(Belated) Link, News, Pictures and Lat Chat for Sunday, Jan. 16
Date: 1/17/00 File: D:\+www.latvians.com\Mailer\Totalansicht.jpg (73968
bytes) DL Time (32000 bps): < 1 minute
Well, this week we had plenty of time to send out the mailer, except
Peters broke our computer adding more pieces to it! :-)
This week's
link from Gunars (zulis@aol.com) is a bit off the beaten track...about
Latvian Armor (modern, between WWI and WWII).
In the news, sadly, Kalejs stories continue to dominate. A
Reuters news "Feature" talked about how this is setting back Latvia's
image (even as Latvia was making progress on that whole Russian row over the
language law). There are other news stories, as well.
We have bit of
winter sports news as well—the Latvians do well in
women's luge Euro championship.
This week's picture is of
Riga in the late 1800's. Peters finally finished
scanning the album (3 dozen pictures in all!) and putting up on our site... see
the rest at: latvians.com
Remember, AOL Lat Chat is on every Sunday from 9:00/9:30 pm EST to 11:00-11:30
(Mailer or no mailer!). Add this link to your "Favorite Places!":
Town Square - Latvian chat
...Click on the link to create chat room, then click on the "heart" symbol
and select "Add to Favorite Places."
Who was Viesturs? According to this site, Viesturs was a Pierce-Arrow
armored car used by the Latvians in the years before the second world war. This
site shows the odd mix of armor that was used by the Latvian armed forces and
it is well-illustrated with photographs.
Itar-Tass world news digest of Monday, January
10 SYDNEY — Former Nazi
officer Konrad Kalejs admitted for the first time that he commanded death squad
in Latvia during World War Two but kept denying complicity in mass-scale
extermination of people. Kalejs said in an interview with Australia's SBS radio
that he had been "forced" to assume the command of a Latvian special company
which comprised soldiers of Viktor Areis, the war criminal sentenced to life in
prison in Germany in the 1980s.
Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd. BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) —
The European Union's enlargement commissioner said Tuesday the bloc should not
allow possible Russian concerns to influence EU talks on admitting countries
that were once in the Soviet communist bloc. The EU
is planning to admit the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania and seven other former communist bloc states — Poland, the Czech
Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania.
"We should not allow the negotiations to be influenced
by foreign policy concerns. We should keep our eye on the ball in the technical
negotiations," Commissioner Guenter Verheugen told the European Parliament's
foreign affairs committee. "I think the political
message is perfectly clear. ... We shall not wait for the views of Russia," he
said. The EU has opened membership negotiations
with six countries and is due to start formal talks with six more.
Verheugen said the expansion plans, which also include
the islands of Malta and Cyprus, were not directed against Russia or intended
to isolate it. The aim of enlargement was to stabilize the region.
But he said the EU would have to find a way to deal
with Russia's western enclave Kaliningrad, which will be surrounded by European
Union countries once the EU has taken in Lithuania and Poland. Kaliningrad has
no borders with the rest of Russia. "It will be
necessary to ensure that Kaliningrad has the opportunity to benefit from the
benefits of EU enlargement, without causing any political upset," Verheugen
said. "That's a very thorny issue." Verheugen said
the EU could set up a special means of cooperating with Russia over the
enclave, but gave no details.
RIGA, January 12
(Itar-Tass) — Latvian Prime Minister Andris Skele has turned to
the police on Wednesday asking to investigate the incident of hacking an
Internet website of the Latvian government. The hacker has logged in his own
text into the Internet site which reads: "the struggle against hackers has been
in full swing, all forces have been mobilised".
The hacker, who did not bother to introduce himself,
telephoned Latvian news agencies saying that he wanted to check whether
computer sites in Latvia were reliably protected. Latvian computer experts have
no illusions as regards the security of their computer files. Anyone might
easily hack through into approximately a third of computer sites, change the
contents or erase files altogether. The Latvian
government's move in retaliation is obvious now: soon, new regulations on
defence of computer files will come into force. Meanwhile, the Latvian police
have launched the struggle against a new form of criminal offense —
computer hacking. ere/ezh Copyright
2000
Four Cities
Share Top Ranking in Worldwide Quality of Living Survey NEW YORK, Jan 12 (PRNewswire) —
[excerpt] A worldwide analysis of 218 cities has identified Vancouver,
Zurich, Vienna, and Bern as having the highest quality of living, with Sydney,
Geneva, Auckland, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Amsterdam rounding out the top 10.
The survey by William M. Mercer Companies LLC evaluated the cities on the
basis of 39 quality of living criteria, including political, economic, and
environmental factors; personal safety; and health, education, transport, and
other public services. The survey is conducted annually to assist multinational
companies in assessing international quality of living standards for placing
their expatriate workers. Cities were ranked with
New York as the base with a score of 100...
1. VANCOUVER 106
... 46. PITTSBURGH 100 47. CHICAGO 100 48. BOSTON 100 49.
MADRID 100 50. NEW YORK 100 <<<<< New York City
... 92. LJUBLJANA 83 93. SANTIAGO 83 94. WARSAW 83 95.
JOHANNESBURG 83 96. VILNIUS 82 97. RIGA 82 <<<<< Riga
and Vilnius tied 98. PANAMA CITY 81.5 99. SEOUL 81.5 100.
ISTANBUL 81.5 ... 68. HO CHI MINH CITY 61.5 69. VIENTIANE 61
70. BEIRUT 61 71. KIEV 58.5 72. SKOPJE 58 73. ST. PETERSBURG 58
74. MOSCOW 57.5 <<<<< by comparison 75. SHENYANG
57 ... SOURCE William M. Mercer Companies LLC CONTACT: Stephanie
Poe of William M. Mercer Companies LLC, 202-331-5210, or
stephanie.poe@us.wmmercer.com/ Web site:
http://www.wmmercer.com/us-news/ Copyright 2000 PR Newswire
Copyright 2000 Reuters
Ltd. CANBERRA, Jan 13
(Reuters) — War crimes suspect Konrad Kalejs was not
necessarily implicated in the murder of Latvian Jews during World War Two even
though he belonged to a feared Nazi-run Latvian commando group, a Holocaust
expert said on Thursday. Kalejs, an 86-year-old
naturalised Australian, flew to Melbourne last week to avoid deportation from
Britain after being accused of being part of a hit squad responsible for 30,000
deaths. The focus of protests by Jewish groups
since his return to Australia, he vehemently denies the accusation while
admitting he was a member of the Arajs Commando.
Andrew Ezergailis, author of "The Holocaust in Latvia,"
told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio that Kalejs's membership of the Arajs
Commando was not enough to try him for his alleged activities.
"There's no question about him being a member of the
Arajs Commando but the question is, is there any kind of proof (he killed
Jews)? You can't just try anyone for membership of an organisation," said
Ezergailis, professor of history at Ithaca College in New York.
Kalejs maintains he was fighting Russia on the eastern
front or studying at university when the slaughter took place in 1941.
Ezergailis said a widely published photograph of Kalejs
in the uniform of an SS officer was unlikely to have been taken in 1942. That
was the date given by Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper, where it originally
appeared. "No Latvian was wearing an SS uniform in
1941-42," Ezergailis said. "Eventually Kalejs was transferred to the Latvian
Legion. That picture to my mind comes from somewhere around '44."
Ezergailis said most of the Latvians drafted into the
Arajs Commando had nothing at all to do with Hitler's "final solution" in the
Baltic region. "More than half of the people who
participated in Arajs Commando really didn't have anything to do with the
murder of Jews... they were sent out to Russia to control the partisans, then
they were ordered to guard certain camps." Only
about 500 of the total of 1,500 members of the Arajs Commando had been members
of the death squads, and Kalejs's postings in St Petersburg and Riga probably
ruled him out from the killings, Ezergailis said.
"I don't know for certain that he didn't (kill Jews)
but there's no evidence about it," he said. The
arrival of Kalejs in Melbourne sparked demands from Jewish groups for
re-examination of evidence relating to his alleged involvement in the wartime
atrocities. Kalejs, who took Australian citizenship
in the 1950s, left Britain to avoid implementation of a deportation order. He
had previously been deported from the United States and Canada, but cannot be
deported from Australia because of his citizenship.
Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd. RIGA, Jan 13 (Reuters) —
A Riga appeals court said on Thursday it had cut from seven to five years a
sentence against an 82-year-old ex-Soviet security police officer imposed for
deportations of families from Latvia to Siberia in the 1940s.
A district court last September found Mihail Farbtuh
guilty of deporting 31 families, including children, the sick and the elderly,
while serving as an NKVD department head in the eastern Latvian town of
Daugavpils. The NKVD was the precursor of the KGB
secret police. The appeals court said mitigating circumstances supporting
its decision included the fact that Farbtuh stopped working for repressive
institutions after World War Two as well as the regret he expressed for his
actions. The court, which ruled on an appeal by
Farbtuh, also said it had taken note of his age and poor state of health.
Farbtuh's lawyer would not comment on whether his
client — currently resting at home — would appeal against the reduced
sentence. He has 10 days to appeal to the Supreme Court Senate, the ultimate
appeal body. Farbtuh has admitted to participating
in the deportation of one family only, denying all other charges.
Latvia and the other two Baltic states, Lithuania and
Estonia, that escaped Moscow's grasp in 1991 are still dealing with the legacy
of 50 years of Soviet occupation when thousands were jailed, deported or killed
by Soviet security forces. Farbtuh was the second
person convicted under the genocide law in Latvia since 1991. Six people have
been charged with crimes related to Soviet-era crackdowns.
Two more Soviet security officials are under
investigation for similar crimes. In 1995, a court sentenced the former
Soviet NKVD security police chief, Alfreds Noviks, a Latvian and then 88, to
prison for helping to organise the deportation of more than 60,000 people. He
died in custody the following year. Some
historians estimate that more than 230,000 people were deported from Latvia
during the Soviet era.
This was a Reuter's News Feature
Article Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
By Burton Frierson RIGA, Jan 14 (Reuters) —
The uproar over Nazi war crimes suspect Konrad Kalejs has left his native
Latvia embarrassed in front of Western countries it wants to impress and
struggling to come to grips with its past of occupations and repression.
Nazi hunters have long urged Latvia to extradite
86-year-old Australian citizen Kalejs, who left Britain last week to avoid
implementation of a deportation order amid allegations he aided the World War
Two slaughter of Jews in his homeland. Latvian
officials say they do not have enough evidence to link Kalejs to atrocities
committed by the Nazi-backed Arajs hit squad that war crimes hunters at the
Simon Wiesenthal Centre allege he was a member of. Kalejs denies all such
charges. Prosecutors say they have appealed to
Britain, Israel and the Wiesenthal Centre, a leading Nazi-hunting organisation,
to help them build a case against Kalejs, but controversy raised during his
stay in Britain has led to a wave of attacks by critics saying Latvia is soft
on Nazis. For Latvia, eager to impress
organisations such as NATO and the European Union (EU) in hopes of one day
joining them, the affair has been a public relations disaster.
"Kalejs's question is something extremely negative and
unpleasant for Latvia," Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said this
week. "An extreme uproar has been caused in all
places he has been arriving at, with enormous media attention, which,
undeniably has in the worst possible manner linked the name of Latvia to gloomy
and disagreeable events," she said. KALEJS A
REMINDER OF BITTER PAST But many
Latvians find the Kalejs criticism difficult to take, especially with its
implication of widespread collaboration with the Nazis during the German
occupation. "Part of it is a psychological problem.
Latvians' self conception is very much based on being victims," said Nils
Muiznieks, director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic
Studies. Latvians see themselves as victims of the
Nazis and the Soviet Union, which both occupied the country during World War
Two and forcibly conscripted tens of thousands of locals into their armies.
The Soviets deported 15,000 Latvians to Siberian camps,
many never to return, during their first occupation of the Baltic state in 1941
alone. After the Nazis swept through later that
year, 95 percent of Latvia's 70,000 pre-war Jews were killed in a reign of
terror that ended when the Soviets re-occupied the country on their way to
Berlin and final victory over the Germans.
Thousands more Latvians were later deported to Siberia
or killed when Moscow resumed its purges. Since
regaining independence in 1991, Latvia has actively prosecuted suspects
connected with Stalin-era crimes, charging seven former Soviet officials in
cases related to Moscow-backed repressions.
Prosecutors are also trying a former partisan for
killings that took place when he was a commander of a World War Two communist
guerrilla group in Latvia. But they have not
charged a single Nazi crimes suspect. "The
Latvians have invested about zero energy in trying to bring Nazi collaborators
to justice," said Efraim Zuroff, head of the Wiesenthal Centre's Jerusalem
office. "As much as I applaud all the efforts to
prosecute communist criminals, they're not the only criminals who committed
crimes in Latvia," Zuroff added. Zuroff said it
would be easiest for Riga to pursue a Kalejs trial, as opposed to Australia,
which would face difficulties in arranging court appearances for witnesses, who
are most likely still in Latvia. The presence of
potential witnesses should also make it easier for Latvian prosecutors to find
the evidence they lack, he said, adding that the Wiesenthal Centre still had
not received the request for help they said they had sent. STRUGGLING WITH IMAGE
PROBLEMS In the meantime, the Kalejs
affair will continue to chip away at Latvia's image, which officials had been
repairing after repeated storms of protests from Moscow over the treatment of
the large Russian-speaking minority. A march early
last year by several hundred veterans of a Latvian unit organised by Germans to
fight on the Russian front also dented the country's image.
The soldiers were cleared of involvement in war crimes
by the Nuremburg war crimes tribunal but many find their yearly marches,
marking the date of a battle they fought in, unsettling.
European Union praise for efforts to integrate the
Russian speakers along with an invitation to start accession talks in December
had seemed to signal a positive change. Then Kalejs was discovered in an old
people's home in Britain. Without a strong effort
to show that Latvia is serious about Nazi crimes suspects, Latvia could
squander some of the good will created by legislative changes that assuaged EU
worries over the Russian speakers. Muiznieks said
Latvia must step up efforts to educate people about the Holocaust, which was
not discussed during the 50 years of Soviet rule, and also make real progress
in prosecuting Nazi crimes suspects. "In the
meantime, this drags Latvia down and will continue to drag Latvia down as long
as there are war criminals around," Muiznieks said.
However, many worry that Latvia will do nothing,
fearing a Nazi crimes conviction for one of its natives would mar the tiny
nation's history, although some say more damage is being done now.
"Why should Kalejs be a black mark on Latvia. It is the
inactivity of the prosecutors that is putting down the black mark," said
Grigorijs Krupnikovs, head of Latvia's Jewish community.
Sports
BONN, Jan 15
(XINHUA) — [excerpt] Following are results of the
luge European Championship in Winterberg, Germany on Saturday:
Women's singles:
Sylke Otto, Germany, one minute, 29.008 seconds (44.293, 44.
715)
Gallery
