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February 14, 2003

Sveiki, all!

And a happy Valentine's Day!

As you might have gathered, we've been rather busy... so lots of news to catch up on. If there's a theme to this week's news, Russia is still squeezing the Baltics even as the Baltics move toward joining the world community on an equal footing...and the Soviet and Nazi eras are still with us.

In the news:

and, regionally,

This week, our links are a compendium of those in the news section.

This week's picture is one we would have wanted to send as our Christmas card last year, but we didn't have any with snow in Riga...

As always, AOL'ers, remember, mailer or not, Lat Chat spontaneously appears every Sunday on AOL starting around 9:00/9:30pm Eastern time, lasting until 11:00/11:30pm. AOL'ers can follow this link in their AOL browser: Town Square - Latvian chat. And thanks to you participating on the Latvian message board as well: LATVIA (both on AOL only).

Ar visu labu,

SilvijaPeters

 

  Latvian Link

A compendium from this week's news:

 

  News


Latvians wary as PM cracks down on corruption
Reuters World Report Saturday, February 01, 2003 9:05:00 PM
Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd.
By Erik Brynhildsbakken

      RIGA, Feb 2 (Reuters) -- Latvia's centre-right premier Einars Repse swept to power last October promising to clamp down on endemic corruption, a legacy of decades of Soviet rule.
      The former central banker chaired his first coalition cabinet meeting with a pistol tucked into his belt, perhaps a sign he is well aware his drive to cleanse the business and public sectors will make him enemies.
      The campaign to clean up Latvia before it joins the EU and NATO next year initially won widespread backing, but Repse has faced growing opposition to what many see as a West European obsession with graft.
      Some think the West is in for a rude awakening with the EU's May 2004 enlargement into central and eastern Europe.
      For Latvians, backhanders to state officials and business partners are part of everyday life.
      "Fifty years of Soviet rule taught people here all kinds of tricks to exploit the system," one Latvian said, declining to give her name. "The EU has no idea what it's in for."
      LEGAL LOOPHOLES
      Analysts and international organisations agree that Latvia is in urgent need of tackling widespread corruption -- ranging from petty bribing of state officials to a business grey zone in some areas where almost as much goes on under the table as on top of it.
      Corruption, widespread under communism, became even more entrenched after Latvia won independence in 1991 and set out to woo Western investment. The country's under-developed legal and commercial systems left gaping loopholes, readily exploited by those in business and state officials.
      "Without the right connections, you simply get nothing done here," said one foreign businessman.
      "It's not so much that large men suddenly appear at your door, but you'll find the whole system working against you, squeezing you out."
      Repse says corruption is crippling Latvia's development towards a Western-style market-based economy.
      INTERNATIONAL CONCERN
      Much of the economy is more like a thriving underground tax haven, and EU agencies are on the alert.
      "We have identified corruption as a serious problem that needs to be addressed," said Hella Gerth, counsellor at the European Commission's delegation in Latvia.
      "We're mostly concerned about corruption in the public sector -- small bribes are just part of the game over here."
      Gerth said the corruption issue would not damage Latvia's EU entry, but she welcomed any steps the prime minister was taking to tackle it.
      The local branch of Transparency International, a global anti-graft watchdog, recently placed Latvia 52nd out of 102 countries listed on its corruption perception index, way below neighbours Estonia and Lithuania and among East Europe's worst.
      The report noted recent improvements, but urged Latvia to urgently step up the fight against corruption in public and in private.
      A recent report by the Open Society Institute, a non-profit group linked to the Soros Foundation, criticised how powerful Latvian business interests dominated the legal process, making it harder for foreigners to get into local markets.
      It said a lack of transparency also made it difficult for potential investors to assess risk, which put off smaller firms.
      LOST EXPERIENCE
      But some believe Repse's zeal in dismissing those tainted with corruption allegations could risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
      While ordinary Latvians lap up daily media reports of who's in and who's out, the purge-like atmosphere threatens to leave ministries and public bodies with an experience deficit.
      "He's thrown out a lot of people," said Artis Pabriks, a political science professor.
      "He made some good steps in getting rid of several corrupt policemen, but the downside is that a great many good people have also left."
      While the Repse camp is full of young, bright talent eager to clean up the country, the hard line against the old guard has made experienced leaders hard to find.
      "The new government will try hard, and will find more honest officials, but the question is whether they will be more professional," said newspaper columnist Anita Brauna.
      Dozens of high-ranking officials have been suspended pending disciplinary cases. They include high-profile state officials such as the heads of customs and state revenues.
      Many lower-level state employees have been warned, disciplined or fired.
      "We've already managed to set a tone of transparency for the governmental process," Repse told Reuters.
      "The pressure for openness, accountability and honesty will continue," he said. "There's more to come."
      TIDE TURNS?
      At first, the public loved it, and Repse's popularity ratings rocketed, but now analysts are watching closely as the cabinet hits some stumbling blocks.
      Last month, Repse blundered by demanding a threefold increase in ministerial salaries in recognition of their responsibilities. Everyone else was told to tighten their belts to cut state spending.
      More recently, a former patient accused Health Minister Aris Auders of taking money for an operation that was covered by the state sickness fund.
      Repse's next target could also be one his trickiest, as he aims to take control of the country's security services after a NATO warning about their integrity. Latvia was invited late last year to join the military alliance in 2004.
      And now, ordinary Latvians, brought up on a diet of empty and dashed political promises, are becoming more wary.
      Pabriks, who is connected with the opposition conservative People's Party, said despite all the talk of open and fair government, recent new appointments in state company management, such as telecoms firm Lattelekom and utility Latvenergo, showed party favouritism was alive and well.
      "Earlier, any dirt you threw at Repse simply wouldn't stick, but now that seems to be changing," he said.

Latvia turns to EU for help in resolving oil impasse
AP WorldStream Tuesday, February 04, 2003 8:17:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press
By J. MICHAEL LYONS
Associated Press Writer

      VENTSPILS, Latvia (AP) -- Lights on the wall-sized monitor usually shine like a Christmas tree in the pipeline control room at Ventspil Oil, a sign that Russian oil is rushing into the country.
      But the lights aren't flashing anymore because no oil is flowing from Russia into this former Soviet republic, thanks in part to a dispute about oil shipments that Latvia has asked the European Union to help resolve.
      Russia's state-owned monopoly, Transneft -- the pipeline's sole supplier -- halted deliveries in December, citing what it called unreasonably high transit tariffs charged by Latvia.
      Latvian officials claim Russia is pressuring them to sell Ventspils -- which stores the oil and loads it onto tankers bound to the West -- to Russian investors.
      Latvian Transportation Minister Roberts Zile said Russia is bent on controlling the flow of its oil from the wells on the ground to the fuel depots in the West.
      "There is no economic argument Russia can make in doing this -- cutting off the oil to Latvia," he said. "Russia just wants to keep the infrastructure in its hands."
      It's the latest row between Russia and Latvia, a staunchly pro-Western nation of 2.5 million people that will join the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2004.
      "We are concerned that decisions related to oil transportation via Latvia are politically colored," Latvian Foreign Minister Sandra Kalniete wrote in a Jan. 17 letter to the EU Commission seeking its help.
      Russia has denied it's acting out of political motives, and the EU has yet to formally respond to the letter.
      Oil shipments to Ventspils dropped sharply after Russia opened a new oil terminal at Primrose near St. Petersburg in December 2001. Russia said the terminal will save US$1.5 billion annually in transit tariffs -- most of which have gone to Latvia.
      Russia built the terminal, in part, to supplant dependence on Ventspils Oil, which the Soviets constructed in 1961 to ship Russian oil to Western markets, but lost it when Latvia regained its independence as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
      Latvia has reaped billions in oil transit fees from Russia since, which has been a boon to Ventspils, a town of just 44,000 people 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of the capital, Riga.
      There is little unemployment in cash-rich Ventspils, and the brick-paved streets are clean and relatively crime free -- thanks to a well-funded public sector.
      Until Primorsk opened, Russia shipped as much as 300,000 barrels a day to Ventspils through a 550-kilometer (330-mile) pipeline from Polotsk in western Russia.
      Deliveries fell off last year and stopped completely last month, six months before Latvia hopes to sell off a 38-percent stake in Ventspils Nafta.
      The company is now scraping by on much costlier railroad deliveries of oil.
      Ventspils Oil posted a profit of 25.7 million lats (US$42.8 million) in 2001. Company officials expect a profit this year of 40,000 lats (US$66,666), according to estimates released Thursday.
      Latvia is reluctant to sell shares in the company to a Russian firm because critics fear that would leave it open to pressure from the Kremlin.
      Several Russian firms, including Transneft, have expressed interest in buying a controlling stake in Ventspil Oil.
      The Latvian government's 43-percent stake includes seats on the company's board of directors. A consortium of several smaller shareholders owns the rest.
      Russian officials deny they're starving Ventspils Oil to wear down resistance to Russian investment.
      "Transneft's decision to pump (oil) to Russian terminals is a matter of business not politics," insisted Igor Studennikov, Russia's ambassador to Latvia.
      Analysts have speculated that Russia is trying to reassemble its Soviet-era oil supply chain.
      Last year the Russian oil company Yukos bought a controlling interest in Lithuania's Mazeikiu Oil, which operates the Baltic states' only oil refinery.
      "This network was planned by the Soviets in such a way that it works together," said Riga-based oil industry consultant Uldis Osis.
      Ventspils Oil, he said, was a key piece of the network.
      "Russia is still working under this old Soviet attitude where it feels it can take what it wants," he said.

On the Net:
Ventspils Oil: http://www.vot.lv
Transneft: http://www.transneft.ru

East Europeans to back United States on Iraq
AP WorldStream Wednesday, February 05, 2003 8:45:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press
By VESELIN TOSHKOV
Associated Press Writer

      SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) -- Deepening European cracks over Iraq, some new NATO candidates are preparing a declaration of support for U.S. President George W. Bush's drive to disarm Baghdad, government officials said Wednesday.
      Officials in Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Slovakia and the Baltic countries said they were working on a document to be issued later Wednesday in the United States, after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks on Iraq to the U.N. Security Council.
      A declaration would be the second collective expression of support from Europe. Last week, the leaders of the Czech Republic, Britain, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain published a joint article backing Bush and appealing for unity.
      That move further strained European attempts to present a united front on the Iraq issue.
      Led by France and Germany, a number of European nations insist that a new U.N. resolution expressly authorizing force against Iraq is needed before any U.S.-led military move. Others have voiced support for the U.S. position reserving the right to act without such a resolution. Still others are somewhere in between.
      Wednesday's emerging declaration and the eight-nation statement of support last week reflect a newly emerging continental divide 14 years after the collapse of the Iron Curtain was hailed as the beginning of a unified Europe.
      They highlight divisions between traditional western European allies like France and Germany and former communist countries and less powerful EU members.
      Still, with their economies struggling and their armies weak and dated, these newly democratic countries often cannot offer much more than moral support.
      As for EU members Spain, Denmark and Italy, the three are militarily inferior to France and Germany, both of which have nuclear weapons, and have lesser influence in postwar Europe than Paris, Berlin or London.
      Trying to bridge the differences, Greece on Tuesday renewed calls for an emergency European Union summit on Iraq.
      The wording of Wednesday's declaration depended on what Powell told the Security Council, said Dimitar Tsonev, a Bulgarian government spokesman. Powell has promised to outline evidence of hidden Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and ties between the regime in Baghdad and the terrorist network al-Qaida.
      But Slovak government spokesman Boris Gandel said, "it can be assumed that the ... countries will support the viewpoint of the United States."
      The declaration is expected to be signed by up to 10 East European states, Tsonev said, adding other countries who wanted to join were welcome to do so.
      The expected signatories are part of the Vilnius 10, a group created in 2000 in the Lithuanian capital to help its members seek NATO membership. It includes seven countries already invited to join the alliance -- Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia -- and NATO hopefuls Albania, Croatia and Macedonia.
      East European governments have tended to be more supportive of Washington than their Western counterparts, partly out of gratitude for strong U.S. support of their anti-communist struggle or independence strivings in the late 1980s and the early 1990s.
      Despite their lack of military strength, many East European countries have already offered the United States other kinds of assistance for a possible strike on Iraq.

In Latvia, where official support is high, residents oppose Iraq war
AP WorldStream Thursday, February 06, 2003 5:01:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Most Latvians oppose military action in Iraq despite their government's staunch backing of a possible U.S. operation to disarm Baghdad, according to a recent poll.
      A survey of 1,001 residents of the ex-Soviet Baltic republic of 2.4 million people conducted Jan. 25-Feb. 2 showed that 74 percent oppose toppling the Iraqi regime using military force. Twenty percent of respondents backed military action and 6 percent were undecided.
      The poll, released Wednesday, did not ask respondents whether they favored an attack that had U.N. backing.
      Polling agency Latvijas Fakti said the survey had a margin of error of 2.8 percent.
      Latvia was one of 10 Eastern European countries that issued a joint statement Wednesday supporting U.S. efforts to disarm Iraq.
      Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia -- all NATO candidates -- also signed the statement, which was delivered after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's address on Iraq to the U.N. Security Council.

American-owned tanker runs aground near Danish island
AP WorldStream Friday, February 07, 2003 8:16:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press

      COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- An aging single-hulled tanker carrying 35,000 tons of diesel oil ran aground near a Danish island Friday morning, but there were no reports of leakage.
      The Bahamian-registered Acushnet, owned by ChevronTexaco Corp., was sailing from Ventspils, Latvia, to the United States when it ran aground around 8:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) just east of Samsoe Island in the Kattegat sea between the Jutland peninsula and southern Sweden.
      The Danish navy didn't know the tanker's U.S. destination, Cmdr. Alex Jensen told The Associated Press.
      Built in 1981, the tanker sailed through Danish waters without the use of a pilot, which is permissible under Danish law.
      Jensen said the ship's owner and its insurer would have to decide how best to free the tanker. He said the likely solution would be to transfer some of the diesel oil from the Acushnet to other ships.
      The Danish navy dispatched two ships, including an environmental protection vessel, to monitor for any possible oil leaks, but none were found.
      Up to 160,000 vessels sail through Danish straits every year, which is the main route for sailing out of the Baltic Sea.
      Last month, a Russian single-hulled tanker carrying 70,000 tons crude oil was stopped in Danish waters for two days and ordered to make repairs.
      The tanker Prestige that sank off the coast of northwestern Spain last year and spilled its cargo in the Atlantic Ocean, also sailed the same route.

Latvia's parliament approves troop deployment to Afghanistan
AP WorldStream Friday, February 07, 2003 8:23:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Latvia's parliament approved the deployment of an army medical team to Afghanistan, the first troops from the ex-Soviet republic to be sent to the region, defense officials said Friday.
      The team will start a six-month deployment later this month and will include two doctors, four nurses and two drivers, Latvian Defense Ministry spokesman Airis Rikvelis said.
      Latvia's 100-seat Saeima legislature approved the deployment late Thursday by a vote of 70-23, with seven abstentions.
      The neighboring Baltic states, Estonia and Lithuania, already have troops in Afghanistan, including several helping to clear mines. Latvia, a Baltic Sea coast nation of 2.5 million residents, also has peacekeeping troops in Kosovo.
      Lawmakers debated the measure for several hours, with some opposition members arguing that sending troops to Afghanistan would show tacit support for possible U.S.-led military action in Iraq.
      The government has expressed support for Washington and ruling lawmakers Friday compared Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler. Polls indicate that over 70 percent of Latvians oppose an invasion of Iraq.

Latvia reports increase in industrial output during December
AP WorldStream Friday, February 07, 2003 11:02:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Latvia reported a gain in industrial output for December of 11.9 percent compared to the same time in 2001, the country's statistics department reported Friday.
      The year-on-year gain was the result of increased activity in the country's mining, manufacturing and utilities industries. The production of electricity, gas and water supplies, however, rose by 18.4 percent.
      Latvia has a population of 2.4 million and will join the European Union in 2004, along with its Baltic neighbors, Lithuania and Estonia.

Nations Elect 18 Judges for Global Criminal Court
Reuters Online Service Saturday, February 08, 2003 2:42:00 AM
Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd.
By Evelyn Leopold and Irwin Arieff

      UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- In successive rounds of voting over four days, 18 judges were elected to preside over the world's first permanent criminal court, created to try perpetrators of mass crimes when nations fail to act.
      The voting by 85 of the 88 nations that have ratified the court's statutes went to 33 ballots until the last judge was elected late on Friday, Frenchman Claude Jorda, the president of the ad hoc war U.N. crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
      Seven of the 18 judges are women -- from Ireland, Mali, Brazil, Ghana, Costa Rica, Latvia as well as South African Judge Navanethem Pillay, president of the U.N. tribunal for genocide in Rwanda.
      With the United States boycotting the birth of the tribunal, European and other Western nations, which ended up with seven judges, will be footing the bill for the ICC.
      The court will be formally inaugurated on March 11 in The Hague when Netherlands Queen Beatrix swears in the judges. But the key task of naming a prosecutor does not begin until April 21 and a proper functioning staff is not expected to be in place until the end of the summer.
      The ICC, based on the principles of Nazi war crime tribunals at the end of World War II, is to prosecute individuals accused of the world's most heinous atrocities -- genocide, war crimes and other gross human rights violations.
      A total of 139 nations have signed and 88 of them have ratified the treaty creating the tribunal. Afghanistan is expected to become the 89th country to ratify.
      While the court has never been wildly popular in Washington, the Bush administration soon after its election began a campaign against it, withdrawing former President Bill Clinton's signature from the treaty.
      The United States, which did not send an observer to the election proceedings, argues that it needs more safeguards to protect American troops and officials abroad from prosecution. Instead it says ad hoc tribunals, such as those set up to try suspects in the Balkans and Rwanda, should be models for future prosecutions.
      After failing to stop ratifications for the court, the Bush administration last summer successfully pushed for a one-year exemption for U.N. peacekeepers from the United States and other countries who do not support the court. The exemption by the U.N. Security Council came after Washington threatened to veto all U.N. peacekeeping operations.
      WHO THE JUDGES ARE:
      Voting procedures were highly complex among 43 candidates to ensure representation from all regions and for women. The 18 judges elected were:
  • Rene Blattmann of Bolivia, a law professor and former justice minister;
  • Maureen Harding Clark of Ireland, ad litem judge for the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; lawyer for 26 years as in prosectorial and criminal defense;
  • Fatoumata Dembele Diarra of Mali, ad litem judge in the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, former Bamako Appeal Court Criminal Chamber president;
  • Sir Adrian Fulford of Britain, judge in Crown (high) Court, textbook author on human rights and criminal procedure;
  • Karl Hudson-Phillips of Trinidad and Tobago, former attorney-general and minister for legal affairs;
  • Hans-Peter Kaul of Germany, international lawyer, diplomat and his country's negotiator for the ICC;
  • Philippe Kirsch of Canada, diplomat and legal expert who chaired the 1998 Rome conference that set up ICC;
  • Erkki Kourula of Finland, director-general, legal affairs of Foreign Affairs Ministry; international law expert;
  • Akua Ghana Kuenyehia of Ghana, Dean of Law Faculty and acting director of University of Ghana;
  • Elizabeth Odio Benito of Costa Rica, international law professor, former judge at U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia;
  • Gheorghios Pikis of Cyprus, president of Supreme Court, former ad hoc judge of European Court of Human Rights;
  • Claude Jorda of France, president of U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, former Paris Appeals Court prosecutor;
  • Navanethem Pillay of South Africa, president of U.N. criminal tribunal for Rwanda since 1995; former acting judge on high court in South Africa;
  • Mauro Politi of Italy, ad litem judge of U.N. tribunal for former Yugoslavia, former appellate court judge, international law professor;
  • Tuiloma Neroni Slade of Samoa, ambassador to U.N. and United States, former attorney-general of Samoa;
  • Sang-hyun Song of South Korea, professor of law at Seoul National University, author;
  • Sylvia de Figueiredo Steiner of Brazil, judge on Federal Court of Appeals of Sao Paolo, former federal prosecutor;
  • Anita Usacka of Latvia, judge on Latvia Constitutional Court, professor of law at University of Latvia

NATO, Russia sign submarine rescue agreement
AP WorldStream Sunday, February 09, 2003 3:28:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press

      MUNICH, Germany (AP) -- NATO and Russia have signed an agreement to help each other in rescue operations if either side's submarines get into difficulties.
      "Submarine search and rescue is a fine example of what our relationship really means," said NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson after signing the agreement with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on Saturday.
      The agreement is one of the first under NATO's partnership with Russia that was launched last June at a summit meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Rome.
      It carries particular resonance for Russia which was traumatized by the deaths in 2000 of the 118-strong crew of the nuclear sub Kursk when it sank in the Barents Sea following the accidental explosion of a torpedo.
      Ivanov said the agreement would be the first of many between the Russian and NATO militaries, he stressed improvements in contacts between the two sides in fighting international terrorism.
      However, Ivanov expressed concern about NATO's plans to bring in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania into the alliance next year saying they should first sign up to a treaty that limits regional weapons levels in Europe.

EU says it will speak to Moscow about Russian-Latvian oil deliveries
AP WorldStream Wednesday, February 12, 2003 11:25:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press
By J. MICHAEL LYONS
Associated Press Writer

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- The European Union will ask Russia during meetings in late March to explain its decision to halt crude oil deliveries to Latvia, a linchpin in this ex-Soviet republic's economy, an EU official said Wednesday.
      Latvia appealed to the EU for help on Jan. 17, three weeks after Russia's state-owned oil pipeline monopoly Transneft stopped deliveries to the Baltic Sea coast Ventspils, once the Soviet Union's most prized oil-transit port.
      EU officials will meet the Russians during talks on a cooperation deal between Brussels and Moscow, said Andrew Rasbash, head of the European Commission office in Latvia. The date and location of the meeting has not been set.
      "We're going to raise the issue and we'll be interested to hear (Russia's) explanation," Rasbash told The Associated Press in Riga, Latvia's capital.
      This nation of 2.4 million people is slated to join the EU in 2004.
      Transneft, Ventspils's sole supplier of crude, said deliveries were halted because Latvian tariffs were too high. The oil was diverted to Russia's Primorsk terminal, built in 2001 in part to supplant dependence on the Latvian port.
      Latvian officials accuse Transneft of trying to starve Ventspils Oil, the Soviet-era company that loads the oil onto ships bound to the West, in hopes of buying the state's 43 percent stake in the company.
      Transneft and other Russian oil companies have expressed interest in buying the stake, which Latvia has been reluctant to sell to a Russian firm.
      In 2001, Ventspils Oil handled up to 300,000 barrels a day through a 550-kilometer (330-mile) pipeline from Polotsk in western Russia. But Ventspils Oil's profit forecasts have plummeted since Transneft stopped deliveries.
      The oil-transit sector has accounted for an estimated 7 percent of Latvia's annual gross domestic product.

Latvia's unemployment creeps to 7.7 percent in January
AP WorldStream Thursday, February 13, 2003 4:19:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Unemployment in Latvia showed only a slight gain in January, rising to 7.7 percent, the country's state Labor Service reported Thursday.
      The rate increased from December by 0.1 percent, lifted in part by unemployment claims from laid-off fisherman. Latvia, a Baltic state of 2.4 million residents, traditionally idles its fishing fleet during January. Another reason for the slight uptick was the elimination of seasonal work at sugar mills.
On the Net:
Statistics Latvia: http://www.csb.lv

Latvia says East's history means Bush is right on Iraq
Reuters World Report Friday, February 14, 2003 10:13:00 AM
Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd.
By Erik Brynhildsbakken

      RIGA, Feb 14 (Reuters) -- Eastern Europe has offered the United States strong backing for its tough line against Iraq because history has taught ex-Soviet states the peril of not tackling tyranny, Latvia's president said on Friday.
      Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who meets U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington on Monday, said Latvia, on the verge of joining NATO and the European Union, was backing the United States on Iraq even if this caused friction with EU powers like France and Germany.
      "They will be voting on our accession treaties with both the EU and NATO. So if there is a confrontation between the U.S. and the EU it could not have happened at a worse time for us," she said in an interview.
      "But what are we going to do? Cut ourselves in two and give one half to the United States and the other to Europe?"
      Vike-Freiberga said Latvia was likely to support any fresh U.N. resolution sanctioning military action against Iraq for not disarming, partly due to history -- although a recent poll showed three quarters of Latvians opposed to a U.S. war on Iraq.
      She said Latvia and its Baltic neighbours regained independence from Moscow in 1991 after 50 years of oppressive rule, and like other East European states forced into the communist bloc, had learnt the value of freedom the hard way.
      "These countries, and especially the Baltic states, know what tyranny means and what the consequences of tolerating tyrants can be -- we felt it, lived it, suffered it," she said.
      Ex-communist NATO members Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic lined up with pro-American EU states like Britain and Spain two weeks ago to openly support Washington, opening a deep divide in Europe over the merits of using force against Iraq.
      The seven east European states already invited to join NATO and three alliance candidates later added their support, grateful for Washington's backing for their membership bids and for their struggle to throw off Soviet domination.
      Some analysts have voiced concern that the east Europeans were damaging their relationship with EU heavyweights France and Germany just a year before they join the wealthy bloc.

Latvian premier says he is a mad Martian
Reuters World Report Friday, February 14, 2003 10:34:00 AM
Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd.

      RIGA, Feb 14 (Reuters) -- Latvian Prime Minister Einars Repse, responding wryly to criticism of his performance, said on Friday he was a mad Martian who had come to live on Earth.
      "You all know I am a caught-out Martian and clearly nuts," Repse, a former central banker, told a news conference on his first 100 days in office.
      The leader of New Era, a new political party, stormed to power in elections in October on promises to rid the country of widespread graft and mismanagement -- and turned up for his first cabinet meeting with a pistol tucked into his belt.
      But opponents have accused Repse, who heads a centre-right coalition, of not living up to his promises and letting the old practices continue.
      Repse responded with bitter irony.
      "As it turns out, the government is full of thieves, smugglers, bribe-takers, people who deal with suspicious business partners, foreign services and spies," he said.

Youths from tiny nation write controversial software
AP WorldStream Sunday, February 02, 2003 7:35:00 PM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press
By MICHAEL TARM
Associated Press Writer

      TALLINN, Estonia (AP) -- When Swedish software developer Niklas Zennstrom cast about for help in writing the Kazaa file-sharing software, colleagues raised eyebrows when he chose three unheralded youths from little-known Estonia.
      And jaws dropped when the program that Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn wrote from their spartan, two-room office quickly became the leading software download on the Internet -- CNET's Download.com distributes about 14 million copies a month.
      Zennstrom knew what he wanted Kazaa to do when he hired the shy, 20-something Estonians, who favor faded jeans and T-shirts. He wanted to let any two computers trade files seamlessly, without going through a central server. He just didn't know how to do it.
      "It was the Estonians -- the three of them, not a full research department -- who came up with the programming code," Zennstrom said. "That was the key."
      The 36-year-old, lanky Swede said the software, pounded out in four months and first posted online in late 2001, worked almost glitch-free from the start. It set usage records within the year.
      "It was amazing. They are very skilled," Zennstrom said in a recent interview during a business trip to this former Soviet republic, a 45-minute flight from Stockholm.
      "Were we surprised at how successful Kazaa's been?" chimed in Heinla, his blond, disheveled hair flowing to his shoulders. "Yes, really surprised."
      That the breakthrough -- which led to litigation and accusations of thievery from the music industry -- occurred in this ex-communist state of just 1.4 million people was no fluke, said Zennstrom.
      This Baltic state known more for pulp and paper exports has leapfrogged older technologies with investment help from nearby Finland -- the home of Nokia Corp. The Estonian programmers who wrote Kazaa still work from the same modest premises at their company, Bluemoon Interactive, sharing two or three computers.
      A U.S. court recently tried to force the programmers to give depositions in a copyright lawsuit filed by the entertainment industry. But a Tallinn judge said they didn't have to comply because the request was vague.
      In an interview, the programmers defended their work.
      "We didn't see ourselves as creating vehicles for pirates -- but as creating vehicles for the music industry itself and others like them," Heinla said.
      Most Estonians burst with pride that their countrymen provoked such a global-scale fuss.
      "People are very impressed," said Kristjan Ostmann, an editor at Estonia's Postimees newspaper. "Their work is brilliant."
On the Net:
http://www.bluemoon.ee

Estonian minister resigns in row over Soviet past
Reuters World Report Monday, February 03, 2003 12:07:00 PM
Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd.

      TALLINN, Feb 3 (Reuters) -- Estonia's interior minister resigned on Monday over a bitter row about Soviet-era jailings which reopened old political wounds just a month before elections.
      "I want to spare the Centre Party and its supporters from this slander campaign," said Ain Seppik. Prime Minister Siim Kallas asked him to step down earlier on Monday, despite fears his resignation might split the ruling two-party coalition.
      The storm against him blew up after Estonian media alleged that Seppik, as a former Supreme Court member, helped jail five youths in 1985 by turning down an appeal against their conviction, which was subsequently shown to be based on fabricated evidence.
      The youths were accused of opposing Moscow's rule and jailed for between one and three years.
      Estonia rehabilitated the youths in 1995 because of a lack of evidence and indications that the case had been politically motivated. Now many Estonians are angered at what they see as Seppik's disregard for their fate.
      Seppik has said he had no way of knowing how the evidence was gathered for the original trial and dismissed the allegations as a pre-election stunt. Estonia holds general elections on March 2.
      Opposition parties called for Seppik to step down last week, but he survived a vote of no confidence, defiantly stating that to dismiss him would be to condemn everyone active in public life before Estonia broke free in 1991.
      "I can see dangerous signs of a witch-hunt to deliberately split society -- it divides people into former, present and new," he said on Friday. That caused a wave of protest as many felt he was mocking those who had fought against Soviet rule.
      Estonia recently won invitations to join both the European Union and NATO after more than a decade of reforms that began with its break from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Lithuanian jobless rises to 12.1 percent in January
AP WorldStream Thursday, February 06, 2003 6:28:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press

      VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- The unemployment rate in Lithuania rose to 12.1 percent in January, an increase of 1.2 percent from the month before, the Baltic state's Statistics Department reported Thursday.
      Of Lithuania's 3.5 million people, some 197,000 are out of work, it said.
      The unemployment rate first jumped above 10 percent after the 1998 financial collapse in neighboring Russia, a key export market. As orders from Russia fell off, companies in the ex-Soviet republic cut jobs.
      While gross domestic product growth bounced back last year to an impressive 6 percent, economic activity in the countryside has lagged behind.
      Joblessness in the rural Druskininkai district, in southern Lithuania, is 28.2 percent, compared to just 6.1 percent in Vilnius, the capital, according to the Wednesday figures.
On the Net:
Statistics Lithuania: http://www.std.lt

Lithuanian scrolls presented to Washington D.C. synagogue
AP WorldStream Thursday, February 06, 2003 9:01:00 PM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press
By MARTY NILAND
Associated Press Writer

      WASHINGTON (AP) -- They could have been museum pieces, grim reminders of the Nazi holocaust in Lithuania. Instead, several Jewish religious scrolls will live on in three Washington congregations, to be used in synagogue services as Jewish tradition dictates.
      The scrolls, which survived the holocaust and the Soviet occupation of the eastern European nation, were presented Thursday by Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas to the Adas Israel, Kesher Israel and Temple Sinai congregations.
      "It is from these scrolls that we not only derive our past, but our future," said Rabbi Jeffrey Wohlberg of Adas Israel.
      The scrolls contain the Biblical book of Esther, who saved the Jewish people from extinction during the Babylonian captivity.
      They will be used during the upcoming Purim holiday, which celebrates Esther's miraculous achievement.
      Their message is especially poignant to Jews in light of the holocaust.
      In prewar Lithuania, the capital, then called Vilna, was a center of rabbinical studies and a hub of Yiddish culture. The Nazi invasion in 1941 put an end to all that, leading to the deaths of 200,000 Jews and the theft and destruction of Jewish scrolls and books.
      Some materials survived, though, and were kept in libraries during the Soviet occupation, in defiance of government orders.
      By the time Lithuania was liberated in 1990, the country's Jewish population had dwindled to fewer than 4,000 and the Jewish artifacts remained archived and catalogued in the basement of the National Library.
      Officials with the American Jewish Committee, B'nai B'rith and the Israeli government persuaded the Lithuanian government to release the scrolls for use in synagogues throughout the world.
      They were taken to Israel, where many were restored before being given to synagogues.

Lithuania says SAS only buyer interested in state-owned airline
AP WorldStream Friday, February 07, 2003 10:58:00 AM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press
By LIUDAS DAPKUS
Associated Press Writer

      VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- Scandinavian Airlines System is the only contender to buy state-owned Lithuanian Airlines, the former Soviet Baltic republic's privatization agency said Friday.
      Bertil Ternert, a spokesman for SAS, said the Stockholm-based carrier was interested in the stake, but didn't say how much it would offer.
      Lithuania's State Property Fund announced the sale last year, in the hope it would let the national carrier survive in the face of more competition after the country joins the European Union.
      "It is not very good that only one company is interested," Alminas Maciulis, spokesman for the Lithuanian Ministry of Transportation, said. "But everything depends on what it has to offer."
      The government wants to sell a 34-percent stake of Lithuanian Airlines' shares to an investor who will commit to raising the ownership stake to 66 percent, giving them control. The state plans to keep 34 percent.
      The government valued the 66-percent stake at 12.3 million litas (US$3.9 million).
      Last year, the airline posted a profit of 20 million litas (US$6.3 million), but ran up debts of 80 million litas ($25 million), according to the transport ministry.
      The airline flies to 13 countries from Vilnius and has code sharing agreements with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Finnair, CSA Czech Airlines and LOT Polish Airlines. Last year, 300,000 passengers used the airline.
      Final bids are expected by June, officials said.
On the Net:
Lithuanian Airlines: http://www.lal.lt/
SAS: http://www.sas.se

After Russia protests, Lithuanians say Chechen Web site is legal
AP WorldStream Thursday, February 13, 2003 12:23:00 PM
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press
By LIUDAS DAPKUS
Associated Press Writer

      VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- Lithuanian politicians and business leaders dismissed Russia's worries Thursday about a Chechen-oriented Web site operating from the former Soviet republic.
      Owners of Microlink Data, an Internet service provider in the capital, Vilnius, agreed to a host a Web site for the Caucasus Center on its server. It said political concerns by Russia were not a reason to take it down.
      "Everything is based on commercial relations. The Web site does not violate laws of our country," company director Alvydas Vitkauskas told The Associated Press. "Also, we respect the freedom of speech."
      The Caucasus Center pays 5,000 litas (US$1,500) a month for the hosting service.
      Vitkauskas said his company informed the Lithuanian state security department about the contract and received its approval to accept it.
      In a statement released Wednesday, Russian's Foreign Ministry said the site "propagates the actions of Chechen fighters who aim to destroy the process of normalization in Chechnya."
      Russian forces retreated from the breakaway Russian republic after a 1994-1996 war that left separatists in charge, but troops were sent back in 1999 after the invasion of Dagestan and deadly apartment-building bombings that were blamed on Chechen rebels.
      Vitkauskas said if the site's operators did anything wrong, they would "cancel the contract immediately."
      The Web site used to operate from servers in the United States and Britain, but was removed after its users were accused of sending thousands of spam e-mails to Internet users around the world.
      A Conservative member of parliament Andrius Kubilius acknowledged Russian authorities may dislike the idea of a Chechen Web site operating from Lithuania, a Baltic state of 3.5 million, but he didn't believe it would harm relations.
      "It would be very wrong not to give a chance to those people to speak out," he said. On the Net:
http://www.kavkazcenter.com
http://www.kavkaz.org.uk
http://www.kavkaz.uk.com
 

  Picture Album

Finally, a Christmas scene of Riga, with snow! From Peters' trip, December 2002.

Filharmonias Square
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