Russia: African Student Killed In St. Petersburg In Possible Hate Crime

by Valentinas Mite

Lamzar Samba (ITAR-TASS)

A Senegalese university student was slain in St. Petersburg early this morning in what investigators are considering a possible hate crime. The victim was gunned down as he and a group of fellow African students were leaving a night club. The killing comes as the city -- and Russia as a whole -- is experiencing a wave of racially motivate crimes.

PRAGUE, April 7, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- St. Petersburg city prosecutor Sergei Zaitsev told journalists today that while an official motive has yet to be established, the 28-year-old victim's raceis being considered as a factor in the crime.

"An investigation has begun according to Article 105, Part 2, Paragraph L [of the Russian Criminal Code]; that is, murder out of ethnic and racial hatred," Zaitsev said. "I'd like to point out that the motive has not yet been determined, but considering the fact that the victim was African, we deliberately assigned a higher degree [to the case] in order to give our work the right direction."

Lamzar Samba was a fifth-year student at St. Petersburg's Communications Institute who belonged to African Unity, a human rights organization that represents the interests of the city's African emigre community.

Samba was shot dead around 6 a.m. as he and a group of African students were leaving a club near the city center where they were celebrating their institute's faculty day.

One of the students in the group, Michel Panabian, told RFE/RL's Russian Service today that they were heading toward a metro station when Samba was attacked from behind.

"We were walking down the street and there was a man who was walking behind us. He fired a shot. He hit one of us and the guy died," Panabian said. "After he fired, I turned back and I saw him, but he left immediately. I can only describe the way he was dressed."

AP quoted the city's deputy prosecutor, Andrei Lavrenko, as telling NTV television that a hunting gun decorated with a swastika was found at the crime scene.

Russian television broadcast images of the scene, and NTV reported that the man was shot in the head, according to AP.

Racist violence is a mounting problem in Russia. Members of ultranationalist and other groups regularly harass or attack Africans, Asians, and non-Slavic residents from the Caucasus or former-Soviet Central Asia.

Today, a group calling itself the Party of Freedom welcomed the killing in St. Petersburg, saying on its website that "the cleanup of the city continues."

Desire Defoe, who heads the African Unity organization to which Samba belonged, expressed the helplessness many foreign citizens in the city feel.

"I very much hope that the [Russian] state will know what to do," Defoe said. "We can't tell the [Russian] state what should be done [to protect] foreign citizens, this is ridiculous. What advice can be given today? Even the police told us to walk in groups, not to be alone. Did that help? So, what are we supposed to do, sit at home?"

The French news agency AFP cited an independent study by the nongovernmental organization Sova as stating that six people have been killed and 79 injured in more than 40 racist attacks around the country this year.

According to Sova, 30 of the attacks and five deaths this year have taken place in Moscow. In St. Petersburg, 14 people have been injured and one killed in racially motivated attacks, not including today's killing.

In 2005, 28 people were killed and 366 injured in Russia as a result of hate crimes, according to Sova.

The Russian Foreign Ministry today issued a statement expressing condolences to Samba's relatives and friends following the killing.

However, rights groups argue that the authorities in Russia generally do little to combat such crimes.

Allison Gill is the director of the Moscow office for the New York-based Human Rights Watch. She told RFE/RL that part of the problem is systemic.