A conference dedicated to this problem took place in Moscow on 17 April. After Communists’ victory in Vietnam in 1975, children of American servicemen born to Vietnamese mothers were a special group among the persecuted. These fair-haired, blue-eyed and sometimes dark-skinned Vietnamese became the object of persecution by everyone — the authorities, the masses on behalf of the authorities and those who simply enjoyed insulting the defenceless.
As for the marriages, there is also a great deal of problems. Differences in the mentality, for example: a Russian wife considers herself equal and her Caucasian husband disagrees; bringing up children: a Russian husband wants them to be Orthodox Christians and a Tartar wife
wants them to be Muslim. We mustn’t forget that in some countries certain political parties and ethnic communities aim to impede international marriages. I had an opportunity to talk to a member of "Vatan" party which mainly consists
of Tartars. He said that marriages between Russians and Tartars are harmful as they threaten the very existence of the Tartar nation. "What if two people love each other?" I asked. "This is what we mustn’t allow to happen," said he.
Last year Sweden was shocked by a tragedy in the Kurdish community: a father killed his daughter because against the tradition she wanted to marry not one of her compatriots but a Swede. Several thousand people turned up at the funeral of the young Kurdish girl including members of
the Royal family. Not to mention the people who became victims of feud between clans or big politics. "Your husband says hello," women in a bomb shelter were saying to a pregnant Croatian woman when Yugoslav air force was bombing Zagreb in 1991. At the time her Serb husband was serving in the Yugoslav Army…
Among the speakers at the conference were psychologists, lawyers, officials and those immediately concerned — the ‘mixed’ couples and their children. Nataliya Lyashenko, the consultant of the State Duma Nationalities’ Affairs Committee, spoke a lot about how hard MPs are working on various bills and concepts concerning policy on nationality.
Although there are enough existing laws to protect the rights of people regardless of their ethnicity, the problem is who will protect them. "Why have you come to us? Go and ask some African country," Emilia Mense was told on many occasions by officials when she asked for help. She is
a daughter of an African American father and a Ukrainian mother and the Chairwoman of "Metis" fund which helps children born from mixed marriages. "Maybe it’s better for you to go home," say ‘sympathetic’ officials to these people strictly off the record. Not to the foreign, I stress, but to the Russian citizens. They have no other ‘home’ as in many cases the dark-skinned dads renounced their children even before they had been born.
Igor is one of such children. He was born against his father’s wish who left for his home country. Later his mother suffered a psychological trauma when the man she loved broke up the relationship after he had found out about his dark-skinned off-spring. Igor still recalls his
school years with a shudder. It was the time of endless beatings, humiliation and sneering. Later on he was attacked by skinheads on many occasions. An African man, the husband to the woman who was asked about her sense
of humour at the job interview, also spoke at the conference about the skinheads. "It’s not even about the skinheads. They insult us, even beat us and very often it happens in the presence of tens of people. In the metro train carriage, for example. Nobody interferes. Not a single
person. Everybody looks away", said the man.