ETHNIC CLEANSING A LA RUSSE
By Laure Akai

Of all the repression which has taken place after the
September coup, by far the most outrageous has been the
racist measures taken by the government to cleanse the
capital on a racial basis. Immediately following the
blashing of the White House on October 4, special troops and
regular police began a round up of all "illegal aliens" in
the city. Thousands were deported and many more thousands
fled, terrified for their safety.

The legal basis used for this mass operation was the
"propiska" or permit system, a relic of the Stalinist past
which required citizens of the former Soviet Union to have a
permit to live in Moscow (or any other region) stamped in
their passport. Normally this could only be obtained by
birthright, a special invitation to study or work, or
through marriage. For years there was a market of fake
marriages to get around the system. Without a propiska,
finding work or a place to live in Moscow was virtually
impossible. But in the last few years, as visa regulations
were relaxed and as apartments began to appear freely on the
market for rent, more amd more people simply ignored these
rules and came to live in Moscow. Most of these people are
ethnically Russian, but also a large number of others have
settled here, including many Armenian and Georgian refugees,
many traders from Central Asia and China, and a great deal
of Americans and Europeans.

The operation to crack down on illegal residents, which
resulted in over 5,000 deportations within the first two
weeks alone was targeted almost exclusively on dark-skinned
peoples of the Soviet Union. There was no effort at all to
conceal the fact that the prime targets in this operation
were people first and foremost from the Caucasus, and from
Central Asia. Searches and identity checks were conducted on
dark skinned people as "whites" were left alone.

This harassment of people of colour has been going on for
some time in Moscow, and indeed has always existed to a
certain extent in the Soviet Union Daily people of colour
are stopped and harassed, often having to pay regular bribes
to the police to avoid arrest. Now the government, using the
pretext of the propiska system, have institutionalized this
racism.

Most Russians blame people of colour, more specifically
"Caucasians", for the astronomical crime rate in the city.
Government officials, police and even the TV news claim that
"80% of all the crime commited in Moscow is commited by
Caucasians". If this figure is based on arrest records, it
is because of the fact that these people are much more
likely to be arrested than white skinned people. The police
and the government claim that they are "fighting crime", but
in a city where the Russian mafia carries on their business
in the open, where law enforcement officials are famous for
taking bribes, where police peddleguns and where theft and
corruption takes place in the government, this is a
laughable exuse.

The general population has been by and large supportive of
these deportations. Most Russians, newly impoverished,
insecure about the future, etc., are seeking people whom
they can blame and take out their frustrations on. Before
the coup, the police had called on people to inform on their
neighbours if they expected them of being illegal aliens.
Hundreds of people called on the first day of the appeal.
Now 40,000 citizens have volunteered to help patrol the
streets, keeping an eye out for crime and "suspicious
individuals".

During the operation numerous human rights abuses were
reported. Most typically people were grabbed and sent to
detention centres, without being able to contact friends,
relatives, their embassy, and often without a chance to
argue their position. There have been reports of people
having their posessions and documents stolen and of one man
having his papers bearing his refugee status torn up. Some
people were sent to special "work camps" to earn the money
for their "trip home". Those who have been arrested and
deported include people who were passing through Moscow or
who had legal status. One businessman was arrested at a
hotel as he tried to register and 65 Chinese students were
held and may still be deported. Embassies and businesses
have been reported harassment of their employees.
Sometimes the scenes have been truly ugly. At one Moscow
food market, Russian merchants reportedly helped police turn
over the fruit stands, beat and arrest traders from
Azerbaijan. The remaining vendors, now devoid of much
competition, have raised the prices on their own vegetables.

Although human rights groups have petitioned the government
and foreign embassies have lodged their protests, the
government is totally non-plused. And why shouldn't they be
when around them the major powers of the world carry on
similar campaigns with impugnity? Latching on the main theme
of the 90's, Russia wants to bleach out its population, and
shut up its borders for those without money, or those with
dark skin. The rest are welcome.

People are encouraged to write letters of protest to the
Russian government and to picket consular offices in their
cities. For more information write to the Moscow Institute
for the Study of Racism, Fascism and Nationalism.
(krazchenko@glas.apc.org)