Somali blood on the snow

[Jabhad]

Somali blood on Moscow snow

 

Mukhtar may stay on in Moscow to do postgraduate studies

When Somali civil engineering student Mukhtar Ahmed Osman was beaten unconscious in the snow by a gang of teenagers in a Moscow suburb three years ago, nobody came to his aid. Here he recounts his ordeal for the BBC News website:

 

It was about seven o'clock on a November evening in 2002, the year after I arrived from Somalia to study at RUDN university.

 

I was escorting a friend from the university here to his home near the Kantemirovskaya Metro station.

 

After I saw him home I came down out of the apartment block into the street to stop a taxi.

 

I saw kids playing in the snow nearby and I thought they were just kids playing. I imagine the average age was about 14 and there were about 13 of them. There was snow everywhere.

 

I believe there are good and bad in every nation and Russia is full of good, decent people

 

 

Then one of them came up to me and starting speaking very quickly. At that time, I was still only learning Russian and could only follow slowly so I asked him: "What? Could you repeat that please?"

 

He hit me and I tried to hit him back, but another one struck me from behind. I lost consciousness. When I was on the ground they started kicking me really hard.

 

Then they must have thought I was dead and they stopped. I opened my eyes and saw them standing in a circle around me and I said to myself if I don't do something they will start again, so I reached out and grabbed a stone or something and they ran away, and then I ran away.

 

My friend Igor

 

I got to the road where I stopped a car. The driver said 'Where are you going?' and I said to the Yugo-Zapadnaya Metro station and he said '$20'[well above the usual rate]. I agreed because I had no choice, and money was the last of my worries at that moment.

 

I was covered in blood and then I asked him if I could have some water to drink, and he said 'You shouldn't drink so much'. He must have thought I was drunk. [Mukhtar lives on a monthly budget of $150 and neither drinks nor smokes]. Well, he said he had no water.

 

Then he brought me to the station. Some guys there helped me get home and an ambulance was called. I was brought to hospital. Then some other Somalis came to see me after hearing about the attack. I did not go to university for 15 days. Then I went to the police and they filed a report, but nothing was done.

 

It's a pity but that's how life is here. I have a lot of Russian friends. I believe there are good and bad in every nation and Russia is full of good, decent people.

 

I have one very close friend - Igor is his name. He often phones me and tells me to let him know if I want to go somewhere and he will come with me. He and I go places all the time. If someone starts making trouble, he says 'If you're looking for trouble, mate, come to me first'. I feel safe when I travel with him.

[Katrina]

I wonder what life in Russia is like for somalis? The ingrates of North America should stop complaining and be happy. The straw we drew isn't so bad.

[Guhaad]

Is this guy for real, he got beaten 'almost to death', and he is still asking for more. there is the potential for this to happen again. well, i guess what goes around, comes back. Damn, you saw what the taxi driver did :mad:

 

mukhtar, my advice in two words is, Get Out

[Jaylaani]

Please, people got shot in North America.

[sheherazade]

^ before u run, u have to try and make it work.

 

Miskiin, may God protect him and the rest.

[Jaylaani]

^^^and the Police...don't even get me started on that.

[sheherazade]

^ and u think the Russian police would be a walk in the park?

[Jaylaani]

^^^^All I’m saying is that the dude was kicked around few times by couple of kids. No bigy, he was conscious enough to scare them away.

[Naden]

The issue is much more serious than a 'dude kicked around few times'. Racial violence against African students in Russia is widespread and serious. People being shot or whatever in North America is a completely different animal.

 

BBC NEWS Monday, 26 December 2005, 06:30 GMT

Murder of African alarms Russia

A Russian youth movement allied to President Vladimir Putin is to demand action against racist violence after the murder of an African student.

 

A spokesman for Nashi (Our People) said it wanted public condemnation of rising racial intolerance in St Petersburg, Mr Putin's native city.

 

A Cameroonian was stabbed to death and a Kenyan citizen wounded in attacks in the city on Saturday evening.

 

Russian prosecutors say they suspect both crimes were racially motivated.

 

The Cameroonian, identified as Kanhem Leon, was attacked by a group of five or six youths dressed in dark clothing and black hats, a spokeswoman for the St Petersburg prosecutor said.

 

A Namibian student with the victim managed to escape from the scene, said Yelena Ordynskaya.

 

The Kenyan was attacked 300 metres away at around the same time.

 

Student anger

 

A spokesman for Africans in the city, named as Desire Defoe, was quoted by Russian media as saying that foreign students in St Petersburg planned to hold a protest shortly.

 

Nashi said they wanted to raise xenophobic attacks with the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, a recently created advisory body.

 

"We demand that the St Petersburg authorities stop the outrages in the city," said Nashi press secretary Ivan Mostovich.

 

The head of Russia's Students' Union, Nikita Chaplin, has called on President Putin and the government to oversee the investigation into Saturday's attacks personally.

 

"It is unlikely that local authorities have the ability to investigate them," he told a Moscow radio station.

 

According to figures from the Moscow Bureau of Human Rights, there were three times as many fatal racial attacks in Russia in the first six months of 2005, compared with the whole of 2004.

Originally posted by Jaylaani:

^^^^All I’m saying is that the dude was kicked around few times by couple of kids. No bigy, he was conscious enough to scare them away.

[Jaylaani]

^^^R U kidding me.

[Naden]

What part is particularly funny, my comment or the attached incident? A beating very quickly becomes a murder and the killing of the Cameroonian student was done by youth as well.

 

 

Originally posted by Jaylaani:

^^^R U kidding me.

[Jaylaani]

:confused: ...whatever man!

[Guhaad]

i don't know what was funny to him, but i am cracking at this:

 

All I’m saying is that the dude was kicked around few times by couple of kids. No bigy, he was conscious enough to scare them away.

i don't even know where he got that. but hell, Sheh, i know you know sometimes the best option is flight. if you don't, you must migrated before we did :cool:

[Mr.Faarax]

Somalis get beat up everywhere they go.....sad

[Jabhad]

2 Thumbs up for Somali youths who are going far places to seek knowledge.