Opinion ID: 2996942
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Generalized discrimination

Text: Separate from their concerns about military service, the Pelinkovics also alleged in their petition to reopen based on changed country conditions that Milosevic’s campaign against the ethnic-Albanian Kosovar insurgents subjected them, as ethnic-Albanian Montenegrins, to a credible fear of persecution upon their return home. The BIA determined that on the record before it, the Pelinkovics succeeded in only illuminating escalating civil strife. The BIA stated that it remained unpersuaded that the Pelinkovics would face persecution by Serbian nationalists based on their ethnicAlbanian heritage. Again, we find that the BIA did not abuse its discretion in refusing to reopen the Pelinkovics’ case on these grounds. The majority of the articles submitted by the Pelinkovics outline Montenegro’s disagreement with Milosevic’s brutal attempts to suppress the Kosovar separatists and the resulting political schism between Serbia and Montenegro, foreshadowing civil war. The civil unrest reported by the 12 No. 02-3065 Pelinkovics affected all Montenegrins equally, regardless of ethnicity. We note, as we have many times before, that crisis conditions common to all citizens of the affected country do not present a prima facie case warranting reopening of an asylum claim. See Capric, 355 F.3d at 1084 (“However, generalized conditions of hardship which affect entire populations do not rise to the level of persecution.”); Bradvica v. INS, 128 F.3d 1009, 1013 (7th Cir. 1997) (noting that the generalized conditions of strife in BosniaHerzegovina did not support a claim of asylum because they did not show that the petitioner would be singled out for persecution); Sivaainkaran v. INS, 972 F.2d 161, 165 (7th Cir. 1992) (“[C]onditions of political upheaval which affect the populace as a whole or in large part are generally insufficient to establish eligibility for asylum.”). The Pelinkovics had to show more. To that end, the Pelinkovics argue, weakly, that because of their membership in a persecuted minority class, they are per se eligible for asylum. See 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(b)(2)(iii). Their evidence in support of this proposition includes articles describing abuses perpetrated by police against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, not in Montenegro, the Pelinkovics’ home. In Capric v. Ashcroft, we recently rejected the petitioners’ claim that they were per se eligible for asylum based on their religion and ethnicity. 355 F.3d at 1094-95. The Caprics, like the Pelinkovics, hailed from Bar, Montenegro and were Muslims and ethnic Albanians. The Caprics, like the Pelinkovics, based their asylum claim on the pattern of persecution and ethnic cleansing directed against Kosovar ethnic Albanians, who were struggling for independence from Serbia. After distinguishing the treatment between Montenegrin and Kosovar ethnic Albanians, we held that the “evidence does not show that this was an ‘extreme situation’ in which ethnic Albanians were subject to a pattern and practice of persecution in Montenegro.” Id. at 1095. The same is true here. No. 02-3065 13 Because the Pelinkovics cannot make a case that they would be per se subject to persecution based on their Muslim religion and ethnic-Albanian ancestry, they needed to come forward with evidence that they individually would be subject to religious/ethnic persecution upon their return home, which they did not do. See 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(b)(2)(i). We have held in numerous cases involving applicants fleeing the war-torn Balkans that “fear of general conditions of ethnic persecution common to all members of an ethnic minority does not constitute the well-founded fear required by statute.” Petrovic, 198 F.3d at 1037 (collecting cases); Selimi, 360 F.3d at 740-41, (denying Macedonian ethnic Albanians’ petitions to reopen for failing to show that they would be individually targeted for persecution, instead stating generalized fear based on their membership in an ethnic minority); see also Sivaainkaran, 972 F.2d at 165 (noting that the petitioner’s homeland, Sri Lanka, “like so many countries across the globe, is locked in a seemingly intractable ethnic civil war,” but that such a sad state of political turmoil “does not permit the judiciary to stretch the definition of ‘refugee’ to cover sympathetic, yet statutorily ineligible, asylum applicants”). The BIA rationally determined that based on the evidence presented with their petition to reopen, the Pelinkovics did not establish a prima facie case that they would be persecuted in Montenegro because of their ethnic minority status. The petition to reopen was properly denied. We pause here to note that, as a final summation, the Pelinkovics broadly argue that based on what the world knows now of the heinous war crimes committed by Milosevic during the Kosovo campaign, the BIA should have viewed their moral objections to military service and their fear of persecution based on ethnicity more charitably. Yet, we take judicial notice that the Montenegro to which the Pelinkovics will return is much different from the one they left in 1992. See, e.g., Medhin v. Ashcroft, 350 F.3d 685, 690 14 No. 02-3065 (7th Cir. 2003) (taking judicial notice of the State Department’s current country report on Ethiopia); Dobrota v. INS, 195 F.3d 970, 973 (7th Cir. 1999) (taking judicial notice of the State Department’s most recent country report on Romania). The situation in the Balkans has improved dramatically. As of today, Milosevic is out of power and on trial in The Hague. The FRY has been dissolved and is renamed “Serbia and Montenegro.” Kosovo, still technically a part of the new Serbia and Montenegro, is a United Nations protectorate. Although living conditions remain difficult because of years of civil war and economic sanctions, and sporadic ethnic clashes still occur, the State Department notes continued improvement, along with few human rights abuses, including a negligible amount against Muslims of Albanian descent. See United States Department of State, Background Note: Serbia and Montenegro (Jan. 2004), available at http://www.state.gov/ r/pa/ei/bn/ 5388pf.htm; United States Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-2003: Serbia and Montenegro (Feb. 25, 2 0 0 4 ) , a v a i l a b l e a t h t t p : / / www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/ 27874pf.htm. The country conditions in Serbia and Montenegro, which, after a decade of strife, have finally changed for the better, are yet another reason to uphold the BIA’s decision not to reopen their asylum claim. See Dobrota, 195 F.3d at 974 (affirming the BIA’s denial of aliens’ asylum application because current country conditions reflected no threat to the petitioners).