Saturday, 26 February 2000

Latvian Link   News   Picture Album

Links, News, Picture, AOL Lat Chat for Sunday, February 27th Date: 00.02.26.
File: D:\_WWWLA~1.COM\OCT96\PICTS\VECRIG~2.JPG (43252 bytes)
DL Time (TCP/IP): < 1 minute

We've got lots of our own stuff to do this weekend (as we're sure most of you do), so we'll get right to it!

This week, we have more than one featured link. We get requests for information now and then, invariably sending us on a web browsing escapade. We thought we'd share the results, in this case, looking for sites about Dievturi and Latvian culture and language.

In the news,

• Latvian Gypsy community expected to testify against Kalejs if there is a trial
• Australia, Canada, Germany Great Britain, Israel, and United States reprepsentatives meet with Latvian Prosecutor General on Nazi crimes investigation
• A move to publicize the names of former KGB officials in Latvia
• Construction of Russian oil pipeline bypassing Latvia will start this year
• Russian veterans societies liken Kononov conviction to "unleashing genocide"
• Russian presidency candidate suggests economic sanctions against Latvia for Kononov conviction
• Upcoming date in history, March 3rd has been a busy one for Latvia

slightly different look at the spire of St. Peter's.

For those of you on AOL, follow this link, Town Square - Latvian chat, to Lat Chat, Sunday evenings, 9:00/9:30pm to 11:00/11:30pm, Eastern Time. We're just the messengers, remember the chat is always there whether or not we manage to do the mailer!

Ar visu labu,

              
IN ACCORDANCE WITH AOL'S MAIL POLICY and good manners, please let Silvija (Silvija) know if you wish to be deleted from our mailing list. Past mailers are archived at latvians.com. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome

Latvian Link

We recently received an Email asking about "Dievturi"—the indigenous Latvian/Lithuanian folk religion)—and the origins of Latvian culture and language and similarities to Sanskrit. And so we went off on another web exploration, with the following results:

Baltic Heritage Page, http://www.globalserve.net/~latvis/baltic/fr_home.htm
- lots of information on ancient history, and so on
(we've featured this one before, a site with, shall we say, personality)
http://www.ifispan.waw.pl/research/paganism/dievturi.htm
- a summary of the origins of the Dievturi
- Dievturi repression during the Soviet occupation
- contacting the Dievturi congregation in Latvia

http://lithuaniangenealogy.org/features/romuva/
- an interesting academic overview of native Baltic religion
(Romuva is the Lithuanian version of Dievturi)

http://daugenis.mch.mii.lt/postilla/Kalba/baltai.en.htm
- Lithuanian to Sanskrit comparisons
(all the "root words" compared have one-for-one matches in Latvian)

http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi15.htm
- this site suggests Latvian is the oldest of Indo-European languages
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi51.htm
- ...including Latvian to Sanskrit comparisons

http://www.latinst.lv/li_culture.htm
- a good site on Latvian culture with lots of links (in English)

News

      RIGA, February 20 (Itar-Tass)—There will be Gypsy witnesses to testify at a trial of Konrads Kalejs if the trial is announced, head of the Latvian Gypsy community and parliament deputy Normund Rudevich said on Sunday. "Many elderly people recognized him by picture in the newspapers and were horrified," he said.
     Experts from seven countries are studying the military career of former company commander from a punitive team, which is responsible for the death of about 30,000 Jews, Gypsies and communists. Late last week the experts gathered in Riga to outline a plan. So far Latvia does not have evidence to confirm the involvement of Kalejs, a 86-years-old ethnic-Latvian national of Australia, in the manslaughter. There are not enough eye-witnesses and facts to start the trial in Riga.
     Half of the Latvian Gypsy community was murdered by the Nazi and their accessories. "Neither compensations nor apologizes were given to Gypsies by the German state," Rudevich said. His parents told him that the butchers hit children against pine-trees to spare bullets and let Gypsy children from a cage one by one to train shooting at moving targets. "One generation of my people did not have a moral satisfaction by knowledge that all villains were punished, but let the ancestors have it," Rudevich said.
     There are 7,500 Gypsies in 2.4-million-strong Latvia.
     yer/dro Copyright 2000

     February 22, 2000 (M2 Communications)—Upon the initiative of the General Prosecutor's Office of Latvia, the meeting of the representatives from the Australia, Canada, Germany Great Britain, Israel, and United States, was organized on February 16 - 17 in order to cooperate in the investigation of Nazi-sponsored crimes committed on Latvian territory during World War II, including the case of Konrads Kalejs.
     During the meeting, the Prosecutor General of Latvia, Mr. Janis Skrastins, expressed Latvia's readiness and commitment to actively, carefully and consistently investigate Nazi-sponsored crimes committed on Latvian territory during World War II and to prosecute persons having committed these crimes. As a result, the Office of Prosecutor General of Latvia has made a decision to increase the staff of the Division for Crimes of Totalitarian Regimes and resources allocated to the investigation and involve Prof. H. Strods, a member of the Latvian Commission of Historians, as well as the Latvian Documentation Center of Totalitarian Regimes, in these investigations.
     During the meeting, the Prosecutor General of Latvia provided information about the law of the Republic of Latvia regarding war crimes, crimes against humanity and criminal procedure. The participants of the meeting suggested an action plan, and agreed to support the General Prosecutor's Office of Latvia. Latvia has undertaken to update all parties on the progress of its investigations within three months, and the other parties agreed to undertake certain support during that time.
     The parties agreed that joining the efforts of experts in law and history is crucial to the investigation of war crimes. The representatives of Latvia and Australia agreed on negotiating an extradition relationship as a matter of priority. Latvia and Great Britain agreed to organize a visit of Latvian investigators to Scotland Yard in the near future to review the relevant material. Australia, Canada, Germany and the United States offered the benefit of their expertise, relevant legal materials, technical assistance, and any new relevant information or assistance which they can provide in the prosecution of similar cases.
     Israel offered its assistance in obtaining relevant materials regarding war crimes committed on Latvian territory from non-governmental organizations and individuals in Israel.
      (C)1994-2000 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD CONTACT: Embassy of Latvia

     RIGA, February 23 (Itar-Tass)—The People's Party of Latvia intends to make public the names of former KGB officers and agents. It suggested that the content of "CHEKA sacks" kept under lock all this time, should be "shaken out" onto pages of official publications.
     The parliamentary group of the People's Party drafted a bill which the Latvian parliament relegated to commissions for examination. It provides for publishing "CHEKA lists" and for lifting limitations (three years later) to take some posts for those whose name are put on the lists.
     True, appropriate documents should be attached to the catalogue, confirming that the informer really reported some data rather than was just recorded for the sake of planned figures of KGB.
However, this part of the archives was taken to Russia, which can create additional problems.
     People's Party recommends that work on preparing the lists of names should be instructed to the Centre of Documentation of Totalitarianism Aftermaths. The centre already received another no less difficult task: to request Germany for names of people who had cooperated with Nazi secret services and who had served in punitive detachments.
     However, specialists doubt that Germany will hand over such information.
      bur/ezh Copyright 2000

     ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIA—Acting President, Vladimir Putin reported that Russian companies would save up to $100 million a year by not having to pay for high tariffs for transportation of oil through the territory of Latvia. The construction of the Baltic pipeline system, which will start in the first half of this year, is planned to be completed not later than 22 months.
     Copyright 2000 (AP)

     Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
     MOSCOW, February 25 (Reuters)—Russia's World War Two veterans society slammed the Baltic state of Latvia on Friday for sentencing a 77-year-old partisan to jail for the killing of nine civilians and said it was worried about further cases.
     Russia has protested to Latvia over the sentencing of partisan Vasili Kononov for the 1944 killings. Latvia says the incident was a war crime as civilians were killed and that it would prosecute such crimes regardless of who committed them.
     "The Latvian authorities have unleashed genocide against the generation of victors in the year of the 55th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Hitler's fascism," the society, uniting tens of thousands of veterans, said in a statement.
     The statement, quoted by Itar-Tass news agency, said the society was worried about 150 other criminal cases launched against Soviet war veterans in Latvia.
     Kononov has been sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the killing of nine people while he was commander of a World War Two Communist guerrilla group in Latvia. He has appealed to the supreme court against the sentence.
     Acting President Vladimir Putin wrote a letter to Latvian leader Vaira Vike-Freiberga, asking her to get Kononov released while former Russian president Boris Yeltsin cited the incident as one of the reasons for refusing Latvia's highest medal.
     Vike-Freiberga said in a letter to Putin on Thursday that crimes like Kononov's had to be punished regardless of the ideology for which they were committed.
     However, Latvia has been criticised for failing to prosecute soldiers who fought on the Nazi side during the war and who have also been accused of war crimes.

     KEMEROVO, February 25 (Itar-Tass)—The governor of the southern Siberian Kemerovo region on Friday denounced prosecution of WWII veterans in Latvia.
     "The prosecution of Europe's liberators from fascism in Latvia on the eve of the 55th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War runs contrary to the world outlook of sensible people and the General Declaration of Human Rights," Aman Tuleyev, one of the runners for the Russian presidency, told Itar-Tass.
     A groundless prison sentence given to Soviet partisan Vasily Kononov "has become a very dangerous precedent," Tuleyev said. Another 150 cases against people who fought for the Soviet Union in WWII have been initiated in Latvia, he added.
     By justifying fascism, the Latvian leaders are "taking the path of genocide" against the Russian-speaking population of the republic, the governor stressed.
     Tuleyev urged Russian parliament "not to keep silent" and said the government "has enough grounds to consider economic sanctions" against Latvia. Residents of Siberia "are ready to accept Vasily Kononov for permanent residence and meet him as a national hero," he noted.
      pat Copyright 2000

     Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
     LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters)—Following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 3 in history [excerpted]:
     1861 - Serfdom was abolished in Russia [this included the Latvian territory]
     1918 - Germany and its allies signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia, ending hostilities between them in World War One [also guaranteed Latvian independence]
     1991 - Large majorities in Latvia and Estonia voted for independence from the Soviet Union in referenda.
     REUTERS

Picture Album

Today's photo is of St. Peter's spire disappearing into a misty sky.