Racist mob violence in Russia

05 December 2000

On September 19, 2000, in Yekaterinburg, in the Sverdlovsk province of central Russia, approximately 30 young men armed with baseball bats and truncheons attacked a camp of migrant Romani workers from Moldova, according to a report in the Russian daily Segodnya on September 21. According to the daily, two Roma were hospitalised with severe injuries. The police arrived at the scene of the attack late; consequently, none of the attackers was arrested. The Romani families had come in search of seasonal work and were temporarily staying in a building that had previously served as a kindergarten.

Some local sensation-hunting tabloids described the incident as an inter-clan conflict that had escalated in the framework of a drug war. However, according to the Moscow-based non-governmental organisation Romano Kher, the investigator who provided information to journalists from local newspapers denied that the incident was related to drug trafficking. Segodnya reported that a criminal investigation had started in Yekaterinburg in connection with the anti-Romani pogrom. However, the investigation was reportedly subsequently closed as none of the Roma attacked filed a complaint. Furthermore, according to Romano Kher, all of the Romani families left the town shortly after the attack and returned to Moldova.

(Romano Kher, Segodnya)