Political terror in Mari El

1
Political terror in Mari El

• Anna Rönngård

2
Basic facts about Mari El

• One of Russias 89 republics
• Capital Yoshkar Ola
• Population over 760 000 (2000)
• State of government 67 deputies and 1 president
• Languages Russia (47), Mari (43), Tatar,
  Chuvash, Udmurt and others (10)
• Finno-Ugric nation
• Resources forest, metal industry, food processing

3
Recent history of the republic

• 1920 - an autonomous region
• 1936 - the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist
  Republic was created
• 1990 - the Supreme Soviet of Mari declared
  sovereignty of the republic
• 1991 a member of UNPO
• 1992 - the republic changed it name from Mari to
  Mari El

4
Presidential elections in Mari El

• January 1997, both final candidates were Russian
  speaking with no nowledge of the Mari language -
  Kislitsy won.
• 2001, a native of Moscow who does not speak the
  Mari language won the elections Leonid Markelov
• 19 december 2004, Markelov was re-elected with 57
  of the votes in the first round
• Since 1997 the situation of the native Mari
  speaking people has become worse and worse

5
Current situation in Mari El

• Since 1997 many Mari officials have been removed
  from key positions in society
• Journalists are frequently beaten by people who
  never got caught by authorities
• The republics independent newspapers is no
  longer independent
• During Markelovs time in office, hundreds of Mari
  officials and teachers have been fired on false
  pretences
• The number of Mari civil servant to loose their
  jobs can rise to 1,000

6
Crimes against journalists and opposition leaders
in Mari El

• Examples from a list of many crimes during
  Markelovs presidency
• November 2001 Aleksandr Babaykin, assistant
  chief editor of the opposition newspaper The Good
  Neighbours, is brutally killed in the centre of
  Yoshkar-Ola
• March 2002 Vladimir Maltsev, chief editor of the
  newspaper The Good Neighbours, is attacked and
  caused severe bodily injures, two days later the
  door of his apartment is poured over with fuel
  and put on fire by unknown persons

7
Crimes against journalists and opposition leaders
in Mari El

• January 2005 correspondent of the radio
  Liberty/radio Free Europe Yelena Rogacheva, is
  attacked
• February 2005 Vladimir Kozlov, chief editor of
  the international Finno-Ugric newspaper, member
  of the Consultative Committee of the World
  Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples and leader of the
  all-Russian movement of Mari people, was attacked
  and severely beaten

8
Crimes against journalists and opposition leaders
in Mari El

• Nothing has been done by the local authorities to
  try to stop the discrimination and attacks
  against the Mari people
• Nothing has been done to find out the identity on
  the attackers
• The beating 2-3 strikes at the back of the head
  with an iron pipe, continued after the person has
  fallen to the ground

9
What actions are taken to stop this?

• The opposition (Mari people) has appealed to
  courts after the presidential election
• The council of the Mari El Association has wrote
  a letter of actions addressed to all people in
  power in Mari El
• The Estonian Institute for Human Rights called to
  support Mari people on the 28th of February with
  a press relase, calling on Russia to stop
  persecuting Mari journalists and leaders of
  political opposition, as well as infringing on
  the rights of the minority people in Mari El

10
What actions are taken to stop this?

• The issue of violation of human rights of the
  Mari minority will be examined at the European
  Parliament
• Its Commission on Ethnic Minorities and Regional
  Languages has included the issue of violation of
  human rights of Maris on their agenda
• The situation in Mari El is receiving extensive
  media coverage in Finland and Estonia

11
What actions are taken to stop this?

• The European Comission was adressing this problem
  on April 26th at talks with the Russian
  parliament

12
Conclusion

• The future of Mari people is still unknown
• The European Union has given the people hope that
  there will be an end to the discrimination