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A local newspaper in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil illustrated its front-page story on Tuesday with a photomontage of monkeys groping a woman to depict African and Arab men who had allegedly gotten into a bar fight. Our Observer, a Congolese student living in Ternopil, tells us this has deeply upset African students at his university, who he says are frequently the target of racist attacks.
Nova Ternopil explains that police had to intervene after an African man and an Arab man got into a fight involving a woman at a local bar on the weekend. The headline reads, "Arabs and negroes fight over our prostitutes." The photomontage shows two monkeys groping a white woman in the foreground. In the background, a group of black men are sitting around a table, having a drink. According to our Observer, the men pictured are students at a local university and had nothing to do with the alleged incident.Nova Ternopil could not be reached for comment by press time. As in much of the former Soviet Union, racism remains a common problem in Ukraine, which is overwhelmingly white.
"Ukrainian students reading the newspaper laughed at the picture"
Beckhs Love is a Congolese student studying agricultural technology at Ivan Puluj Technical University in Ternopil. He's lived there for four years. I was in class yesterday when the university's foreign student advisor called and told me to come to his office as soon I could. When I got there, he asked me to close the door behind me. He showed me the newspaper. I couldn't believe what I saw on the front page. I was shocked. First of all, why would a story about a bar fight be on the front page? You would think that would be reserved for real news.
He asked me if I recognized the men in the background of the photo. I did – I knew all of them; they are my fellow students. He told me that this was awful, but that it was a provocation, and asked me to talk to these students and ask them to stay calm. Because I speak better Ukrainian than most African students – of which there are about 300 at our university – I often act as a coordinator between the administration and the francophone students.
When I told the students in the picture about the article, they rushed out to the buy the newspaper. It was easy to find. It turned out the newspaper used an old photo of them for their montage – it was taken long before this fight allegedly took place. We have no idea how the newspaper got their hands on it.
Ukrainian newspaper depicts Africans and Arabs as monkeys - CNN iReport