Sunday, 6 February 2000

Latvian Link   News   Picture Album

News, Link, Picture and AOL Lat Chat Reminder for Feb. Date: 2/6/00 12:20:14 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Silvija

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And a happy Waitangi Day to you Latvians in New Zealand, although we suspect there weren't too many Latvians in NZ in 1840, the very first Waitangi Day.

In the news,

• monument to the Holocaust is erected in Kalingrad
• Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins urged Latvia look objectively into its past
• "Latvian" aircrew sentenced to death for smuggling arms to Indian separatists are actually Russian
• February 9th in history, another broken promise, the 1929 signing in Moscow of the Litvinov protocol renouncing war, by Russia, Poland, Romania, Estonia and Latvia
• Gil Kane, the (Latvia-born) comic book artist who spent more than half a century sketching such memorable characters as the Atom, Green Lantern, the Hulk, Captain Marvel and Spider-Man, passed away at 73
• Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins scolds Lithuania for trying to secure NATO membership before its Baltic neighbors

Following on last week's links to various Latvian museums, this week's featured link is to Latvia's Museum of the Occupation.

This week's picture is of sculpted dancers in the heart of Riga.

As always, remember AOL Lat Chat is on every Sunday from 9:00/9:30 pm EST to 11:00-11:30 (mailer or no mailer!). Follow this link on AOL: Town Square - Latvian chat
Ar visu labu,

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Latvian Link

Although last week's link included many Latvian museums, it did not include the Museum of the Occupation. The Crimes Against Humanity-Latvian Site (http://vip.latnet.lv/LPRA) includes a link to the Museum. A knowledge of Latvian affords full access; however, numerous key articles are translated into English, making the site valuable to all visitors.

News

      Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.
      By ANDREW KRAMER
      Associated Press Writer
      MOSCOW (AP)—For more than a half century the Nazi massacre of Jews at Palmnicken, on a wind-swept and icy Baltic Sea beach, went unmarked and unremembered.
      But 55 years after the killings of some 7,000 people, a Jewish group and local officials have unveiled a Holocaust monument in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave 680 miles west of Moscow between Poland and Lithuania.
      At the end of January 1945, when Kaliningrad was German-ruled Konigsberg, Nazi troops marched famished Jewish prisoners dressed in rags through snow flurries and subfreezing temperatures to the seashore, killing many on the way.
      Those who survived were forced to walk onto the ice of the frozen sea, where they were killed with machine guns. Others were killed in an abandoned amber quarry nearby.
      Only 13 people survived. The march began at the region's principal city, also called Konigsberg, and ended at the village of Palmnicken. The Germans were fleeing the advancing Soviet army.
      The 3-foot-high monument unveiled Sunday was hailed by the city's small Jewish community as an important step in light of the city's search for its German roots. The memorial, made of granite and stones from the beach, overlooks the Baltic Sea.
      Soviet authorities had stifled information about the atrocity, preferring people to celebrate heroes of the Soviet army who captured Konigsberg from the Germans in 1945.
      "Almost on every corner there is a monument to Soviet warriors. There was no monument to Jews before," said Nikolai Dmitriyev, a spokesman for the Kaliningrad regional administration.
      Most of the victims were Jews from the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Others were from Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe.
      "These people were gone, as if they had never existed," Rabbi David Shvedik said by telephone from Kaliningrad city. He helped gather funds for the monument and persuaded local officials to remember this dark chapter in local history.
      During the unveiling Sunday, a fierce wind blew off the sea and rain pounded the crowd of about 200 people.
      "We sensed, in part, what the people felt when they had to descend to the sea," said Schvedik.

      Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
      RIGA, Feb 1 (Reuters)      —Latvian Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins urged his nation on Tuesday to look objectively into its past of occupation and repression following a wave of criticism for not trying alleged Nazi-era war criminals.
      Nazi hunters have long urged Latvia to extradite alleged war criminals such as 86-year-old Australian citizen Konrad Kalejs, who Nazi hunters say aided in the World War Two slaughter of Jews in his native Latvia.
      Riga officials say they currently lack enough evidence to try Kalejs, but controversy raised during the recent discovery that he had been living in an old people's home in Britain led to criticism that Latvia was soft on Nazis.
      Latvia is eager to join impress Western organisations such as NATO and the European Union that it wants to join, and the uproar was a public relations nightmare.
      It has since decided to step efforts to investigate Kalejs and other suspected Nazi collaborators.
      "It is important for us ourselves, for Latvia as a civilised and European state to...evaluate the history of our country, including these grim pages of our past. Both legal investigation and research continue," Berzins told Radio Latvia.
      "But I want to stress in this case it is as important...not because we want to become NATO members or we want to have good relations with Israel, the U.S. or Russia or any other country," he added.
      Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga last week invited the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Israel and Germany to meet in Riga on February 16 and 17 to pool evidence against Kalejs.
      Since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 Latvia has actively prosecuted suspects connected with Stalin-era crimes.
      It has charged seven former Soviet officials and a former communist partisan in cases related to Moscow-backed repressions and other incidents, but has not brought a single case against a Nazi crimes suspect.

      MOSCOW, Feb. 2 (XINHUA)—Moscow shows grave concern over the Indian Calcutta Court's Wednesday sentence of life imprisonment on five Latvian aircrew members, among them four Russian citizens, and will urge the court to reverse its decision, said the Russian Foreign Ministry Wednesday.
      The verdict was "insufficiently founded. This was an unexpected decision for us. We expected seven to 10 years in prison," said a spokesman for the ministry.
      He said that the Russian lawyers will appeal against the decision in order to ensure a revision of such a rigorous ruling.
      The Latvian crew of an An-26 liner, including commander Alexander Klishin, second pilot Oleg Gaidash, flight engineer Igor Timmerman, cargo operator Yevgeny Antimenko and navigator Igor Moskvitin, have been held in a Calcutta city prison on charges of supplying a consignment of weapons to Indian separatists since 1995, when their plane was forced to land in Bombay by Indian fighter jets after air dropping armaments in West Bengal province.
      According to Russian media, at the end of 1999, four of the five pilots, who had the status of permanent Latvian residents, were granted the identity of Russian nationals at their request. The four will not be allowed to return to Latvia due to being sentenced to more than three years in jail. They asked to be naturalized by Russia, hoping for liberation.
      The fifth, Kim Davy, is believed to be a British citizen. The press claimed he was a CIA agent suspected of supervising the arms shipment.
      Copyright 2000

      Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
      LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters)—Following are some of the major events to have occurred on February 9 in history:
      [excerpt]
      1929 — The Litvinov protocol renouncing war was signed in Moscow between Russia, Poland, Romania, Estonia and Latvia.

      Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.
      MIAMI (AP)—Gil Kane, the comic book artist who spent more than half a century sketching such memorable characters as the Atom, Green Lantern, the Hulk, Captain Marvel and Spider-Man, has died. He was 73.
      Kane died Monday in Miami of cancer, said his Los Angeles representative, Harris Miller.
      A self-taught artist, Kane worked steadily from the age of 16 until he recently became ill. He was known for his dynamic figures and innovative fight scenes between superheroes.
      Fans and collectors revered the work Kane did from 1956 to 1969. During that period, he redesigned the costumes of Green Lantern and Captain Marvel and helped make the old superheroes familiar to new generations of readers.
      Born Eli Katz in Latvia on April 6, 1926, Kane came to New York with his family when he was 3. He grew up reading comics and pulp novels, and later served in the Army toward the end of World War II.
      Kane worked extensively for DC Comics and Marvel but also freelanced for other producers of the genre. He illustrated a variety of DC's lines from mysteries and westerns to Rex the Wonder Dog and science fiction.
      He didn't became famous until the late 1950s when DC revived Green Lantern and Kane took over its illustration. He soon added a revival of the Atom as well.
      Moving to Marvel, Kane drew the Hulk, Conan the Barbarian, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Captain America, the Avengers and others and became a model for new comic artists who studied his style. He liked to ink his own work, instead of leaving the details to assistants.
      In the 1980s, Kane spent about five years in Los Angeles, working on animation concepts for Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears. But he soon returned to comics, illustrating the "Ring" for writer Roy Thomas in 1990 and drawing new versions of Superman.
      Kane is survived by his wife, Elaine; son, Scott; and two stepchildren, Eric and Beverly.

      Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
      RIGA, Feb 4 (Reuters)—Latvia said on Friday Lithuania's moves to secure early NATO membership ahead of its Baltic neighbours were counterproductive and dangerous to the region's security.
      Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins said Lithuania's bid to become favourite for entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) among the three Baltic states, risked isolating Latvia and Estonia if they were left behind.
      He also said any NATO expansion into the Baltic region which did not include all three would send mixed signals to Russia, which is vehemently opposed to them joining the alliance.
      "I would not be criticising Lithuania if this was just a matter of Baltic unity. But it is an entirely different matter, that of a common security policy in the region," Berzins told an annual academic conference.
      "It should be the case actually for both the EU and NATO...that as long as we compete to be as good as all the rest it is very good, but as soon as it turns into lifting oneself at the expense of pushing another aside, it becomes negative and even dangerous," Berzins added.
      Since Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regained independence in 1991 following 50 years of Soviet occupation, relations with Russia have been cold at best.
All 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 Baltics were bitterly disappointed by NATO's decision to leave them out of its first post-Cold War expansion last year, which brought in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Picture Album

Monuments and sculptures adorn Riga and its buildings. But one that inexorably draws Peters to take pictures on every visit is the scultpure of three dancers in the park, across the city canal from Bastejkalns, in the heart of Riga. The attached picture was taken on a muted autumn day in October, 1996.