Saturday, 29 January 2000
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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,
As always, please send comments, suggestions, mailer list additions and deletions to Silvija (Silvija).
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Many of Latvia's museums, large and small, are featured on this website (written in English).
Museums of Latvia http://vip.latnet.lv/LMA/
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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
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A rainy—but picturesque—autumn day on the Esplanade.