Dutch seek to soothe
Russian anger over EU request for explanation to bloody end of hostage
seizure
Reuters World Report Saturday, September 04, 2004
2:01:00 PM Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd.
MOSCOW/VALKENBURG, Netherlands, Sept
4 (Reuters) — Russia denounced on Saturday as "blasphemous" a request
by the European Union's Dutch presidency for an explanation for the bloody end
to a mass hostage seizure at a school by Chechen gunmen.
But Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot,
who made the request in a statement on Friday on behalf of the EU presidency,
said he had been misunderstood and he would try to calm the row by talking to
his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
"There obviously was a
misunderstanding," Bot told a news conference after a meeting of EU foreign
ministers in the Netherlands. "My words have been misinterpreted. I never said
that I needed to be ... informed." More
than 320 people, almost half of them children, were found dead after troops
stormed a school on Friday in the southern Russian town of Beslan, where
Chechen separatists had held more than 1,000 hostages for 53 hours.
In a statement issued in the name of
the EU presidency on Friday, Bot said all countries should work together to
stop such tragedies, adding: "We also would like to know from the Russian
authorities how this tragedy could have happened."
The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted
with outrage to Bot's statement, and Interfax news agency said the Dutch
ambassador had been summoned to the ministry to explain.
"Mr Bot's elaborations are an absolute
contrast with the wide international support and solidarity with Russia in
these tragic days," a ministry statement said.
"Inappropriate statements by the Dutch
minister look odious ... and blasphemous," it said. "We expect explanations
from the Dutch side." Bot said had only
sought more information from Moscow and had not intended to criticise.
"I will certainly set the record
straight with my colleague Lavrov later in the day," he said.
"In the context of the fact that we are
dealing with a global scourge ... it would be very useful if there was more
intensive cooperation between all countries in the world, both in the
preliminary stage when we are trying to prevent such things and in the
aftermath, because we can all learn from each other," he said.
At Valkenburg in the Netherlands, where
the EU ministers were meeting, Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds told
reporters she understood the Russian reaction and Irish Foreign Minister Brian
Cowen said it would be "a very premature and wrong judgment" to fault the
Russian security forces. But diplomats
said former Soviet republic Latvia had pressed the EU at the meeting to react
more strongly to the Russian handling of the siege.
Popular Latvia Prison
Holiday
AP US & World Monday, September 06, 2004
12:00:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By TIMOTHY
JACOBS Associated Press Writer
LIEPAJA, Latvia (AP) —
After the ill-tempered guard clanged the cell door shut, the darkness was
enveloping and complete. Then lights flashed and a voice barked: "Face the
wall! Hands behind your back!" In the
room, under pictures of Lenin and Stalin, a stern-faced Soviet army officer sat
hunched over a desk, smoking. "What are you doing in a restricted military
zone?" he demanded. So began an unusual
Latvian exercise in retro-chic: a night in a Soviet-era slammer.
Each weekend, about 25 people pay 5
Lats ($9.20) to spend the night being bullied and interrogated in a prison
haunted by Latvia's 20th century miseries. Real and fake mix together in grisly
harmony: Visitors witness the re-enactment of a prisoner being shot after his
third escape attempt and visit the mass grave of 160 real inmates nearby.
Those inmates were shot during the
1941-44 German occupation of Latvia. Then came the Soviet reoccupation which
ended in 1991. Now, comes the age of nostalgia as this Baltic democracy of 2.3
million people moves ever further from its painful past.
Tourists and locals alike can
experience it in the prison at the Karosta, or "war port," in the coastal city
of Liepaja. Built originally as a
military hospital in 1903, the red-brick building was converted to a prison two
years later and used until 1997. The
prison sat empty until 2002, when a group of Liepaja residents led by tourism
agent Liga Engelmane formed the Partnership to Save Karosta, whose well-chosen
Latvian initials are KGB, and offered interactive tours.
"Inmates" can pay $3.70 for a 90-minute
daytime tour that includes being locked in a cell and a trip to the infirmary,
or buy the $9.20 package billed as an "extreme night."
Extreme nights are not for the
fainthearted. The cubicles are damp and the "extreme toilet" is four holes in
the floor. Visitors do calisthenics to stay warm and sleep on planks with fleas
for company. Those who disobey orders may be sent to solitary confinement. "You
are exiting Hell," says an inscription above the door, written by a real-life
inmate long ago. Liepaja, like many
Latvian cities, is losing many vestiges of its Soviet past as it becomes more
westernized. Sunbathers now cover Liepaja's white sand beaches where Soviet
tanks were once stationed with their guns pointed toward a possible Baltic Sea
invasion. Even Karosta, for five
decades a restricted military zone, now has an artists' commune occupying a
former military headquarters and an art gallery nearby displaying their work.
So why go through all this when you can
lie on Liepaja's sandy beaches or enjoy the nearby art display?
"It allows you to return to the past
and to see how it was really done," said Martins Jaungailis, a 20-year-old
college student from Riga, the capital.
Jaunus Tammeaed, 39, came from
neighboring Estonia with vacationing employees of the AGA industrial gas
company. He said the experience brought back memories of his Soviet army
service in the 1980s. "I don't feel
threatened, so it's not so realistic in that way," Tammeaed said. "But it's a
good idea for anyone who hasn't lived through those times."
Gunta Insberga, the gas company's
Latvian representative who arranged the tour, explained that the group wanted
to do something other than visit art exhibitions, attend concerts and sit
around in bars. "Sometimes it's more
interesting in a pile of dung," she said, laughing. "We thought this would be a
good way to end our trip." "I had never
slept on a wooden plank before," she said. "Everyone is going to remember this
for the longest time." KGB's Engelmane
said the idea was to save a bit of history for future generations.
"The Soviet era was painful for us,"
she said, "but we want to retain a part of it because there is already an
entire generation in Latvia that has not grown up in the Soviet system."
She said she has heard no criticism of
the tours. In fact, former prisoners have walked KGB staff around the prison,
handing out tips on how to make the experience more authentic.
The tour revenues pay for salaries and
have raised more than $5,500 for badly needed renovations, said Engelmane.
Business is good, she said; every "extreme night" this summer has been fully
booked.
Russia complains about
continuing pressure against Russian minorities
AP WorldStream Tuesday, September 07, 2004
10:44:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has
complained to the European Union that one of its new members, Latvia, is
continuing to violate the rights of the Baltic nation's Russian-speaking
minority, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
About one-third of Latvia's people are
native Russian-speakers and they contend that laws aimed at strengthening the
Latvian language discriminate against them.
On the first day of school last week,
thousands of Russian-speaking students and their parents converged in a rally
to vent anger over a new law requiring a majority of school subjects to be
taught in Latvian. The EU, which Latvia
joined this year, says Latvian language laws conform to European minority
rights standards. But Russia's Foreign
Ministry, in its statement, said, "Neither Russia nor, more importantly, our
compatriots in Latvia have noticed positive dynamics in the solution of
well-known problems with the rights of the Russian-speaking population in the
country after its accession to the European Union."
It contended that since EU accession,
the Latvian authorities have "considerably increased anti-Russian rhetoric."
Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union
in 1940, then invaded by Nazi forces who were later driven out by the Red Army.
The complicated wartime history has led many Latvians to praise pro-Nazi units
because they fought against the Soviets.
The Russian Foreign Ministry raised its
concerns on Monday in meetings with Dutch representatives of the European
Union, the European Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council of
Europe, the statement said.
Latvian government
shaky as no-confidence vote looms
Reuters World Report Tuesday, September 07, 2004
11:48:00 AM Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd. By Jorgen Johansson
RIGA, Sept 7 (Reuters) —
Latvia's unpopular minority coalition government was plunged into more trouble
on Tuesday as its key backers in parliament called a vote of no confidence.
"Today we called for a vote of no
confidence against this government, and hopefully the vote will come on
Thursday next week," Janis Jurkans, leader of the left-wing National Harmony
Party, told Reuters. Jurkans said his
party — which has propped up the minority right-wing government in
parliament since it was formed this year -- had called the vote of no
confidence over the government's decision to proceed with education reforms
that will limit the use of Russian in Russian-language high schools.
The ex-Soviet republic and EU newcomer
has a large minority of ethnic Russians who settled during the Soviet era, and
there have been a wave of protests since the controversial reform was approved
earlier this year. Foreign Minister
Artis Pabriks, a member of the conservative People's Party, said he pinned his
hopes of political survival on a splintered opposition.
"The opposition in this country is not
very united," he told Reuters, expecting the vote would fail as the opposition
is divided sharply between left-wing and right-wing parties and could have
difficulty agreeing on the vote.
Earlier on Tuesday, his own party ended
a month of discussions with the opposition New Era party of former Prime
Minister Einars Repse about toppling the current three-party government and
forming a new majority coalition. Both
parties are concerned that the current government would be too weak to pass a
tight 2005 budget to avoid the booming economy overheating and keep the EU
newcomer's ambitious 2007 euro entry goal on track.
The talks ended when the two disagreed
on which party should hold the premiership.
A New Era spokeswoman said the party
disagreed with the reasons behind the no-confidence vote, but did not rule out
backing it in order to oust the current government.
New Era formed a right-wing coalition
after winning 2002 elections, but was toppled in February after a personal spat
between Repse and his deputy caused the coalition to collapse.
With no end in sight to the resulting
political vacuum, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga picked Indulis Emsis from the
Union of Farmers and Greens to form a new coalition.
Many analysts saw the appointment as a
short-lived stopgap solution to avoid entering the EU in May without a
government, and expected Europe's first Green prime minister would soon be out
of office.
Suicide Around the
World Every 40 Seconds, Baltics at top of list
Reuters Online Service Wednesday, September 08,
2004 10:50:00 AM Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd. By Robert Evans
GENEVA (Reuters) — A
suicide takes place somewhere around the world every 40 seconds, or nearly one
million a year, and the rate looks set to surge over the next two decades,
international health experts said on Wednesday.
Although men in their sixties —
retirement age — are by far most likely to die at their own hand, the
numbers among younger men between 15 and 29 are rising, largely because of
availability of guns, the experts told a news conference.
"Suicide is a major public health
problem and accounts for 1.5 percent of the total cost of disease to world
society," said Jose Bertolote, mental health specialist at the U.N.'s World
Health Organization (WHO). "But it is
largely preventable if the public is made more aware of the problem and
governments show the political will to tackle it," said Lars Mehlum, President
of the Paris-based International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).
Mehlum, professor of psychology at Oslo
University in Norway, said studies in many countries showed that restrictions
on the accessability of firearms, especially to young people, brought
reductions in the number of successful suicides.
"Guns are the most lethal instrument of
suicide. Few people survive attempts to shoot themselves," he added. But there
was resistance in some countries, especially the United States, to reduce the
number in circulation. The two were
speaking in advance of the IASP'S World Suicide Prevention Day, to be marked
globally on Friday with campaigning to raise awareness of the problem and how
it can be tackled. EX-COMMUNIST STATES
HIT Although up-to-date detailed
national figures from all around the world were not available, according to WHO
officials, former communist states -- Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Latvia and
Hungary -- had the highest rates. In
largely Catholic and rural Lithuania, some 42 people in every 100,000 were
estimated to have committed suicide in the year 2000, 40 per 100,000 in
Estonia, and nearly 38 in Russia. The
next five were Sri Lanka, ex-Soviet Kazakhstan and Belarus, Slovenia and
Finland, according to figures for the year 2000 issued by the Geneva-based
Organization. Mehlum said the high
rates in the Baltic region and Russia could be partly explained by the social
turmoil caused by the transition from state-run economies with job stability to
open market systems, and partly by longer historical trends.
Alcoholism, a cause of the depression
that leads to suicide, is traditionally strong in Russia and its Baltic
neighbors, and restrictions on sale of strong drink -- as shown by a
now-abandoned campaign in the last years of the old Soviet Union -- also help
reduce the rates, Mehlum said. In
number terms, China — where, in contrast to the rest of the world, there
are more women suicides than men -- had most with 195,000, a rate of 16 for
every 100,000 people. India came next with 87,000, a rate of 9.7, and then
Russia with 52,500. The United States
was fourth with 31,000 in the year 2000. But its rate of nearly 12 in 100,000
put it at 38th in the overall league for completed, or successful, suicides per
head of the population. Mehlum said
suicides among women in the Chinese countryside were very high. The most common
means was drinking widely used and highly toxic pesticides, many of which are
banned in richer countries, and more careful storage would cut the death rate.
Baltic Sea ports to
partner in bid to promote more cruise ship visits
AP WorldStream Thursday, September 09, 2004
10:40:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By JAN M.
OLSEN Associated Press Writer
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) —
Travel officials in Denmark said Thursday they'll work with tourist officials
in several Baltic Sea countries to promote more cruise ship visits to ports
there. Already Scandinavia's biggest
air travel hub, Copenhagen wants to become the center for the cruise ship
industry, too, for the region, including the Baltic states.
This year, some 280,000 cruise ship
passengers are expected in the Danish capital, and their numbers are
increasing, said Ole Andersen, marketing manager with the city's tourism
agency, Wonderful Copenhagen. The forecast figure for 2005 is 350,000
passengers, he said. "Copenhagen is one
of the pearls on the string that mostly American tourists want to see,"
Andersen said, adding that St. Petersburg, Russia, and Stockholm, Sweden, were
the other popular stops for the giant ships during the summer travel months.
"Many Americans want to set foot in
Russia, and especially in St. Petersburg," he said, adding the city's famed
State Hermitage Museum and the palaces where Russia's czar lived were major
tourist draws. Because Copenhagen is a
turnaround port — meaning tourists fly in and out for cruises -- Wonderful
Copenhagen presented a three-year project with nine other Baltic Sea port
cities to boost the number of cruise ships coming in and out of the Baltic Sea.
The aim, organizers said, is to
increase cooperation and harmonize docking procedures and increase the number
of visitors by 20 percent through 2007.
"We want all the ports of call to be
good. All must have the same kind of facilities and offer the same kind of
service," Andersen said. No overall
figure for the region was available, but Andersen said that "most of the
350,000 passengers expected (in Copenhagen) for 2005 visit several of the
Baltic Sea ports." The Ç1.3
million (US$1.1 million) project is partly financed by the European Union,
Scandinavian airline SAS and the participating ports.
They include Gdynia, Poland; Helsinki
and Turku in Finland; Klaipeda, Lithuania; Riga, Latvia; Rostock, Germany;
Oslo, Norway; Stockholm and Kalmar in Sweden; and Copenhagen.
St. Petersburg and Tallinn, the
Estonian capital, will take part as observers.
"Northern Europe has become a bigger
cruise destination than the Mediterranean Sea because of the instability in the
eastern part of Mediterranean with the Middle East and Turkey," he said.
"Because of fears of terrorism, many (tourists) have moved their cruises up
here." He also noted that the number of
cruise passengers has increased because the ships have gotten larger.
"Before, most ships could only carry
between 800 and 1,000 passengers," Andersen said. "Now, they can carry hey can
have 3,500-4,000 passengers," he said.
Last year, 17.7 million travelers
transited through the Copenhagen airport, Scandinavia's hub.
Politicians in
Latvia's capital propose stripping street of name honoring first Chechen
president
AP WorldStream Thursday, September 09, 2004
10:47:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By TIMOTHY
JACOBS Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) — A group
of lawmakers in Latvia's capital wants to rename a street that honors the first
post-Soviet president of the Russian republic of Chechnya.
Deputy Mayor Sergei Dolgopolov filed a
request to rename the street in the wake of last week's massacre of some 300
people held hostage in a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan. Russian
officials said Thursday that six of the attackers were separatist rebels from
Chechnya. Dolgopolov said the late
Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev, who died in 1996, could not be blamed for
the Beslan hostage crisis. But he could be tied to the roots of terrorism as
the first president of separatist Chechnya in post-Soviet Russia, the deputy
mayor said. Dolgopolov told the state
news agency LETA that he would like to see the avenue go back to its original
moniker: Cosmonaut Street. A vote could
take place next week, but it was unclear whether the request submitted by
Dolgopolov's Different Politics faction had enough support to pass. Dolgopolov
was unavailable for comment Thursday.
Chechen leader Dudayev had been an
outspoken advocate for Baltic independence before the 1991 Soviet collapse and,
while a commander in the Red Army, refrained from sending his troops to take
over Estonia's television and parliament buildings during that country's
independence movement. As the Soviet
Union dissolved and 14 former republics became nations, he declared Chechnya
independent as well. Russian President Boris Yeltsin, however, refused to
recognize the independence, and sent troops to the separatist republic.
There is a plaque honoring Dudayev in
Tartu, Estonia, and a square in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius that bears his
name. The street in Riga was named for
Dudayev after his death.
Latvian police seize
illegal cache of expired World Food Program herring
AP WorldStream Thursday, September 09, 2004
10:56:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By TIMOTHY
JACOBS Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Latvian
agriculture officials said Thursday they seized nearly 23 tons of expired
canned herring originally produced for the U.N. World Food Program six years
ago, but was being sold illegally by fishmongers from carts in the capital's
bustling outdoor markets. Inspectors
and police raided a Riga warehouse Wednesday and seized 22,848 kilograms
(50,371 pounds) of canned herring marked "not for sale." The cans were
manufactured in 1998 in Norway for the World Food Program and expired in
February 2002, food surveillance inspector Maris Balodis said.
Balodis said an investigation is
underway of a Norwegian company called "Norway Fish" and a Latvian company
called "Karavela." According to the customs order, said Balodis, Norway Fish
sold the cans to Karvela. "We have a
company in Norway that is selling these products to the EU market and a Latvian
company that is buying it," he said.
Telephone listings or addresses for
either company could not be located.
Francis Mwanza, a WFP spokesman in
Rome, said that the cans were part of a shipment of 300,000 cans that were
rejected by the agency. He said the
cans were to have been stripped of the WFP logo and destroyed.
"As far as we are concerned the company
should have disposed of the logos and the commodities," he said, adding that
once the WFP rejected them, monitoring their disposal was no longer its
priority. The cans seized in the raid
were shipped from Norway to the Latvian city of Ventspils on Aug. 22. From
there, they were sent to the capital, Riga, for distribution.
Police first discovered the cans being
sold illegally by hand in the Riga's outdoor markets in July but were unable to
arrest the vendors, who fled when they saw the police, Balodis said.
U.S. Deputy Secretary
of State Richard Armitage criticizes Putin's undemocratic reforms in face of
terrorism
AP WorldStream Tuesday, September 14, 2004
5:15:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By TIMOTHY
JACOBS Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) — U.S.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage expressed concern Tuesday about the
sweeping anti-terrorism initiatives announced by Russian President Vladimir
Putin, describing them as "out of step" with U.S. hopes for more democracy in
Russia. Putin told Cabinet members and
security officials convened in a special session Monday in Moscow that the
future of Russia was at stake, and called for the creation of a central,
powerful anti-terror agency. His decree, signed late Monday, gave the
government one month to draw up proposals.
Despite the plans for the new
anti-terrorism agency, the proposals were short on security measures, focusing
instead on electoral changes, including the elimination of popularly elected
governors and an overhaul of the way Russians elect their parliament -- a
measure likely to increase the control of the dominant, pro-Kremlin faction.
Armitage acknowledged he hadn't seen
Putin's proposed plan in its entirety, but said "...it appeared to me that Mr.
Putin was announcing that he would not have popularly elected governors but,
rather, appointed ones. And this seems to be out of step with the way that we'd
hoped that Russia was heading -- that is, to a much more open and democratic
society." Armitage was meeting with
Latvian government officials as part of a nearly weeklong trip through Norway,
Latvia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland.
Critics called Putin's measures a blow
to democracy, and warned that Putin's reliance on topdown control ultimately
could weaken Russia by driving those in power further from the citizens they
rule. Some government critics also
suggested that Putin's decision to focus on electoral changes was a sign he
lacks practical ideas about protecting Russia after a series of stunning terror
attacks blamed on Chechen rebels, climaxing in the school siege last week that
killed more than 330 people. Putin's
plan is being watched closely by Latvian officials. Latvia, on Russia's western
border, regained its independence from the Soviet Union amid the 1991 Soviet
collapse. Latvian officials have often accused Moscow of interfering in
internal Latvian affairs to drum up political support back home.
Armitage met with Latvian Prime
Minister Indulis Emsis on Tuesday and said he wanted to thank the Latvian
government for its support for the U.S.-led mission in Iraq.
Latvia, which joined NATO earlier this
year, has 133 soldiers serving in Iraq and nine soldiers serving as part of the
peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. One Latvian soldier has been killed in
Iraq.
Angered by Russian TV
historical revisions, Lithuania may pull plug on broadcaster
AP WorldStream Tuesday, September 14, 2004
9:32:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By LIUDAS
DAPKUS Associated Press Writer
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — A
Russian-controlled television channel that angered many Lithuanians by recently
claiming their country had voluntarily joined the Soviet Union in 1940 may soon
get knocked off the air in Lithuania.
The First Baltic Channel, broadcast in
Lithuania on cable, claimed in a history show last
month that the Baltic state, independent at the time, voluntarily joined the
Soviet Union in 1940. That year,
the Red Army invaded Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, replaced governments,
executed military leaders and started mass deportations to Siberia. The Baltic
states were later occupied by Nazi forces, until the Red Army returned and
forced the Germans out. "We have been
outraged by the program First Baltic Channel, which distorted the historic
truth about the occupation of Lithuania. We are taking this case very
seriously," Jonas Liniauskas, chairman of the independent Radio and Television
Commission, said Tuesday. The Latvian-registered First Baltic Channel rebroadcasts
programs of the Russian ORT TV network in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. It has
said the criticism of its history program was unfounded.
The commission, run by academics,
artists and broadcast personalities, has the legal authority to issue and
revoke broadcast licenses. It will rule on the case of First Baltic Channel
later this week. The Radio and
Television Commission asked the independent Journalists and Publishers Ethics
Commission to evaluate the Russian TV show. That commission Monday recommended
First Baltic Channel's broadcast license be revoked.
If the Radio and Television Commission
does decide to do so, it would be the first time that a broadcaster's license
was withdrawn in Lithuania.
Latvian government
comfortably survives no-confidence vote
AP WorldStream Thursday, September 16, 2004
6:25:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By TIMOTHY
JACOBS Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) —
Latvia's minority government successfully fended off a no-confidence vote
called by an opposition party upset over a contentious law that restricts
Russian-language instruction in public schools.
The vote failed after three parties
didn't vote. Thirty-two lawmakers voted to oust the government while 45 voted
to keep it in place. A simple majority in the 100-seat Saeima, or parliament,
was needed to oust the government. The
left-wing opposition People's Harmony party, which helped the government of
Prime Minister Indulis Emsis take office in March, called for the vote last
week. It was upset over what it called the government's refusal to halt the
language law, which took effect Sept. 1.
The law has sparked loud protests from
Latvia's native Russian speakers, who have dubbed it discriminatory. Moscow has
also voiced its opposition. The
People's Harmony Party, along with two other left-wing parties represented in
the Saeima -- the Latvian Socialists party and For Human Rights in a United
Latvia -- draw considerable support from Latvia's Russian-speaking community,
which makes up nearly a third of the Baltic state's 2.3 million residents.
But the Socialists' five lawmakers and
For Human Rights' six lawmakers did not vote Thursday because many view the
current center-right minority government of Indulis Emsis as preferable to one
that would include For Fatherland and Freedom, the most nationalist of the
Saeima's five center-right parties. For
Fatherland and Freedom's six lawmakers did not vote because the no-confidence
measure had been called by a left-wing party, leaving the other two opposition
parties -- the center-right New Era and the People's Harmony party -- without
enough support to oust the government.
All 45 votes in favor of keeping the
government in place came from members of the three-party ruling coalition,
which controls 47 seats in the Saeima.
Latvia has had 11 governments since it
regained independence after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
NATO chief says
Baltic air patrol to be continued
AP WorldSources Online Friday, September 17, 2004
1:41:00 PM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press Copyright 2004
Worldsources, Inc. Copyright 2004 XINHUA
RIGA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) —
The Baltic air space will continue to be protected, Secretary-General of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday.
According to reports from Lithuania's
Vilnius, the NATO chief made the pledge in a telephone conversation with
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis.
Scheffer said the protection of the
Baltic air space will continue after Oct. 1 when Denmark concludes its patrol
mission. But he did not say which country will take over.
Harald Kujat, chairman of NATO's
Military Committee, also said when he visited Vilnius earlier this week that
the alliance will strictly implement its patrol plan for the Baltic region on a
rotating basis. Since the three Baltic countries, Latvia, Lithuania and
Estonia, joined NATO in March, their air space has been patrolled by NATO
aircraft. Belgium was the first country to undertake the mission through June
30, and Denmark took over on July 1.
Britain is supposed to take over from
Denmark on Oct. 1, but it has indicated it can not patrol the region for
technical reasons.
Latvian parliament
committee says only some KGB files will be released
AP WorldStream Tuesday, September 21, 2004
8:54:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By TIMOTHY
JACOBS Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) —
Latvia's parliamentary legal affairs committee has decided which KGB files left
behind after the 1991 Soviet collapse should be made public and which to
destroy, the committee chairman said Tuesday.
Only the files of people who informed
about ideological matters would be released, while KGB files on crimes such as
corruption or smuggling would be kept private, chairman Mareks Seglins said.
"The idea is not to publicize the names
of the people who reported on actual crimes, on violations of the criminal
law," Seglins said. "Corruption was still corruption, and contraband was still
contraband back then." The committee
will submit a finalized bill to the 100-member parliament, or Saeima, in the
next few weeks for a vote, he said. The
Saeima voted in May to open the files to public view, but President Vaira
Vike-Freiberga sent the bill back to lawmakers to work on, saying the bill
didn't stipulate who would have access.
Vike-Freiberga extended a law barring
KGB-linked people from holding public office for another 10 years.
Almost none of the KGB files contain
more than names of active agents in 1991, the dates they were recruited and the
signature of the agent who recruited them. Few indicate if the person was an
active member or just being watched, officials and police have said.
Most of the files that show who worked
with the KGB and whom they tattled on were taken back to Moscow when the Soviet
intelligence service left Latvia in 1992.
Since 1994, Latvians could see their
own files, if they existed, but the contents were made public only if they
sought public office or a job in law enforcement. If someone was found to have
had connections to the KGB, they were banned from running or employment.
Most Latvians are resentful of the
Soviet occupation and those tied to it.
In neighboring Estonia and Lithuania,
ex-agents were allowed to declare their KGB affiliation to national security
agencies to avoid having their names publicized.
Latvian parliamentary
committee proposes sweeping smoking ban
AP WorldStream Tuesday, September 21, 2004
10:32:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By TIMOTHY
JACOBS Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) —
Following the lead of Ireland and Norway, Latvian lawmakers are to consider a
bill to ban smoking in most public places following its approval in a
parliamentary committee Tuesday. If
passed, the law would outlaw smoking in front of government buildings, in most
public places, offices and at beaches. Smokers could still light up in
restaurants and bars but only in areas closed off from nonsmoking areas.
Smoking would be banned in single-room establishments.
The committee decided not to include in
its proposal a call by former Health Minister Ingrida Circene to ban smoking on
the streets of Riga's old town, the heart of the Latvian capital.
Lawmakers have not determined yet when
the proposed ban would be voted on by the entire 100-seat Saeima, or
parliament. The proposal didn't contain
details on how the ban would be enforced or what the penalty for smoking in
banned areas would be. Ireland's ban
calls for a maximum fine of US$3,600 (Ç2,900).
Any smoking ban is likely to anger
Latvia's many smokers. About 33 percent of Latvia's 2.3 million residents are
smokers, according to Health Ministry figures.
Latvian health officials are eager to
curtail the country's smoking habits. Health Ministry statistics show an
average of 12 Latvians die daily because of smoking-related illnesses. In 2003,
4,380 people died from smoking-related ailments.
Ireland was the first country to outlaw
smoking in enclosed workplaces, modeling its move on similar measures enforced
in California and New York City as well as more than a dozen other U.S. states
and cities. India banned smoking in all
public places as of April 30, while New Zealand passed a similar ban to go into
force later this year. Neighboring Sweden instituted a ban this year that takes
effect in 2005. Norway began enforcing
similar restrictions in June.
Europe's Car-Laden
Cities, including Riga, Ban Cars for Day
AP Online Wednesday, September 22, 2004 1:37:00
PM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By MATT MOORE Associated Press
Writer
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) —
Hundreds of European cities and towns restricted auto traffic Wednesday, part
of the continent's annual campaign to lower air pollution by encouraging
commuters to use public transportation, bicycles or their feet instead of their
cars. More than 1,500 municipalities,
chiefly in Europe, participated in the seventh annual car-free day campaign by
setting up roadblocks to prevent nonessential automobile traffic from entering
city centers. The campaign also spread to cities in Japan and South America.
"Listen how quiet it is here in the
middle of the city," said Winnie Berndtson, mayor for environmental affairs in
the Danish capital, Copenhagen. "We had 1,700 children playing and learning
about traffic today in streets that are normally packed with cars."
In Stockholm, a busy thoroughfare in
the southern part of the capital was closed to all vehicle traffic. People were
encouraged to walk or ride bikes to browse shops, and a local group offered
historical walking tours of the Soedermalm neighborhood.
The Austrian capital, Vienna, closed
segments of the expansive boulevard encircling downtown for four hours, giving
pedestrians and cyclists a chance to take over the Ring Street, normally
clogged by cars, trucks, buses, trams and horse-drawn carriages.
"The European Car Free Day initiative
should be a motivator to reshape Austria's traffic policy," said Gabriella
Moser, the Green Party's spokeswoman for traffic issues.
But the closure irked the Austrian
Federal Economic Chamber, which complained of delays in business deliveries and
traffic in surrounding streets. "The
Environmental Ministry should be more interested in keeping traffic flowing
than in causing increased noise and pollution by creating artificial traffic
jams," said Heinz Havelka of the group's department for vehicle trade.
Elsewhere in Europe, commuters pedaled
or walked. Copenhagen kept open two bus
lines and allowed emergency vehicles and local resident traffic. But other
cars, cabs and tourist buses were forced to stop at eight manned gates, beyond
which bicycles filled the streets.
Passengers in those vehicles had to
either walk or bike beyond the gates.
About 30 percent of the Danish
capital's 1.8 million people bike to work, Berndtson said.
In the Finnish capital, Helsinki, where
commuters make about 700,000 journeys daily on public transportation, customers
were offered all-day tickets good on buses, trams, commuter trains and subways
for $1.20. They normally cost $6.50.
Morning rush-hour traffic moved at a
snail's pace after central boulevards and main streets were closed to cars.
"What we are trying to do is make
people aware of the alternatives," Environment Ministry official Leena
Silfverberg said. "Maybe they will get a spark from the campaign and realize
they could go to work in a more environment-friendly way."
Some European cities, however, kept
streets open. In most Italian cities, including Rome, traffic was as bad as
usual, and residents remained unaware of the environmental campaign.
"I wouldn't have used public transport,
because one initiative a year would not change the state of things," said
Marcello Ramoni, a 26-year-old construction worker driving to work in Rome.
Latvia has seen traffic in its capital
rise rapidly since the country regained independence from the Soviet Union in
1991. It will hold its car-free day Sunday, and is considering imposing a toll
on drivers entering the city, similar to one imposed in London.
"The security and health of our
children is the main problem, which is why all drivers should think at least on
the 'Car-Free Day' whether they always have to use their cars," Latvian Prime
Minister Indulis Emsi said. In Athens,
Greece, the government decided not to ban cars because of the Paralympic Games.
The government, which has banned cars in previous years, said residents should
decide how to travel, but it made public transportation free.
In downtown Zagreb, Croatia's capital,
drivers tried to navigate jammed streets near the city center, which was closed
to traffic. "I'll definitely be late
for work," said Jan Jurcic, who was stuck in traffic.
Others, however, were delighted by the
empty streets. "That's how it should
be," said a cyclist who gave only her first name, Mirjana. "Without cars, you
can really enjoy this city." —
— — On the Net:
http://www.mobilityweek-europe.org
Latvian lawmakers
give voting rights to resident EU citizens
AP WorldStream Thursday, September 23, 2004
10:13:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By TIMOTHY
JACOBS Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) —
Lawmakers on Thursday rejected a proposal to let nearly 500,000 ethnic Russians
vote in local elections, despite giving the same right to citizens of EU
countries who live in the Baltic state.
The Saeima, or parliament, amended the
Constitution to Latvian law in line with EU rules, meaning a resident who is
from another EU country, but living in the country permanently, can vote.
Latvia joined the 25-nation bloc in
May, along with neighboring Estonia and Lithuania.
The bill won't become law until it's
signed by President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, which she is expected to do. She has
three weeks to approve it or send it back to parliament.
At the same time, the Saeima rejected
another proposal that would have let the residents of the country's cities and
towns decide the official working language. Latvian is the country's official
language. About one-third of Latvia's
2.3 million residents are native Russian-speakers and more than half of them,
or about 500,000 people, are non-citizens and cannot vote in municipal,
national, or EU elections. Most arrived in Latvia during the five decade-long
Soviet occupation of the country or are descendants of those who did.
Although many non-citizens were born in
Latvia, the Latvian government decided after the country regained its
independence in 1991 to grant citizenship only to people who held citizenship
during Latvia's first period of independence from 1918-1940 and their
descendants. Left-wing lawmakers, who
represent many of the country's native Russian-speaking voters, have argued
that the Saeima's refusal to grant municipal voting rights to non-citizens has
stripped them of their political voice, a claim echoed by Moscow.
"This means that you, the ruling
parties, love foreigners more than Latvia's residents," lawmaker Juris
Sokolovskis said after Thursday's vote.
But politicians from Latvia's
center-right parties, which have controlled the government since 1991, argue
that non-citizens must become naturalized if they want to vote in Latvian
elections. Latvia's citizenship
requirements have been eased in recent years but non-citizens have been slow to
take advantage.
NATO chief: members
will not ratify weapons treaty until Russia withdraws troops in
Trans-Dniester
AP WorldStream Thursday, September 23, 2004
12:00:00 PM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By CORNELIU
RUSNAC Associated Press Writer
CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) —
Some NATO members won't ratify a conventional weapons treaty with Russia unless
Moscow withdraws its weapons and troops from the separatist republic of
Trans-Dniester, alliance Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday.
De Hoop Scheffer discussed simmering
tensions in the pro-Russian breakaway republic of Trans-Dniester with Moldovan
President Vladimir Voronin and other Moldovan leaders during a one-day visit to
Chisinau. De Hoop Scheffer said
promises made by Russia in 1999 to withdraw its troops and weapons from
Trans-Dniester "should be fulfilled before we can discuss" the ratification of
the modified Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, which sets limits on heavy
weapons across the continent. Russia in
1999 promised to withdraw by the end of 2003 about 1,300 Russian troops who
guard an estimated 26,000 metric tons (28,660 tons) of Soviet-era ammunition,
but progress has been slow. "I
sincerely hope progress can be made on the removal of the munition stocks still
to a large extent present in Moldova, in Trans-Dniester," de Hoop Scheffer told
a news conference. Some NATO members
have signed and ratified the treaty, while some have only signed it. Three
countries that joined the alliance in March -- the former Soviet republics of
Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia -- have not signed it despite Russian pressure to
do so. De Hoop Scheffer also called on
the international community to be involved in finding a solution to the
Trans-Dniester conflict. He did not elaborate.
The Moldovan government in November
rejected a Moscow-sponsored peace plan for the enclave, sparking Russian
officials to say that the troops could remain until 2020.
De Hoop Scheffer also discussed the
recent closure of Moldovan-language schools, which has heightened tensions in
the province. The closures demonstrated that the Trans-Dniester issue needed to
be settled "urgently," de Hoop Scheffer said.
Before being named NATO chief, de Hoop
Scheffer was the chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, which together with Russia and Ukraine is a mediator in
the crisis between Moldova and the Trans-Dniester separatists.
Trans-Dniester, which is mainly
Russian-speaking, was a flash point of post-Soviet violence in 1992, when
separatists feared newly independent Moldova would reunite with Romania.
Formerly part of Romania, Moldova was annexed in 1940 by the Soviet Union.
Some 1,500 people were killed in the
1992 violence, and many residents still harbor fears and resentment from that
war.
Kremlin's envoy
criticizes EU for breaking promises regarding Kalingrad cargo transit
AP WorldStream Thursday, September 23, 2004
1:08:00 PM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) — A Kremlin
envoy on Thursday accused the European Union of failing to fulfill the
commitments it made to Russia before its historic move to embrace 10 new
members earlier this year. Sergei
Yastrzhembsky, President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for relations with the
European Union, said that the EU had failed to live up to its pledge to ensure
that conditions for cargo transit to and from Russia's westernmost Kaliningrad
region wouldn't worsen after May's expansion.
"We are seeing that the transit has
become more expensive," Yastrzhembsky said at a seminar on Russia-EU relations.
"Instead of preservation of the status quo, we are seeing that the situation
clearly has deteriorated."
Yastrzhembsky added that customs
clearance of Russian trains at Lithuania's border now takes days instead of
hours as it had before the EU expansion in May, which absorbed Lithuania among
other new members, most of them former Soviet satellites and republics.
The EU's pledge concerning cargo
transit to and from the Kaliningrad enclave, which is sandwiched between Poland
and Lithuania, was part of a protocol which EU and Russian officials signed
just days before the historic expansion.
In the document, Russia also raised
concern about the situation of ethnic Russian minorities in the ex-Soviet
Baltic nations of Estonia and Latvia. Yastrzhembsky said Thursday that the EU
should have made stronger efforts to protect their rights, which Moscow says
are violated, and speed up the pace of their naturalization.
The EU-Russia protocol is set to come
up for ratification in the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State
Duma, within a month, said Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Duma's
international affairs committee.
Kosachev said that his committee would
recommend the chamber ratify the deal, voicing hope that the EU would take
measures to assuage Russian grievances.
Russia sets up
government sponsored center to protect human rights
AP US & World Monday, September 27, 2004
1:25:00 PM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By MARIA
DANILOVA Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Monday to set up a center that will
help protect the rights of Russians in former Soviet republics, which became
independent when the Soviet Union collapsed.
The decree establishes the
International Human Rights Center and instructs Putin's regional envoys and
local officials to cooperate with rights groups, the Kremlin said in a news
release. The international center will
help defend the rights of Russian citizens abroad, said Ella Pamfilova, a
former government minister and head of the presidential human rights commission
that called for the center's creation.
Russian authorities have often
criticized the treatment of ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers in the former
Soviet republics, which became independent in 1991, saying they are often
deprived of jobs and of education in their native language.
Russian
officials have been particularly critical of the authorities in the Baltic
states, especially Latvia and Estonia, and have repeatedly called on the
European Union to protect the rights of Russians there.
Russian authorities also express
concern about the fate of Russians in Central Asian nations, including
Turkmenistan. In addition, many people
in separatist regions in the former Soviet republic of Georgia have been
granted Russian passports, and Russian officials say Mocow is obliged to
protect their rights -- a trend that worries Georgian officials who fear it is
aimed to undermine their authority.
Human rights activists also say that
some of the worst violations occur in Russia's far-flung regions, where the
rule of law is sometimes less prevalent than in Moscow.
"Developing the human rights movement,
especially in the regions, is very important," Pamfilolva said, according to
the Interfax news agency. But the
decree's focus may be on monitoring the rights of Russians living in what
Russia calls "the near abroad" -- the former Soviet republics. Ethnic Russians
make up sizable minitories in the former republics.
Some activists criticized the
initiative as a sign of a return to Soviet-style state control over society.
"This is the return of the Soviet
system of quasi-public organizations," said Yuri Samodurov, an activist who
heads the Sakharov Museum. During the Soviet era, the Communist Party was in
charge of every organization in the country.
Samodurov expressed doubt over whether
a state-funded public organization can be truly independent.
"This is another step in building the
so-called 'vertical of power,'" he said, referring to measures Putin has taken
to consolidate his authority over the country. "Now they are targeting the
human rights movement -- the only sector which is not yet under their control."
Latvian supreme court
upholds verdict finding Sovet partisan guilt
AP WorldStream Tuesday, September 28, 2004
8:54:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By TIMOTHY
JACOBS Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) — The
Latvian Supreme Court Senate, the court's highest body, on Tuesday upheld a
ruling that former Soviet partisan Vassily Kononov was guilty of war crimes for
killing civilians during World War II.
The decision, which cannot be appealed,
upheld a similar ruling in April by the Supreme Court's Criminal Chamber that
said Kononov was guilty of ordering the execution of nine civilians, including
a pregnant woman, in Latvia in 1944.
The 80-year-old Kononov was sentenced
to 20 months in prison, much shorter than the 12 years prosecutors had
requested, but was freed because he had already served that time during
pretrial detention. Kononov appealed
the ruling to the Supreme Court Senate anyway.
The killings occurred during the Nazi
occupation of Latvia, when Kononov led a small band of pro-Soviet partisans. He
claimed that the civilians were caught in crossfire between the partisans and
Nazis. Many Russians consider Kononov a
legitimate war hero and Moscow has angrily criticized the trials as a witch
hunt targeting a sick, elderly man. Russian President Vladimir Putin granted
him Russian citizenship in April 2000.
The ruling brought to an end a case
that had wound its way through the Latvian court system since 1999.
Kononov had previously been convicted
of the same charges in 2000 and sentenced to six years in prison, but was
released later that year after the Supreme Court questioned some of the
evidence against him. A lower court
ruled last October that Kononov was guilty of a lesser charge of "banditry" and
released him because the statute of limitations on that crime had long since
expired. But prosecutors appealed that verdict to the Supreme Court, which
ruled last April that Kononov was guilty of war crimes.
Latvia, which joined the European Union
in May, was independent before being annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. After
the 1941-44 Nazi occupation, the Soviet army returned, remaining there until
the Baltic state regained independence after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Latvia agrees to give
Olympic athletes, coaches bonuses
AP WorldStream Wednesday, September 29, 2004
3:21:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press
RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Seven
Latvian Olympians who finished among the top six in their events at the Athens
games will share a cash bonus from the government, a senior official said.
The government decided Tuesday to award
a total of 440,000 lats (US$815,283, euro 662,024) to the athletes, along with
10 coaches, the Baltic News Service quoted Education and Science Minister Juris
Radzevics as saying. Latvia won four
silver medals at the games in August.
Radzevics told BNS the government
hasn't decided whether Latvians who participated in the Paralympics, which
ended this week in Athens, would receive similar bonuses. He said a decision
would come soon. Latvian Paralympians
won three medals, including a gold in the discus.
Russian prime
minister appeals for help for isolated Kalingrad
AP WorldStream Thursday, September 30, 2004
5:44:00 AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By MARIA
LOKSHIN Associated Press Writer
THE
HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Russia appealed to the European Union
presidency on Thursday help ease the transport of cargo from its isolated
Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad through the EU's new member states that
surround it. Prime Minister Mikhail
Fradkov said he raised the problems of trafficking goods from Kaliningrad and
the treatment of Russian speakers in the Baltic states in his talks with Dutch
government leaders. "We requested our
counterparts to intensify the work," Fradkov said.
Moscow has complained that cargo
transit has become more expensive and encumbered with bureaucratic delays since
Lithuania and Poland joined the European Union in May, despite pledges that the
EU expansion would not harm the enclave, which is cut off from the rest of
Russia. The Europeans say, however, the
cross-border traffic should fit with standard European customs regulations.
The Netherlands holds the rotating
presidency of the European Union, and Fradkov's two-day visit was intended to
prepare for an EU-Russia summit in November.
In April, Russia and the EU signed an
accord easing tariffs imposed by Moscow on exports from the Baltic countries,
in exchange for modifying the visa regime for passengers traveling through the
Baltics to Russia. The EU also pledged to guarantee language rights for the
Russian-speaking minority in Estonia and Latvia.
Fradkov said he asked that the EU
increase supervision of the situation of Russian speakers, reiterating Moscow's
dissatisfaction with what it contends is discrimination against the use of
Russian. Europe has said the language
laws in the three Baltic countries conform to EU standards for protecting
minority rights. "Our views are
slightly less negative," said Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Gerrit Zalm, speaking
at Fradkov's departure news conference.
But he said the Europeans "feel an
obligation" to review the issue if Russia asks for it.
In a bilateral issue, Zalm said the
Dutch again pressed Russia to return more than 300 pieces of artwork known as
the Koenigs Collection, which the Netherlands claims were illegally seized
during World War II. The Dutch say the
works by mostly German artists were illegally sold in 1940 to leading Nazi
officials and were later seized by the Soviet Union as war booty. The
Netherlands has been negotiating for the return of 307 items since they were
discovered 10 years ago in Moscow's Pushkin Museum.
The artwork was collected by Franz
Koenigs, a wealthy German businessman who opposed the Nazis and moved to the
Netherlands in the 1920s. In July, Ukraine returned another 139 drawings that
were found in a Kiev museum.
Latvian parliament
votes to prevent dual citizens from holding office, some cite partisan
politics
AP WorldStream Thursday, September 30, 2004
12:01:00 PM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press By TIMOTHY
JACOBS Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) — After a
day of rancorous debate, Latvia's parliament on Thursday approved a bill that
prohibits dual citizens from holding national office.
The bill passed 56-33 after its first
reading in the 100-seat Saeima, or parliament. Eleven legislators did not vote
or were absent. The bill must go
through two more readings and then be signed into law by President Vaira
Vike-Freiberga, who once had dual citizenship in Latvia and Canada.
To become president, Vike-Freiberga had
to give up her dual citizenship according to the Latvian Constitution.
If passed, Thursday's bill would
prevent the thousands of Latvians who lived in exile in the West during the
Soviet occupation -- about 5,000 of whom have since moved back to Latvia --
from becoming lawmakers or government ministers.
It would also force several current
legislators who hold dual citizenship to either resign from their posts or
renounce their non-Latvian citizenship.
Supporters say that similar laws exist
in most other countries and argue that enough time has passed since Latvia
regained its independence amid the 1991 Soviet collapse for Latvian expatriates
to choose their national allegiance.
Anta Rugate, a lawmaker with the
center-right People's Party, which drafted the bill, said that the bill shows
that "it is high time to start trusting Latvia completely. A servant that does
not belong to any house cannot serve two masters."
But opponents of the law call it a
political attack on the opposition New Era party, which has four legislators
that hold dual citizenship. New Era
lawmaker Guntis Berzins, who holds Australian and Latvian citizenship, said the
law would also send a signal to Latvian expatriates they are no longer needed
or wanted in Latvia. "We are speaking
about people who have returned from abroad to serve Latvia ... and many of them
have left well-paying jobs behind to serve their homeland," Berzins told the
Saeima. "These are the people whose loyalty we should doubt least of all."
Berzins also recalled the crucial
support from Latvians living in the West for the independence movement of the
early 1990s and reminded lawmakers of how they sent money and goods back home
"by the container load." Many political
analysts said the bill was an attack on New Era's parliamentary chairman,
Krisjanis Karins, who holds both Latvian and American citizenship. Karins has
been tipped a future prime minister. "I
see no motivation for this law," Karins told the AP after the vote. "Usually
laws are passed when something is amok. Here nothing has happened."
Karins said he hadn't yet decided if he
would give up his American citizenship if the law were passed. He said he might
not have to because it would be difficult for anyone to prove a lawmaker's dual
citizenship, because many countries refuse to give out that information.
Latvian police arrest
man suspected of prank calls to Riga airport
AP WorldStream Friday, October 01, 2004 11:40:00
AM Copyright 2004 The Associated Press
RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Latvian
police said Friday they had arrested a man suspected of making prank phone
calls to the Riga airport and trying to get a plane that had taken off for
Amsterdam grounded. Police did not
identify the man, as is customary in Latvia.
The suspect called the airport's
information center six times Thursday and told operators he was an airplane
mechanic and had forgotten to finish repairing the engine of a passenger plane
that had departed for Amsterdam, according to state police spokeswoman Sintija
Kanina. He warned of grave consequences
if the airline didn't land the plane, but it had already landed safely in
Amsterdam, Kanina said. The airline operating the plane was not identified.
The suspect was celebrating his 32nd
birthday, she said, and when police tracked the call to his house outside the
capital, he was arrested. The man said
he was surprised Latvian law enforcement agencies were so organized, Kanina
said. |