Sunday, 16 April 2000
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Lat Mailer/Chat Reminder for
Sunday, April 16, 2000
Date: 4/15/2000
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For all of you desperately working
on your (U.S.) income taxes at the last minute, we'll dispense with the
chit-chat and get right to it.
This week's links
can be found in our news and picture features.
In the news:
- Latvia erects memorial to U.S. Airmen
- Stalinist hunt, an Estonian perspective [plus links]
- Russian ambassador to Latvia not allowed to meet Kononov
- Russia's Putin approves Kononov's citizenship bid
- Latvia PM Skele quits, new government may take one month
- Russian envoy stunned by silence over human rights abuses in Latvia, Estonia
- Baltic Sea Summit ends
- NATO Supreme Commander Clark says NATO expansion good for Russia too
harkens to the past and to spring.
IN ACCORDANCE WITH AOL'S MAIL POLICY and good manners, please let Silvija (Silvija) know if you wish to be deleted from our mailing list. Past mailers are archived at latvians.com. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.
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From the news:
Institute of Baltic Studies : http://www.ibs.ee/index.html.en
Estonian Embassy in Washington: http://www.estemb.org
From this week's picture:
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Latvia Erects Memorial to US
Airmen
LIEPAJA, Latvia (AP)
— The city of Liepaja unveiled a memorial Saturday to honor 10 U.S. airmen
who were shot down by the Soviet military 50 years ago when Latvia was part of
the Soviet Union.
The aircraft was shot down on
April 8, 1950, while testing the effectiveness of the Soviet Union's
westernmost air defense system; it is believed to have been the first American
spy plane shot down by the Soviets during the Cold War.
Washington declared in 1951 that all 10 airmen were
presumed dead, but investigators from the U.S. Defense Department, with help
from Latvian historians, are still searching for clues about their exact
fate.
Soviet media reported the crash at the time,
but the cleanup was shrouded in secrecy. No bodies were ever released by Soviet
or Russian authorities, and the precise location of the crash, somewhere near
Liepaja, has never been revealed.
Liepaja is 140
miles west of the capital, Riga.
After the 1991
Soviet collapse, declassified files suggested that eight of the men may have
survived and been jailed. Relatives have asked Moscow for details.
The Saturday ceremony on the Latvian coast —
near where the airmen are believed to have perished in the Baltic Sea —
was broadcast live via satellite to relatives of the airmen in the United
States.
Kaspars Ruklis, a spokesman for the U.S.
Embassy in Latvia, thanked Latvian officials in Liepaja for the memorial, which
includes the names of the men etched onto a plaque.
"It's a way to honor the men who died and a nice
gesture to their widows and children," he said.
In
total, 90 U.S. servicemen disappeared in 10 separate incidents over Soviet
airspace during the Cold War, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
© 2000 The Associated
Press
By MICHAEL TARM, Associated Press Writer
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — On June 14,
1941, young Lennart Meri awoke to the sound of combat boots stomping down the
hallway. Soviet soldiers had just entered his house to deport him and his
family.
Lennart, his mother, father and younger
brother were given 20 minutes to pack, then were trucked to a waiting train and
herded inside. It was a wood-paneled cattle car, fitted with iron bars and a
hole cut in the floor to serve as a latrine.
The
train car was already packed with women and children, Meri, now 71 and
president of Estonia since 1992, recalled in an interview. The human cargo was
bound for Siberia, and some wouldn't return alive.
Virtually everyone in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
can tell of at least one close relative who was deported or of being deported
themselves in the years following the 1940 Soviet occupation of the three
Baltic republics.
But unlike in the other 12 former
Soviet republics, such reminiscences aren't only the stuff of history here.
They are witness testimony as prosecutors pursue alleged agents of Stalinist
terror.
Estonia has convicted four Stalinist agents
in the past year. Latvia has convicted three men, and an 85-year-old former
secret police officer, Yevgeny Savenko, is facing trial for allegedly signing
arrest orders that led to the deportation and execution of dozens of Latvians.
There is widespread support for the proceedings
among Estonians.
"Sometimes I think, 'Let it be,'"
said Salme Kulvere, who was deported in 1949 when she was 16. "But when I think
about how truly horrible it was in deportation, I don't see how these crimes
can just be swept under the carpet."
The trials have
infuriated Russia. Many Russians say the three Baltic states are seeking
revenge against elderly, ailing men who often hold Russian passports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Latvia's
recent conviction of Vasily Kononov, a 77-year-old Russian citizen considered
by some to be a Soviet war hero, was a cruel and unjust verdict against an "old
and seriously sick man."
Kononov was sentenced to
six years in prison for executing nine civilians while he was a Soviet
guerrilla during Germany's 1941-44 occupation of Latvia. He claimed the
civilians got caught in cross fire during a battle with Nazi troops.
Baltic officials dismiss Russia's criticism, saying
their huge neighbor has failed to honestly confront atrocities committed by
Russians during Stalin's reign.
Eerik Kross, who
oversees the Estonian unit hunting old Soviet agents, pointed to the 1946
Nuremberg Charter and the 1949 Geneva Convention. With Nazi crimes in mind,
Stalin helped draft both.
"But if you read these
conventions, there's no doubt they do apply to Stalin's crimes," Kross said.
"This is not about revenge. We are obliged to do what we are doing."
Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar said the
proceedings have been fair and he has no pity for the former agents.
"None of these men have ever said, 'I understand
what I did was wrong and I'm sorry,'" Laar said. "They hint others did the deed
or that they were just following orders. So, no, I don't have any sympathy."
The Baltic states have been accused of showing less
zeal in going after alleged Nazis.
Hundreds of Nazi
collaborators were tried and executed in the Baltic states by Soviet
authorities after the war, but none have been convicted since the 1991 collapse
of the Soviet Union brought independence to the region.
Laar said the Baltic states are trying to redress
an imbalance.
"While the world has recognized the
horrors of Nazism, people haven't understood the horrors of communism," he
said. "These prosecutions are giving communist crimes the attention they
deserve."
Meri, whose family managed to return from
Siberia after World War II, said the most important reason for the trials was
to shed light on the Stalinist period.
"We must
fully understand this aspect of our past — to be absolutely sure that it
is not repeated in the lives of my children and grandchildren," he said.
On the Net:
Institute of Baltic
Studies: http://www.ibs.ee/index.html.en
Estonian
Embassy in Washington: http://www.estemb.org
© 2000 The Associated
Press
Russian ambassador to Latvia
not allowed to meet Kononov
MOSCOW, April 11 (Itar-Tass)
— The Latvian authorities have rejected the request of the Russian
ambassador to Latvia to let him meet Vasili Kononov, veteran antifascist, who
has been kept in prison for more than a year, says a report of the Russian
Foreign Ministry received by Tass on Tuesday.
According to the report, previously the Latvian
authorities did not allow the Moscow mayor's office to send to Riga a group of
Russian physicians for examining Kononov's health and giving medical aid to
him. Several days ago the Russian government forwarded a similar request to
Latvia, but the answer again was No.
"Such an
attitude to Vasili Kononov, 77-year-old war veteran, whose only fault consists
in an honest fulfilment of his soldier's duty in the struggle against fascism
during the Second World War, is evidence of a total disrespect by the Latvian
authorities for the generally recognized principles of humaneness," the report
said.
rom/ast © 1996-2000
ITAR-TASS
Russia's Putin approves
Kononov's citizenship bid
MOSCOW
(Reuters) — Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin has approved an
application for citizenship by Vasili Kononov, a World War Two Soviet partisan
recently jailed in Latvia, the Kremlin said Wednesday.
Kononov has been the focus of tense exchanges
between Russia and Latvia, which has jailed the 77-year-old for six years for
killing nine citizens in 1944.
A Kremlin spokesman
said by telephone that he could not say when Kononov would officially receive
his Russian passport and other documents.
Kononov's
conviction and a parade through the Latvian capital Riga last month by veterans
who served in a Latvian Waffen SS unit have enraged Russian authorities and war
veterans' organizations.
Moscow has also bitterly
criticized what it says is discrimination against Latvia's large ethnic Russian
minority.
The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and
Estonia were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 under the German-Soviet treaty
carving up much of Eastern Europe. They regained their independence in
1991.
Many Latvians fought on the Nazi side to help
end the Soviet occupation, during which thousands of residents of all three
Baltic states were deported to labor camps in Siberia.
Kononov has appealed his conviction and Russia has
asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to help
press the Latvian authorities to release him.
Latvian President Vaira Vike Freiberga turned down
a request by Putin to intervene, saying all war crimes had to be punished
regardless of the ideology for which they were committed.
© 2000 Reuters
Ltd.
Latvia PM Skele quits, new
government may take one month
By Alan Crosby
RIGA, April 12 (Reuters) — Latvian
Prime Minister Andris Skele resigned on Wednesday after his coalition
government collapsed in a privatisation dispute, and politicians said it could
be a month before a new administration was in place.
Analysts said that unless fresh faces and ideas
were brought in, privatisation might grind to a halt, harming the economy of
the former Soviet Baltic republic struggling to recover from recession.
But Skele's surprise announcement had no immediate
impact on markets. Share prices rose slightly and the lat currency held steady.
"Today I will submit my resignation to the state
president and talks on the creation of a new government will start," he told a
news conference.
Skele, who would have faced a
confidence vote on Thursday, has been at loggerheads with a junior coalition
party called For Fatherland and Freedom after he fired Economy Minister
Vladimirs Makarovs, a member of that party.
Makarovs had voided the signing rights of
privatisation agency chief Janis Naglis, effectively stripping him of the power
to run the agency. Skele said the move had undermined earlier cabinet
decisions.
Naglis and Skele favoured speedy
privatisation of firms still in state hands and Makarovs had complained that
the agency needlessly sacrificed price for speed.
With Skele leaving, the way is clear for his
Peoples' Party, Latvia's Way and Fatherland to build a new cabinet.
BROADER COALITION POSSIBLE
Latvia's Way Chairman Andrejs Pantelejevs
said talks would begin immediately on forming a government, and the small
centrist New Party might be added to broaden the coalition.
He added his party — widely expected to be
given the prime minister's post — had a list of candidates including five
ministers, Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins among them, in the previous
government.
"We will have to be quick about
nominating a candidate for prime minister, but...it will take at least until
after Easter to form a government," he said, adding he hoped a cabinet would be
in place before mid-May.
The Peoples' Party holds 24
of 100 seats in parliament. Latvia's Way has 21, Fatherland 16 and the New
Party eight.
Analysts said that while long-term
goals such as European Union and NATO membership would be little affected, the
economy could be hurt if investment, needed to speed up industrial
restructuring, was slowed.
"Politically, I don't
expect many changes, I doubt we will go through a period of great instability,"
one local analyst told Reuters. "But with the same parties in place, it's tough
to see how the problems facing Skele's government will be solved."
Another analyst, London-based Dafne Ter-Sakarian of
the research house HILFE, said the change might amount to little more than a
high-profile cabinet shuffle, with policy innovation sacrificed.
"I fear that privatisation will not get going this
year, and that's not good news," she said. Several high-profile selloffs set
for this year include electrical utility Latvenergo and Latvian Shipping, an
ocean cargo firm.
Skele's government took power last
July after the government of Vilis Krishtopans was brought down in a dispute
over fiscal policy. A general election is not scheduled until autumn 2002 and
an earlier vote is not expected.
© 2000 Reuters Ltd.
Russian envoy stunned by
silence over human rights abuses in Latvia, Estonia
GENEVA, April 14 (Itar-Tass) — A
Russian envoy to the session of the UN Human Rights Commission was stunned by
the silence of the world community over human rights abuses in the Baltic
republics of Latvia and Estonia.
"We are surprised
by the absence of the proper reaction of the international community to the
dangerous trends in Latvia and Estonia, specifically of the European Union
which the countries want so much to join. There is an impression that they do
not want to see clear things, that Russians for them are the people of the
second grade", Alexander Gusev told the session on Thursday.
He recalled that the Russian-speaking minority in
Latvia and Estonia is deprived of citizenship which is "one of the most refined
forms of discrimination". It will take 50 years for 600 thousand Russian
speakers, a third of the Latvian population, to get a citizenship at the
current rate of naturalization.
"The problem has not
been solved and authorities do not want to solve it. There is not even a hint
towards a policy of integration, discrimination of the Russian-speaking
population continues", Gusev said.
He added that the
situation with minorities in Estonia "is far from internationally accepted
standards". "The situation with military pensioners is absolutely abnormal.
Elderly people, who have lived in Estonia for 40-50 years have no right, to get
a permament residence permit. The widows of former /Soviet/ servicemen are
viewed by authorities through the prism of a security threat to the Estonian
state", Gusev said.
"It is high time for
international organizations to explain to Riga and Tallinn that human rights
are to be observed", the Russian diplomat said.
nec/© 1996-2000
ITAR-TASS
Baltic Sea Summit
Ends
STOCKHOLM, April 13
(XINHUA) — Eleven countries round the Baltic Sea and the European
Union (EU) ended their third summit in the Danish port of Kolding Thursday
after pledging closer cooperation on a range of economic, political and social
issues.
In a final statement, heads of state from
the Council of Baltic Sea States (CBSS) said their region "can become a leading
growth area in the new century".
The CBSS countries
agreed to enhance cooperation in the fight against organized crime and decided
to prolong the tenure of the task force on organized crime, founded in 1996,
for another four years, according to the statement.
As infectious diseases, such as AIDS and TB, ran
rampant in the Baltic Sea region, they also agreed to establish another task
force on epidemic diseases so as to strengthen cooperation in this regard, said
the document.
Meanwhile, the heads of state
consented to streamline the investment procedures and speed up the clearance of
commodities in customs.
They also agreed to take
concerted efforts to guarantee the security of nuclear power plants and nuclear
waste.
The CBSS, set up in 1992 in the wake of the
collapse of the Soviet Union, includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany,
Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden, along with a
seat for the European Union.
Most of the body's 12
members were represented by heads of government, including German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder, Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek and Romano Prodi,
president of the European Commission, the EU's executive body.
Russia however was represented by Economy Minister
Andrei Shapovaliants, while Latvia was represented by Foreign Minister Indulis
Berzins.
© 2000 XINHUA NEWS
AGENCY
Clark says NATO expansion
good for Russia too
TALLINN, April
15 (Reuters) — NATO supreme commander General Wesley Clark said on
Saturday enlargement of the western alliance would benefit all of Europe,
including Russia.
Expansion would bring the east the
kind of stability western Europe had enjoyed since the end of World War Two, he
said in the Estonian capital Tallinn at the end of a two-day visit.
"We made very clear that we think enlargement is in
the interests of all nations in Europe including Russia. After all, what better
insurance of security and stability could Russia have than an enlarged NATO,"
Clark, who retires from his post next month, told journalists.
NATO's acceptance in 1999 of three former East Bloc
states — Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic — had been a success
and were an encouraging sign for further expansion, Clark said.
His comments came at a sensitive time in relations
between the alliance and Moscow, and were made in a country that wants to join
NATO as soon as possible. Moscow is opposed to any of the Baltic states
becoming NATO members.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
— which regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 — say
expansion will bring stability and security, and ensure domination by their
larger eastern neighbour will never occur again.
All three have signed a partnership pact with the
United States as a step toward NATO membership. While no timetable has been
laid out for expansion, Estonia has set 2002 as the date to meet requirements
for NATO membership.
It will spend 1.6 percent of
gross domestic product (GDP) on defence in 2000, up from 1.4 percent in 1999,
and plans to boost spending to 1.8 percent of GDP in 2001 and two percent in
2002.
© 2000 Reuters
Ltd.
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Following on our most recent themes of pictures from
the past and the coming of spring, this week's picture is a "restored" copy
(yellowed background removed) of a picture called "Spring in our Native Land",
featured on page 66 of the "Latvian Exiles' Calendar 1947", circulated in the
DP camps after the war. You'll notice that the snow is still on the
ground!
You can find a complete copy of the calendar, cover to
cover, at Latvian Exiles' Calendar, 1947.