RIGA, March 21 (Reuters) -- Latvia on Thursday called for the resignation of a senior official from a top European security and human rights group for suggesting the ex-Soviet country make Russian an official second language.
      During a visit to the Baltic state on Wednesday Gerard Stoudmann, a senior Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) official, told local journalists Russian was already "de facto the second language."
      "I think that it would be logical to confirm that it has an official status," Stoudmann was quoted as saying in English by Radio Free Europe. Other media ran similar quotes.
      Latvia has been urged to liberalise legislation affecting Russians here -- around a third of the 2.4 million population -- by NATO and the EU, both of which it hopes to join.
      But language is an extremely sensitive issue for Latvia, which emerged from five decades of Russian-dominated Soviet rule in 1991, and sees independence and the predominance of Latvian in public life as inextricably connected.
      Current EU president Spain does not have an embassy in Riga, and the Danish embassy, speaking for the presidency, issued a statement to clarify Brussels' position. This said the OSCE -- which it looked to as a key arbiter of human rights -- had never questioned Latvia's "sovereign right to decide itself about its state language."
      "There is no expectation whatsoever on (the) part of the European Union that Latvia should change or amend the provision that establishes that the Latvian language is the state language of Latvia," the embassy said in a statement.
      Stoudmann's comments drew strong reaction from Prime Minister Andris Berzins, who has been trying to build support for liberalising the election law -- which requires all candidates to prove they can speak Latvian well.
      "Stoudmann should resign," Berzins' press office said in a statement. Stoudmann was expected to issue a statement later.
      Stoudmann, the Swiss head of the OSCE's office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, had made his original comment on the sidelines of a conference on the OSCE's role in shaping Latvian policy toward its Russians.
      NATO has indicated that changes in the election law are needed to help Latvia's bid to join the alliance in November.
      But, with a general election due by October many politicians are reluctant to alter it, fearful of angering nationalist voters.
      The changes could fall through completely if lawmakers think the West will demand Russian be given official status.
      After independence, Latvian was made the state language, marginalising many Russian-speakers, who also fell foul of strict rules on who could become citizens of Latvia.

      RIGA, Mar 21, 2002 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Latvian authorities demanded to sack a high-ranking official of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) who proposed that Russian should become the second official language in the Baltic republic.
      Gerard Studman, the director of the OSCE Bureau for democratic institutions and human rights, told reporters on Wednesday that Russian was "de facto the second language" in Latvia.
      "Studman must resign", the press service of Prime Minister Andris Berzins commented on Thursday.
      Russian speakers comprise a third of the Latvian population.

      OSLO, March 22 (Reuters) -- Norwegian state-controlled oil company Statoil said on Friday that it was buying Shell's service stations in the Baltic states.
      It did not give a price of the deal with the Royal Dutch/Shell group.
      "The acquisition, which is conditional on the approval of the authorities in the respective coutnries, includes 61 service stations in all, 26 in Estonia, 19 in Latvia and 16 in Lithuania," it said in a statement.
      Statoil currently runs about 90 of its own petrol stations in the Baltic states unmder the brand name 1-2-3.

      VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- NATO candidate countries Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said Friday that they'll draw on the experience and connections of current member Poland in a final push to enter the powerful alliance.
      At a one-day summit in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, the Baltic and Polish presidents announced plans to form a working group made up of their respective U.S.-based ambassadors that would coordinate Baltic lobbying.
      The three ex-Soviet republics are among nine countries hoping to win coveted invitations to join the U.S.-led alliance, which is expected to launch another round of expansion eastward during a summit this November in Prague, the Czech Republic.
      Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said the Polish Embassy in Washington would provide key guidance as Baltic diplomats make their case in the U.S. capital.
      Poland, which borders Lithuania to the south, joined NATO in 1999 along with Hungary and the Czech Republic. It also spent years lobbying NATO states, some of which appeared skeptical about the benefits of taking in new members.
      Adamkus was joined at the Vilnius summit by Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, Estonian President Arnold Ruutel and Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
      Despite Kremlin opposition to Baltic membership -- which neighboring Russia perceives as a threat -- the Baltics are seen as having good chances of landing invitations. The 19-member alliance, though, has made no promises.
      Kwasniewski repeated Poland's backing for Baltic aspirations.
      "The decision to enlarge NATO would be historical in that it would abolish the consequences and lines of World War II," he said at a joint news conference.
      The Red Army occupied the three Baltic countries in 1940 after the Soviet Union and Germany divided Europe into so called spheres of influence. They only regained independence during the 1991 Soviet collapse.
      Latvia's president expressed confidence the three Baltics, with Poland's help, would woo NATO, adding that "I hope all four of us can open a bottle of champagne in Prague to celebrate victory."

      MOSCOW, Mar 22, 2002 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- The situation with the Russian language in Latvia runs counter to the related laws of Europe, says a report of the Russian Foreign Ministry obtained by Itar-Tass.
      The ministry comments on the Latvian negative reaction to the pronouncements of the Director of the OSCE Bureau for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights that Russian should obtain the official status in Latvia.
      The reaction "highlighted the essence of the problem the Russian minorities faces in that country," the report runs.
      "By insisting on only one state language, Latvian, the authorities of Latvia do not wish to reckon with the legitimate rights of the numerous Russian-speaking minority to use the native tongue in compliance with the European standards," the report stresses. "It is a fact that the Russian language still does not have the official status of a minority tongue in Latvia, and the Law on State Language describes Russian as a foreign language with all the related consequences."
      The denial of internationally recognized rights to people, in particular "on historical reasons," runs counter to the European Convention on Human Rights and a number of other legislative acts, the report says.
      "The experience of several East European countries, which have drafted laws with the assistance of European experts to give language minorities the right to the official use of their native language at least in the areas of their compact residence, suggests a way of a legal solution to the problem, " the ministry remarks.
      "The obvious unwillingness of the authorities to bring the Latvian legislation in conformity to the international commitments makes one think about the real value of Riga's statements on its wish to promote the integration of the Latvian society," the report emphasizes.

      RIGA, March 25 (Reuters) -- In 1997 school teacher Antonina Ignatane came just one vote short in her bid to win a seat on the city council of Latvia's capital, Riga.
      What galled her was that the crucial vote wasn't placed in a ballot box but cast long before election day by a state official who decided Ignatane -- whose native tongue is Russian -- did not speak Latvian well enough to run for public office.
      Indignant, she and her Equality Party, popular among members of the country's large Russian-speaking minority, went to court.
      "If there is a certain electorate that proposes me or someone else, how can somebody else take that person off the list or decide whether he can run or not?" said Ignatane, a German teacher since 1960.
      Under Latvia's election law, they can.
      It requires all candidates for political office to demonstrate they can speak top-notch Latvian. The demand was meant to protect the Latvian language, which was marginalised under 50 years of Russian-dominated Soviet occupation.
      Human rights experts say the law violates the rights of Russian speakers, one-third of the population, and that the requirement has been open to abuse and corruption.
      The law has become an obstacle to Latvia's bid to join NATO, which Riga sees as the best guarantee of the independence it regained in 1991.
      And time is running out to change it.
      NATO, which wants aspirants to resolve potential minority conflicts before joining, meets in November in Prague to decide which of nine applicants will get invitations to become a member.
      Apart from its election law, Latvia, with 2.4 million people, is a top candidate. Fellow Baltic states Lithuania and Estonia are also favourites and neighbouring Russia has softened its opposition to ex-Soviet states entering NATO.
      Lawmakers are struggling to resolve the issue but politicians, facing elections in October, fear looking weak on language -- a sensitive issue for a country that emerged 10 years ago from five decades of Russification.
      REQUIREMENT DEBATED
      What made Ignatane's case worse was that she had passed a state test and got language credentials required for political candidates weeks before the snap visit of an inspector.
      After a trip to Latvia's Supreme Court, and intervention by the U.N. Human Rights Committee, Latvia last year abolished the "language hunts" but left the language requirement in the law.
      In February, NATO Secretary General George Robertson told Latvia's parliament the outcome of lawmakers' debate on the law would play an important role in the decision on membership.
      "There's a good chance, a real good chance this issue could keep us out," said a government source. "A few months ago I could have seen Latvia getting an invite without changing the law and then having to do it later. Now I'm not so sure."
      NERVOUS ABOUT NATO
      Robertson's speech may also have allayed some worries on the part of Latvia's Russian speakers about joining NATO, the Cold War enemy of Moscow and the Russian-speaking world.
      "NATO is doing the right thing," said 61-year-old Vladimir, a car park attendant who served in the Soviet army.
      Polls show Russians here oppose NATO entry. Many fear being caught between two ex-rivals would hurt economic prospects.
      "Latvia should keep its neutrality, then it will have no problems with the West or Russia," said Vladimir, who, like many in here doesn't want to give a last name when talking politics.
      A survey conducted in December showed 27 percent of Russian speakers supported NATO entry, compared to 66 percent of Latvians.
      SHORT ON TIME FOR LONG DEBATE
      There is probably nothing more central to Latvians' sense of independence than their language. With Lithuanian, it is one of two surviving Baltic languages. Together with Estonian, a Finno-Ugric language, they form a linguistic outpost in a region dominated by Slavic tongues.
      Lawmakers are considering a package of constitutional changes to further strengthen the status of Latvian in an attempt to make amending the election law easier to swallow, but the political atmosphere surrounding the issue is tense.
      On March 21, Latvian Prime Minister Andris Berzins called for the resignation of an official from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for suggesting the country make Russian an official second language.
      The official later said his "personal reflection on the issue" had been misinterpreted and that neither he nor the OSCE
      -- a key arbiter of rights standards for NATO and the EU -- questioned the status of Latvian as the only state language.
      But the incident showed the thin line Berzins must walk to protect Latvian and also get the election law amended. Legal changes could fall through completely if lawmakers thought the West would demand Russian be given official status.
      "This is quite controversial and it has to be done very, very slowly and people have to be made sure that the language is safe," said Kristiana Libane, an MP pushing for the changes.
      Latvians preserved their language throughout centuries of domination by Germans, Poles, Swedes and Russians.
      At the end of the Soviet occupation -- [during which] Russians were given incentives to move to the Baltic state, while Latvians were deported to camps in Siberia -- Russian-language shop and street signs were torn down and a Latvian revival began.
      Latvia adopted laws on citizenship, language and elections that included measures to protect Latvian, making it the state language, and put up barriers to non-Latvians becoming citizens.
      BUILDING TOLERANCE
      Hardliners will not support amendments scrapping the language requirement, but others are wavering and may come round if voters' fears over the language can be assuaged.
      Those pushing the changes are hoping tolerance will prevail among people like Dzintra Jatniece, a 63-year-old cleaning lady. Deported to Siberia with her family when as a child, she says she would choose NATO entry over sticking to the election law.
      "Russian-speakers should learn Latvian, no doubt about that, but there should be no compulsion. Deported Latvians were forced to learn the (Russian) language," she said.
      Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, herself a scholar of Latvian culture, has said it is wrong to try to protect the language with an election law, a process which she calls "mixing sauerkraut and fruit syrup."
      The current law was just discriminatory, she said.
      "It is in stark contradiction to what our constitution says that all citizens have the right to elect and run for a post."

      ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- The NATO "security umbrella" is vital for Latvia and the tiny Baltic nation is prepared to offer support for missions by the Western alliance, Latvia's president said Wednesday.
      Latvia, a former Soviet republic, is pressing hard for membership in NATO. It also is expected to be in the first group of new European Union members when the EU expands eastward.
      "NATO's security umbrella is extremely important to Latvia," said Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga after meeting with Greek Premier Costas Simitis.
      "We are in a geographical location that has been the cause of periods of occupation and aggression coming from larger countries ... For us it's particularly important to be included in the NATO alliance," she added.
      Vike-Freiberga also stressed that Latvia, which has contributed troops to peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, wants "to be partners in an alliance where we are fully committed to be contributors of defense, not just consumers of defense."
      Delegations from Latvia and Greece signed a series of agreements which included naval cooperation and the avoidance of double taxation.
      NATO-member Greece will hold the EU's six-month rotating presidency for the first half of 2003, when agreements for candidate countries' accession could be signed.

      LONDON, Mar 29, 2002 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus has asked the European Union to allocate three billion euros in order to shut down the Ignalin nuclear power station. Adamkus has notified British Prime Minister Tony Blair about Vilnius' position.
      During a meeting between Adamkus and Blair in London on Thursday, a demand was voiced addressed to the Euroepean Union to finance the operation of shutting down the second reactor of the Ignalin nuclear power station.
      If the first reactor might be shut down by 2005 in return for guaranteed accession of Lithuania to the European Union, the second reactor, which has recently been overhauled by Sweden, meets all the existing safety standards, Adamkus said. Therefore, the problem of shutting down the second reactor in 2009 depends, entirely, on EU financial possibilities, Adamkus said.
      London has brought to the notice of the Lithuanian officials the position assumed by the European Union that the Ignalin nuclear power station should be shut down. Nevertheless, Adamkus declared that Lithuania has no funds of its own to shut down the second reactor.
      In mid-March, the European Commission had reproached Vilnius for reluctance to carry on a dialogue, warning that it might become a serious obstacle to Lithuania's admission to the European Union.