モスクワ・プライド：同性愛者ら１２０人拘束 モスクワ中心でデモ強行

同性愛者ら１２０人拘束　モスクワ中心でデモ強行 (共同 2006/05/28)

　【モスクワ２８日共同】同性愛者の権利擁護を訴えるデモを強行したロシアや欧米の活動家らがモスクワ中心部で２７日、警官隊と衝突、インタファクス通信によると約１２０人が拘束された。デモを実力で解散させたロシア治安当局の対応をめぐって、欧米の批判が強まる可能性もある。

　活動家らはデモの許可を申請したが、モスクワ市は拒否。しかし市中心部に集まった約２００人のうちの一部が第２次大戦の戦死者を顕彰する、クレムリン脇の「無名戦士の墓」に花束をささげようと移動を開始し、阻止しようとしたネオナチ・グループと小競り合いになり、周辺に配置されていた警官隊が参加者を次々に拘束した。

　英国人活動家はロイター通信に対し「平和なデモがファシストや警官の手で鎮圧された。ロシアの恥だ」と治安当局の対応を批判した。

Moscow's First Gay Pride Parade Disrupted by Police and Hecklers
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, May 28, 2006; Page A16

MOSCOW, May 27 -- Riot police broke up an attempt by gays and lesbians to stage Moscow's first gay pride parade Saturday. Gay activists who attempted to lay flowers near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin wall and then assemble across from city hall were heckled and assaulted by skinheads, Orthodox Christians and radical nationalists.

Police said they had arrested about 120 people, both supporters and opponents of the parade. Gay activists were dragged away by riot police when they began speaking to reporters, but opponents of the parade, including a nationalist member of parliament, were allowed to speak and chant, "Moscow is not Sodom."

Police officers detain a gay activist outside the Kremlin, part of a contingent who planned a gay rights march to Moscow's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. (By Sergei Ponomarev -- Associated Press)

Several international activists and politicians traveled to Moscow in a show of support for Moscow's gays and lesbians. Volker Beck, a member of the German Parliament from the Green Party, marched with the group and was struck in the face by skinheads outside city hall. He was briefly detained after the incident. A Canadian journalist was also assaulted by opponents of the parade, who threw smoke bombs and eggs before police moved in to disperse them.

"Lesbians and gays have to cope with major problems in Russia," Beck said at a news conference earlier in the day. "There is a massive threat of violence, and it is also frightening that there is no clear support from the state for the rights of lesbian and gay citizens. On the contrary, the mayor of Moscow deprives people who advocate tolerance and equal rights of the freedom to demonstrate."

The city had banned the parade on the grounds that it was anathema to the values of most residents and therefore presented a threat of violence. A city court upheld the ban Friday.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said in a radio interview Friday that a gay parade "may be acceptable for some kind of progressive, in some sense, countries in the West, but it is absolutely unacceptable for Moscow, for Russia."

He added: "As long as I am mayor, we will not permit these parades to be conducted."

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but the gay community in Moscow remains largely underground. Some gay activists had objected to the parade, which was the culmination of a gay pride festival, saying it was likely to provoke a backlash that could damage efforts to build tolerance.

Other activists, backed by international supporters from the United States and Western Europe, decided to go ahead with the demonstration. Unable to march legally, they decided to place flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Saturday afternoon but to act as individual citizens to avoid being charged with staging an illegal protest.

A phalanx of riot police sealed off Alexander's Garden where the tomb is located. Women singing hymns and skinheads jostled with the several dozen gay activists when they arrived.

Nikolai Alexeyev, a leading gay rights activist, was arrested at the monument. "This is a great victory, an absolute victory -- look at what's happening," he shouted as he was taken away.

After the marchers were prevented from reaching the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a small group of activists followed by an even larger crowd of reporters made their way to a square across from city hall where their opponents had already assembled.

"We are going to clean ourselves of the dirt of the last 15 years," said Nikolai Kuryanovic, a member of parliament for the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, speaking at the foot of a monument to Yuri Dolgoruky, the founder of Moscow. "This provocation failed."

Riot police looked on as Kuryanovic spoke, but moved in as soon as Yevgenia Debryanskaya, a leading lesbian activist, began to speak to reporters just in front of Kuryanovic. She was dragged away.

Police also stood by as skinheads crowded around Beck and Scott Long of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, who had unfurled a rainbow flag.

"The police were encouraging the skinheads," Long said. "It was disturbing but not surprising. Luzhkov spent months encouraging violence by his public homophobia."


Russian riot police detain lesbian rights activist Evgeniya Debryanskaya during a protest near Red Square Moscow May 27, 2006. Russian police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay rights march in Moscow on Saturday, but the homosexuals claimed their short-lived protest as a "great victory". REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

Nationalist, anti-gay demonstrators gesture during a protest near Red Square in Moscow May 27, 2006. Russian police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay rights march in Moscow on Saturday, but the homosexuals claimed their short-lived protest as a "great victory". REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Russian riot police detain a militant Orthodox Christian during a protest near Red Square in Moscow May 27, 2006. Russian police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay rights march in Moscow on Saturday, but the homosexuals claimed their short-lived protest as a "great victory". REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

A nationalist, anti-gay demonstrator gestures during a protest near Red Square in Moscow May 27, 2006. Russian police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay rights march in Moscow on Saturday, but the homosexuals claimed their short-lived protest as a "great victory". REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

Police and protesters break up Moscow gay parade
Sat May 27, 2006 1:55 PM ET
By Oliver Bullough

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police, militant Orthodox Christians and neo-fascists broke up a first ever gay rights march in Moscow on Saturday, but the homosexuals said their short-lived protest as a "great victory".

Activists led by 28-year-old Nikolai Alexeyev had planned to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -- a symbol of the World War Two struggle against fascism, and one of Russia's most sacred places.

But police closed the gates to the park where the eternal flame burns under the Kremlin walls, and a heavy scrum of women singing hymns and shaven-headed nationalists tried to charge into the gay activists as the march arrived.

"This is a great victory, an absolute victory -- look at what's happening," Alexeyev said as he was dragged, bent almost double, away from the gates by two policemen.

City authorities had banned the march, which they called an "outrage to society", while religious leaders from all major faiths condemned it. Interfax news agency reported police had detained around 100 people after the clashes.

Even some rival gay activists said the march risked inflaming Russia's widespread intolerance of homosexuality, and wished Alexeyev had chosen a less direct way to protest against discrimination and homophobia.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, and although some gay clubs exist in big cities, same-sex couples almost never make a public display of their affections.

A gay German member of parliament who attended the rally, Volker Beck, was punched in the face. Beck, a leader of the Greens party and a prominent gay rights leader, was shown in German TV getting hit in the face.

"I was attacked," Beck told German television. "It was a stone and a fist. It shows we're not safe in this country. The security forces did not protect us but instead prevented us from retreating. We were left without any protection."

"MOSCOW IS NOT SODOM"

The marchers, who seemed to number about 40 although an exact count was impossible in the mob, were outnumbered at least twofold by men and women carrying Russian Orthodox icons and chanting "Moscow is not Sodom".

"We must stop them at this first stage, or they'll come and corrupt our children," said Kirill Bolgarin, 24, who had come to protest despite the pouring rain.

His friend Andrei, 25, interrupted, and gestured at the eternal flame.

"We are Russians. We are Orthodox. These soldiers died so we could live like Russians, not so these people could come here and tell us what to do," he said.

Alexeyev had invited gay activists from all across Europe to the march, the culmination of three days of events that were a first Russian attempt to hold a Gay Pride festival like those in Western cities.

"We came here to lay flowers at this anti-fascist memorial, but the mayor is so terrified of us that he took the step of ordering the gates closed," said Peter Tatchell from the British gay rights group OutRage.

"As soon as we arrived we were set upon by fascist gangs and police. Today is a great shame for Russia because a peaceful protest has been suppressed."

Later, when police had formed a line between the two sides, a group of skinheads -- young Russian nationalists who have grown in number in recent years and have been behind a series of attacks on foreign students -- rushed toward the gay activists.

Their faces masked, they threw flares as they ran, but OMON riot police stopped them and dragged them to waiting buses.

Passers-by on the pavement outside parliament, which is on one of the capital's main streets, looked on in disbelief.

"I think it is a sexual abnormality, but if these gays want to do it, they should," said Robert Antonov, 35. "Why shouldn't they do what they like? They are people too."

Cops, Protesters Prevent Moscow Gay Parade
Sunday May 28, 2006 1:31 AM
By HENRY MEYER
Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) - Gay rights activists were pummeled by right-wing protesters and detained by police Saturday, preventing them from putting on a display of gay pride in defiance of a city ban.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said in a radio interview Friday gay parades ``may be acceptable for some kind of progressive, in some sense, countries in the West, but it is absolutely unacceptable for Moscow, for Russia.''

``As long as I am mayor, we will not permit these parades,'' he said.

Police detained the rally's main organizer, Nikolai Alexeyev, as he attempted to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a symbol of Russia's victory against fascism in World War II, just outside the Kremlin wall.

``We are conducting a peaceful action. We want to show that we have the same rights as other citizens,'' Alexeyev had told a news conference a few hours before the rally was to have begun.

But police closed the entrance to the garden where the tomb is located, and the first half-dozen activists arrived carrying flowers were set upon by about 100 religious and nationalist extremists who kicked and punched them.

``Moscow is not Sodom!'' they shouted. Women wearing head scarves held up religious icons while men in Cossack white sheepskin hats and black-and-red tunics stood by.

``We were expecting this. It's the authorities that are allowing this to happen,'' said a woman holding a limp red carnation who identified herself only as Anna, a lesbian.

Riot police rushed in to separate the assailants from the activists but detained Alexeyev ``as the ringleader,'' said British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, who was in the group.

Police said later they had detained 120 anti-gay protesters and gay activists.

``Both the authorities and the fascists had the same objective - to suppress the Moscow gay pride,'' Tatchell told The Associated Pres.

Saturday was the 13th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia, and a number of foreign activists traveled to Moscow this week for an unprecedented forum on gay rights in Russia and the Russian capital's first gay and lesbian pride parade.

By the time of the start of the rally, more than 100 youths were standing in the square opposite the mayor's office, chanting: ``Glory to Russia!''

Several trampled on a rainbow-colored ribbon - a symbol of gay rights - into the ground.

``This is a perverts' parade,'' said one protester holding an icon of the Madonna. ``This is filth, which is forbidden by God. We have to cleanse the world of this filth,'' said the woman who gave only her first name, Irina.

A member of Germany's Bundestag, Volker Beck, was giving an interview before TV cameras when about 20 nationalist youths surrounded him and pummeled him, bloodying his nose. Volker Eichler, a gay activist from Berlin who witnessed the beating, said police did not intervene.

City authorities cited the potential for violence as the primary reason for banning the parade. But they also voiced disapproval of the very idea of gay rights. Russian religious leaders, Orthodox Christian, Muslim and Jewish, have all vocally opposed the parade.

The issue has split Moscow's gay community, many of whom say that Russian society is still too conservative and a parade would only provoke more violence from skinheads and radical groups.

Gay rights activists estimate that 5-8 percent of Russia's 143 million people are gay and lesbian.

First Russian gay rights parade ends in violence
Updated Sat. May. 27 2006 10:44 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff

Russia's first-ever gay rights march descended into chaos and violence Saturday as Russian police, neo-fascists and Orthodox Christians clashed with demonstrators in Moscow.

The activists planned to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The memorial is a symbol of the Second World War struggle against fascism, and one of Russia's most sacred places.

Police closed the gates to the park, however, barring the marchers from their destination. Then a group of about 100 people, including women singing hymns and shaven-head Russian nationalists, tried to head-off the group and charge into the parade.

They chanted "Moscow is not Sodom," and kicked and punched the demonstrators, according to CTV's Ellen Pinchuk, reporting from Moscow.

"It was kind of violent out there, it was tense. There were people who were looking for someone to beat up out there," Pinchuk told CTV.ca.

Police arrived quickly, Pinchuk said.

"Special forces showed up and started kicking people out of the square where this whole situation was unfolding."

There did not appear to be any serious injuries resulting from the clash, though Pinchuk said a number of "random beatings," took place and police appeared to be focusing on the group of about 40 gay rights activists.

"It did appear they were more interested in arresting members of the gay and lesbian community than those who had come there to beat them up, so that was closely watched by international observers here from human rights groups, and members of the European Parliament."

Police later separated the two sides, forming a human barricade between the activists and a group of skinheads who tried to rush towards the activists.

The skinheads, wearing masks over their faces, threw flares as they attempted to rush the group, but were stopped and dragged away by riot police.

Demonstrators called the clash a step forward for the gay rights movement.

"This is a great victory, an absolute victory -- look at what's happening," said the leader of the march, 26-year-old Nikolai Alexeyev as he was dragged away from the gates by police.

Interfax news agency reported police had detained around 100 people after the clashes.

The march had been banned by city authorities, and had been condemned by religious leaders from all major faiths.

"Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has said right from the beginning there will be no gay pride parade in Moscow," Pinchuk said.

She said the clash, though described as a victory by some, was also terrifying. Such was the case for Canadian gay rights activist John Fisher.

"It was a chilling experience and I'm still a little shaken, to be honest," said Fisher, who is co-director of ARC International.

"I think what we saw was a complete failure of police protection, and that was directly attributable to the mayor's condemnation of a peaceful gathering."

Other gay activists had disapproved of the demonstration, claiming it was a risky move given Russia's widespread intolerance of homosexuality.

Organizers kept the location secret for fear of violence.

The parade was meant to mark the culmination of several days of festivities planned as part of Russia's first Gay Pride festival.

Gay activists from across Europe had been invited to the march. According to reports, about 40 activists took part.

Homosexuality was illegal in Russia until 1993, and public displays of affection between same-sex couples are almost unheard of.

With a report by CTV's Ellen Pinchuk in Moscow



尾辻かな子活動日記 2006/05/28
ロシア政府に強く抗議します　 [人権（LGBT等）] 　
昨日は、ロシア、モスクワでのプライドパレードが行われる予定の日でした。

モスクワ・プライド：警察がアレクセイエフ氏他120人を拘束 2 - 独国会議員も負傷