Saturday, 29 January 2000

"For Fatherland and Freedom"  Latvian Link
  News
  Picture Album

Link, News, Picture and Lat Chat for January 30th
Date: 1/29/00
File: D:\+www.latvians.com\Oct96\Picts\Esplanade-4170-34.jpg (87828 bytes)
DL Time (32000 bps): < 1 minute

All is in order again with the mailer! Some of you may have received two copies of the mailer for the 23rd...(or this one...) AOL disconnected in the middle of the mailing process.

As always, join on AOL in Lat Chat every Sunday evening, starting 9:00/9:30pm Eastern (U.S.) Time until 11:00/11:30pm. Follow this link on AOL: Town Square—Latvian chat

This week's link is to the Latvian Museum Association.

In the news:

  • U.S. urges Russia to drop its opposition to the Baltic States joining the EU and NATO (Hurray!)
  • its opinion of Russian complaints about Kononov conviction
  • ; prosecutors from various (pressuring) states invited to Riga
  • condemns Kononov conviction, paints WWII Soviets as anti-Nazi heroes persecuted by "extremist right-wing pro-Nazi Latvian forces," labels such anti-Soviet prosecutions as Latvian attempts to rewrite history and "justify Nazism."

We don't suppose that the Duma will ever adopt a resolution regretting the slaughter of tens of millions by Stalin. And what loathsome hypocrisy to accuse Latvia of what the Soviet state did for 50 years! Who's the "revisionist" now?

This week's picture is from Peters' trip in October 1996 (it rained all the time he was there)... it's of someone scurrying through the Esplanade park; the historic Orthodox Cathedral is in the background.

Ar visu labu,

Silvija Peters

As always, please send comments, suggestions, mailer list additions and deletions to Silvija (Silvija).

  Latvian Link

Many of Latvia's museums, large and small, are featured on this website (written in English).

Museums of Latvia 
http://vip.latnet.lv/LMA/ 

  News

     Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
     By Alistair Holloway

     TALLINN, Jan 24 (Reuters)—The United States urged Russia on Monday to drop its opposition to the accession of the Baltic states to NATO and the European Union.
     Speaking in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said security in the former Soviet states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania would only be sure once they were full members of the EU and the Atlantic alliance.
     "The issue on our minds is whether post-Soviet Russia, as it goes about defining its political system through elections, will redefine its concepts of state security as well," Talbott told an audience of the regions leading diplomats and politicians.
     "Our hope is that Russia will come...to view the region not as a fortified frontier but as a gateway. Not as a buffer against invaders who no longer exist, but as a trading route."
     NATO, EU KEY POLICY GOALS
     All three Baltic states have made membership of the EU and NATO their foreign policy goals since they regained independence following 50 years of rule under Moscow, but they were turned down last year when the alliance expanded to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
     Russia has indicated it would accept their EU membership—in December Latvia and Lithuania were upgraded to Estonia's status of fast track accession talks—but is steadfastly against NATO expansion.
     The three countries—which see NATO membership as vital to ensure independence—emerged from the Soviet Union with large Russian-speaking minorities that had migrated there with Moscow's encouragement.
     The minorities have been the source of bitter rows with Russia, which criticised Baltic governments' decisions not to grant blanket citizenship after the demise of the Soviet Union and sees many laws as discriminating against Russians.
     "The fate of the Baltic states is nothing less than a litmus test for the fate of this entire continent," Talbott said.
     "We will (pass the test) when...Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are secure, stable prosperous democracies integrated into all the structures of the Euro-Atlantic community."
     Talbott said the United States—which never officially recognised the Soviet takeover of the Baltics— backs the process of EU enlargement as well as Estonia's decision to boost defence spending by two percent of gross domestic product over the next two years.


     RIGA, January 4 (Itar-Tass)— The opinion of the Russian Foreign Ministry about the sentence passed on World War II guerrilla Vasily Kononov by a court of Latvia is absolutely unacceptable for the Latvian Foreign Ministry.
     "That is an attempt to discredit Latvia in the eyes of the international community and to hamper its irreversible integration with the European and Trans-Atlantic institutions," a statement of the Latvian Foreign Ministry of Tuesday says. Latvia is ready for an active investigation into the crimes against humanity, which have no prescription, "regardless the ideology and the nationality of the accused."
     Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga views the stand of the Russian diplomats as "mockery of the millions of victims of the Soviet totalitarian regime," the presidential spokeswoman said. Prime Minister Andris Skele disagreed with the opinion of the Russian Foreign Ministry too.
     yer/ Copyright 2000


     Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
     By Belinda Goldsmith

     STOCKHOLM, Jan 27 (Reuters)—Latvia said on Thursday it would take note of any new evidence to help put suspected Nazi war criminals on trial as international efforts to bring former Latvian army officer Konrad Kalejs to justice were stepped up.
     Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga reaffirmed her commitment to pursuing suspected war criminals after the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre produced names of seven men living in Latvia who may have more evidence against Kalejs.
     "We stand ready to receive any additional evidence that will help us initiate criminal proceedings against any individual suspected of committing war crimes in Latvia," Vike-Freiberga told an international Holocaust conference in Sweden.
     "We accept no excuse for their actions. We accept no mitigation to their guilt."
     Kalejs, a naturalised Australian citizen living in Melbourne, is alleged to have been an active member of the Arajs Commando in his native Latvia, a hit squad responsible for 30,000 deaths during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation of Latvia.
     He has consistently denied participating in any war crimes and investigators in Australia have failed to find sufficient evidence to take legal action against him.
     Vike-Freiberga said up to 100,000 Latvian Jews, gypsies, ethnic Latvians and mentally handicapped people had been murdered during the war with the Nazis recruiting an estimated 1,000 Latvians to carry out these crimes.
     LATVIA GIVEN SEVEN NEW POSSIBLE WITNESSES
     Ephraim Zuroff, spokesman from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said his group's researchers had found evidence that seven former Arajs Commando members, who had been convicted for their crimes but since rehabilitated, were living in Latvia.
     "We want the Latvian government to question these men about Kalejs and maybe some new evidence will come from this," said Zuroff who met Vike-Freiberga in Stockholm this week.
     "With the support from the government, these people, former members of the Arajs Commando, could testify. If people fear they'll be victimised if they testify, then they won't."
     Although no legal action has been taken against him, Kalejs, now 86, was deported from the United States in 1994 and Canada in 1997 for lying on immigration documents.
     Earlier this month he was forced to leave Britain when he was discovered living in an old people's home. He returned to Australia where he was granted citizenship in 1957.
     International efforts are continuing around Kalejs with the Australian and Latvian governments fast-tracking an extradition agreement which would pave the way to send him back if enough evidence were produced to warrant a trial.
     An amendment to Australia's War Crimes Act last year allows other countries to seek extradition of war crimes suspects without a clear supporting case.
     Latvia's prosecutor-general has also invited Australia, the United States, Canada, Britain, Israel, and Germany to a meeting in Riga on February 16 and 17 to pool information about Kalejs and help Latvia pursue a criminal investigation.
     Fellow Baltic state Lithuania also pledged to continue its hunt for war criminals although trials so far have been unsuccessful. Over 90 percent of Lithuania's pre-war Jewish community of 220,000 was murdered during the Holocaust.
     "There must be no term of limitation for these criminals, there should be no place for forgiveness or oblivion," Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius told the conference.

     MOSCOW, January 28 (Itar-Tass)—The Russian State Duma demanded that the Latvian authorities should "promptly revise" the trial of war veteran Vasily Kononov.
     The statement adopted by the Duma lower house of parliament on Friday says the Latvian authorities have made a horrible precedent that may set off a series of trials in Latvia of participants in the Second World War who fought on the side of countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and protected the world against Nazism.
     The Duma condemns "the criminal striving of the Latvian powers to revise the results and principles of the Nuremberg trial respected by the world community, which amounts to an attempt to revise the results of the Second World War and to justify Nazism."
     The deputies are of the opinion that "the extremist right-wing pro-Nazi forces continue to intensify their activities in Latvia, and the ideas of militant nationalism and chauvinism are picked up to serve as state ideology."
     saf/gor Copyright 2000

  Picture Album

A rainy—but picturesque—autumn day on the Esplanade.

Riga, The Esplanade
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