Russian Racist Murders Anger Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan’s leaders are urging the Russian authorities to take firmer action over the growing number of murders of Kyrgyz migrants.



Until recently, Kyrgyz featured more rarely in crime reports in Russia than, for instance, Tajiks or people from the Caucasus. Now they appear routinely, almost always as victims.



Nine Kyrgyz nationals were stabbed to death in the first two months of this year alone in Moscow and the satellite town of Pushkino. Another two were left seriously injured and in hospital.



In one typical case on February 19, a young man attacked a Kyrgyz migrant with a knife on the street, inflicting several wounds on him before making off.



The authorities in Kyrgyzstan and representatives of the migrant community abroad say robbery is rarely the motive, and that all the murders were the work of ultra-nationalist thugs.



Radical right-wing skinheads and other nationalist youth organisations have become an increasingly serious phenomenon in Russia since the late Nineties. Most of their victims are migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus – instantly identifiable as non-Russians from their facial features.



The Kyrgyz embassy has already issued two protests to the Russian authorities, urging them to investigate these incidents and prevent such crimes happening in the future.



Senior Kyrgyz officials have contacted leaders of Russian police and security by telephone to express concern.



On February 22, the parliament of Kyrgyzstan formally asked its counterpart, the Russian Duma, to facilitate speedier investigations into the recent murders.



Kyrgyz diaspora groups have asked the Russian government and police to offer them greater security, issuing a statement describing hate crimes as “absolutely intolerable in a civilised country”.



The Russian interior ministry and prosecution service have said they are committed to solving crimes of violence committed against Kyrgyz people.



At home, the government is trying to find ways to help bereaved families. The head of the State Committee for Migration and Employment, Aygul Ryskulova, has promised help for the families of murder victims, including finding them lawyers to pursue compensation claims in Russian courts.



According to Ryskulova’s committee, about 250,000 Kyrgyzstan nationals currently live and work in Russia, many of them in the construction industry. Economically, they are of huge importance to their homeland. Official data show that in the first nine months of 2007, the remittances they sent back exceeded 710 million US dollars.



The money sustains elderly relatives and enables families to pay for the education of their children and buy houses.



As well as being a recipient of migrant labour from Central Asia, Russia is also the dominant regional power, with which Kyrgyzstan enjoys a particularly close political relationship.



This context was highlighted by Bakyt Beshimov, a member of parliament from the Social Democratic Party, who told IWPR that concerns for the safety of Kyrgyz nationals needed to be expressed in a manner that did not undermine relations with Moscow.



“This is a very complex problem and its solution must be approached from the point of interests of our citizens who are in Russia of necessity, often illegally,” he said. “At the same time, we do not want to cast a shadow over our friendly relationship with Russia. It’s important that we continue handling this in a balanced manner.”



Asein Isaev, who heads the Kyrgyz foreign ministry department for relations with other former Soviet states, believes the Russian authorities are genuinely concerned about racial attacks. This being the case, “given the high level of political and interpersonal relationships between Kyrgyzstan and Russia, it is possible we can influence this situation,” he told IWPR.



But while the government opts for a softly-softly approach towards the Russian authorities, some sections of the public are clamouring for more action.



Last week, several civil society groups in Kyrgyzstan staged a protest march against fascism, racism and xenophobia in Russia and called for eight days of mourning for the nine murder victims.



Activists sent open letters to Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiev and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, demanding guarantees that the murder investigations would be transparent.



Tolekan Ismailova, head of the Citizens Against Corruption group, believes Central Asian governments should work together to press for change, although she does not believe it makes sense to demand that Moscow single-handedly end violent race crime.



Ismailova, whose nephew died in Russia last year, believes the Kyrgyz authorities could be doing more to prepare people for life abroad.



“Before going off to other countries, our citizens need to be given safety training because people are very vulnerable when they go into the unknown,” she said.



Arkady Dubnov, a Moscow-based journalist who writes on Central Asian affairs, says xenophobia has grown to “depressing levels” in Russian society over the last decade.



“The safety of Kyrgyz guest workers has recently become horrifying bad….The situation is getting worse despite the Russian president’s bold assertion that life has become safer,” said Dubnov.



“Kyrgyz citizens are among the ranks of those targeted by the skinheads and thugs who attack people with non-Russian features.”



Some Kyrgyz activists fear if the wave of racist attacks continues, ethnic Russians in Kyrgzystan, who make up ten per cent of the population, could be targeted as a form of reprisal.



Last week, the youth movement Jebe (“Arrow”) addressed an angry statement to President Putin expressing indignation at the apparent inaction of the Russian authorities.



“We see that your law-enforcement agencies and local government bodies ignore and thereby encourage fascist tendencies, which are being used as an effective means of intimidating unwelcome guests,” the statement read.



Such attacks, said the statement, “could provoke an anti-Slavic mood among certain sections of the Kyrgyz population who are angered by the brutality of the skinheads and by the outrageous indifference of the Russian authorities”.



Yrys Kadykeev is an IWPR contributor in Bishkek