Neo-Nazis kill Chechen on Hitler's birthday

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, APRIL. 21. Russian neo-Nazis marked Adolf Hitler's birthday on April 20 by killing a Chechen youth in Moscow.

The attack took place near a crowded shopping mall less than a hundred metres from the Kremlin on Friday night. The 18-year-old Chechen was stabbed when pursuing two skinheads who hurled abuses at him and his friends, also Chechens. One of the attackers was detained and authorities said the other would also be apprehended as his name was already known to the police.

The killed boy, Argun Yelesayev, had recently been sent by his family from war-torn Chechnya to Moscow to live with relatives. Russian television cited police as saying it appeared to be the first murder on racial grounds in Moscow for years. However, racist attacks have been on the rise in Russia in recent years.

Three years ago, skinheads severely beat three Indian students in Moscow on Hitler's birthday. Earlier this year, a manager of the Canara Bank's Moscow office was attacked by youth apparently belonging to a neo-Nazi group. Human rights activities have accused Russian law enforcement agencies of conniving in racial attacks. Police usually record the incidents as ``drunken brawls'' or ``hooliganism'' rather than racist attacks. Over the past 11 years, just three Russian neo-Nazis have been convicted on charges of fomenting racial hatred, according to the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily.

A number of neo-Nazi organisations have sprung up in Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union and fascist and Nazi literature is freely available in this country today. But the State Duma, the Russian Parliament's Lower House, has recently refused to endorse an appeal to the President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, to pay heed to the problem and step up the fight against racist outrages.

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Section  : International
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