, la Sechenov di Mosca ordina agli studenti ebrei e caucasici di rimanere nei dormitori per evitare violenze a sfondo razzista. Cresce in Russia la xenofobia: l’anno scorso, 53 i delitti di odio etnico, per lo più rimasti impuniti.
Mosca (AsiaNews) – Passeranno tre giorni chiusi nelle loro stanze gli studenti stranieri di una delle università russe più prestigiose, dove si teme che il giorno del compleanno di Adolf Hitler - 20 aprile - possa scatenare come in passato violenze razziste. Lo riferiscono gli studenti della Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy, nella zona sud della capitale; da ieri, dopo aver fatto provviste alimentari, non usciranno dai dormitori almeno fino a domani. L’avviso di possibili crimini xenofobi è stato lanciato dalle stesse autorità universitarie nel tentativo di proteggere i ragazzi.
In passato alcuni membri di gruppi ultra nazionalisti e neo nazisti hanno ricordato la nascita di Hitler con attacchi alle minoranze etniche. “Fa piacere vedere che l’università si preoccupa per noi – dice alla Associated Press Liah Ganeline, studentessa del secondo anno alla Sechenov – ma è anche assurdo che la nostra libertà venga limitata a causa di alcuni estremisti”. Dal 19 al 21 aprile solo i tirocinanti hanno il permesso di uscire dal dormitorio – spiega la ragazza, originaria di Israele – e gli studenti che hanno firmato una dichiarazione in cui si fanno carico della propria incolumità sollevando l’istituto da ogni responsabilità. Gli altri hanno il permesso di assentarsi dalle lezioni. Al dormitorio della Sechenov alloggiano 500 giovani per lo più provenienti da Asia centrale e regioni caucasiche.
Sergei Baranov, direttore del Dipartimento stranieri dell’Accademia Sechenov, spiega che il provvedimento fa parte di un’esercitazione d’emergenza che durerà fino a domani; l’occasione è stata poi sfruttata allo stesso tempo anche per proteggere gli studenti da ogni possibile violenza.
L’anno scorso in questo periodo un gruppo di skinheads ha gettato molotov nell’edificio del dormitorio inneggiando slogan xenofobi e facendo il saluto nazista. Liah riferisce che anche un'altra università nella zona centrale di Mosca ha adottato le stesse restrizioni.
Da qualche anno la Russia vive una forte crescita di razzismo e xenofobia tra i giovani, diretta contro ebrei e cittadini delle province caucasiche. Secondo il centro per i diritti umani Sova, che studia questa pericolosa tendenza, nel 2006 gli omicidi a sfondo razzista sono stati 53, mentre sono stati 460 i feriti in incidenti di odio etnico. Gli attivisti denunciano poi il clima di impunità che circonda questi crimini: le autorità russe tendono a minimizzare i fatti classificandoli come generici atti vandalici.
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www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042001894.html?hpid=moreh...
Russian Medical School Imposes Curfew for Hitler's Birthday
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, April 21, 2007; Page A12
MOSCOW, April 20 -- One of Russia's leading medical schools has advised its many foreign students to stay in their dormitories for three days, fearing they could be attacked by neo-Nazis and skinheads marking the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth, which fell on Friday.
The warning issued by the almost 250-year-old IM Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy, which suspended classes for its 1,940 foreign students, was a reminder of the xenophobic and racist violence here targeting students and migrant workers.
On Monday, a street cleaner from Tajikistan was stabbed 35 times outside an apartment building in eastern Moscow. Surveillance cameras on a nearby building captured two skinheads carrying out the murder, according to news reports here. Five suspects have been arrested. On the same day a 46-year-old Armenian businessman was stabbed 20 times and later died in hospital. Three men were later arrested.
"It's no secret that some extremist young people, and not just in Russia, try to celebrate the 20th of April by attacking others," said Sergei Baranov, acting dean of the Sechenov Academy department that deals with foreign students. "For us, it's better to take preventative measures than deal with the consequences." The curfew ends Saturday.
Students in a dormitory near the academy's main building took the measure in stride, saying they had stocked up on food and were using the three-day hiatus to study for final exams next month. Some said they welcomed the concern for their well-being. "Security is very high, and we have very good protection," said Pari Vallal, 22, an Indian student who is in his fourth year at the academy.
Students interviewed at the school said they are constantly on alert, especially when traveling on the Moscow Metro, where a number of racist murders and attacks have occurred. "One person grabbed me in the Metro and was very threatening," said Ha Quy Duong, 27, a student from Vietnam. "I've been followed in this area, and you experience verbal abuse out on the street."
Baranov said there have been no serious attacks on students attending the academy.
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www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6571406,00.html
Lockdown for Foreigners at Moscow School
Thursday April 19, 2007 7:46 PM
By MARIA DANILOVA
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - A leading Moscow university ordered its foreign students on Thursday to stay in their dormitories for the next three days due to fears of ethnic violence before and after Adolf Hitler's birthday.
The move by Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy underscores the failure of Russian authorities to stem xenophobia and racism that is feeding a marked rise in hate crimes.
At least 22 people have been killed and more than 130 injured in apparent hate crimes in Russia this year, according to the Sova human rights center, which monitors xenophobia. Last year, 53 people were killed and 460 injured, Sova says.
Hundreds of foreigners at the school were told to stock up on food and warned they would not be let out of the dormitories through Saturday.
A Sechenov Academy official said the school was conducting emergency drills, but conceded that one reason for the measure was to protect foreign students from potential violence around the time of Hitler's birthday Friday.
Skinheads tend to become more violent around the Nazi leader's April 20 birthday, and in the past have appeared in groups, shouted slogans and staged attacks on dark-skinned foreigners and others who do not appear Slavic.
Students said the main reason for the measure was clearly the fear of violence.
''It is nice that the university is taking care of us, but on the other hand it's absurd that our freedom is being limited because of some militant groups,'' said Liah Ganeline, a second-year medical student from Israel.
''In a normal, democratic country the authorities don't obey the interests of these groups, but on the contrary protect people from them,'' she told The Associated Press.
Only physicians in training were being allowed to go out, along with students who signed a statement taking responsibility for their own safety and received approval from university officials, she said. Others were given permission to miss classes.
Ganeline said that last year skinheads threw firebombs at her dormitory in the southern part of Moscow after shouting offensive slogans and giving the Nazi salute.
She said the dorm, which houses about 500 students from Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus, has been locked down every April 20 the past several years. She said officials always call it a fire safety drill.
Sergei Baranov, acting dean of the university's foreign students department, first said the school was conducting emergency drills through Saturday.
Pressed about why only foreign students were involved in the exercise, Baranov then acknowledged the university also wanted to protect students from possible violence.
''We are trying to kill two birds with one stone - during these days the danger of some incidents is higher,'' he said.
Ganeline bought two cartons of milk, four containers of yogurt, apples, corn and rolls of toilet paper and prepared to spend the next three days isolated in the dorm with fellow students.
''It's horrible that this is happening,'' she said, referring to the growing threat to foreigners in Russia.
She said another university dorm housing several hundred foreign students in central Moscow was subject to similar restrictions.
''I feel disgusted by these things,'' Alex, a 22-year-old student from Azerbaijan, said by telephone from the same dormitory where Ganeline lives. ''They are restricting our freedom.''
He declined to give his last name out of fear of angering university officials.
In the past, Moscow authorities have also closed some outdoor markets, where many traders are dark-skinned foreigners, for several days before Hitler's birthday to avoid violence.
Rights activists say authorities are doing little to combat growing racism. They say obvious hate crimes are regularly classified as mere hooliganism, some ultranationalist Web sites are allowed to operate and some lawmakers openly support radical nationalist groups or ideas.
Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Bureau for Human rights, said authorities should do more to prosecute hate groups and protect foreign students rather than subject them to restrictions.
''The activity of radicals is significantly increasing,'' he said. ''But the decisions of the university officials ... must not violate the freedom of movement of foreigners.''