Monday, 6 March 2000

"For Fatherland and Freedom"  Latvian Link
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(Belated) News, Link, Picture for March 5th Date: March 6, 2000
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Silvija is off visiting her parents while I'm (Peters) holding down the fort... and obviously falling behind—for various good reasons, of course. :-)

Last week was another busy one in the news as the rhetoric continues to heat up between Russia and Latvia over war crimes. Self-serving one-sided Soviet era rewrites of history (Russians as glorious and noble vanquishers of fascism, with no mention of Stalin's butchery, mass starvations, deportations,...) seem to be finding new life in Putin and company. That's only one opinion, of course.

This week's links are culled from trying to answer some questions about Latvian geneaology research.

This week's picture is another from the seemingly endless collection of picturesque Vecriga side-streets!

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: Town Square - Latvian chat

Ar visu labu!

Silvija Peters


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 inquiry about tracing one's Latvian roots (from someone whose great-grandfather had come to the U.S. from Latvia). Here are a few links we came up with:

  News

      © 2000 Reuters Ltd.
      RIGA, Feb 28 (Reuters) — Latvia started the trial on Monday of a former Soviet security official charged with genocide and crimes against humanity during Moscow-backed crackdowns in the 1940s, a court spokeswoman said.
     Former KGB officer Yevgeny Savenko, now 85, was said to have taken part in repressions that resulted in deportations and executions, a spokeswoman for the district court of Western Latvian town Liepaja told Reuters.
     "The charges include his decisions on arrests and intentional falsification of evidence against groups of Latvian citizens (opposed to Soviet rule)," she said.
     Savenko was arrested last October.
     Latvia emerged from 50 years of Moscow's rule in 1991 and is still dealing with the legacy of the Soviet Union, when thousands were jailed, deported or killed.
     Since 1991 Latvia has convicted two ex-KGB officers under its genocide law. It has also sentenced a former Red partisan, Vasily Kononov, to six years in prison on war crimes charges for his role in the killing of nine civilians.
     Moscow has complained bitterly about Kononov's conviction, saying he was being punished for fighting against fascism.
     Latvia has defended its right to try Kononov and suspects in similar crimes against civilians, saying they carry no statute of limitations.
     
     RIGA, February 28 (Itar-Tass)—The Latvian committee for human rights has begun collecting signatures in support of an appeal to international organisations to protect residents of the republic who cannot acquire citizenship.
     A human rights picket will be set up in Riga on March 3. On this day two years ago police dispersed a rally of pensioners in front of the Riga city council where they protested against unbearably high utilities rates. Most of those hurt were Russians.
     One in four residents of Latvia has no citizenship. There are several hundred of them. Many of them have lived in Latvia for many years. Over 100,000 people have been denied the right to ever acquire Latvian citizenship due to legislative restrictions.
     For example, citizenship cannot be acquired by those who have a criminal record, including suspended sentence, or been penalised. This also applies to those who have no legal means of existence, that is people who have lost their jobs due to mass bankruptcies of industrial enterprises. The Latvian committee for human rights put their number at not less than 100,000.
     All these restrictions apply only to non-Latvians who arrived in the country after 1940.
     The appeal also urges international organisations to influence Latvia in order to make it ratify the framework convention on the rights of ethnic minorities which it has already ratified, guarantee them education in the native language and allow non-citizens to participate in municipal elections.
      zak/© 2000
     
     Belarus Busts Illicit Bottle Trade
     MINSK (Reuters)—Belarus officials said Monday they had halted the latest money-spinning smuggling ring devised by the ex-Soviet republic's impoverished inhabitants—empty bottles.
     State television quoted customs officials as saying they were clamping down on the trade in glass bottles, which fetch a deposit equivalent to 5 cents in neighboring Latvia—more than twice the amount they are worth in Belarus.
     Television said enterprising Belarussians were even organizing small shipments of bottles from neighboring Ukraine where the deposit was even lower at about 1.5 cents.
     The officials gave no reason for cracking down on the trade.
     Citizens of Belarus, where average monthly wages in rural regions are about $20, have long sought to supplement income by taking goods across borders, often through unguarded fields and forests.
     In Soviet times, smuggling often took the form of carrying scarce food items from one end of the country to the other.
     
     © 2000 The Associated Press.
     MOSCOW (AP)—Russia's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday denounced Latvia for putting an 85-year-old former officer with Stalin's secret police on trial on genocide charges.
     Yevgeny Savenko, who holds a Russian passport, went on trial Monday in the Latvian city of Liepaja. He is accused of signing arrest orders that led to the deportation and execution of scores of Latvians after the Baltic nation was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940.
     Three men have been convicted in Latvia for Stalinist crimes, and six more are awaiting trial. Russia has sharply criticized the proceedings, saying Latvia is persecuting Soviet war heroes who battled Nazi forces during the 1941-44 German occupation of Latvia.
     "Latvian officialdom is spinning a political campaign with the aim of rehabilitating Nazism and its henchmen, and sowing hate toward those who paid the price of their lives to liberate Latvia from fascist occupation," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
     After regaining independence with the 1991 Soviet collapse, Latvia, like its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Estonia, pledged to indict and convict those responsible for Nazi and Stalinist-era atrocities.
     
      © 2000 Reuters Ltd.
     RIGA, March 2 (Reuters)—Latvia said on Thursday it was appealing to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) over mounting Russian criticism of its trials of former Soviet officials for war crimes.
      Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, speaking at a news conference, also defended the Baltic state's right to try suspects of Soviet-era crimes related to Moscow's repressions.
     The appeal, announced in a Latvian foreign ministry statement, came two days after Russia said it had raised concerns with the OSCE over the war crimes trials, which Moscow has said amounted to a rehabilitation of Nazism by Latvia.
     Russia then issued a fierce statement on Wednesday saying the trial of former Soviet secret police officer Yevgeny Savenko for genocide and crimes against humanity was in fact part of a political campaign by Latvia "aimed at rehabilitating Nazism and its accomplices."
     The Baltic state responded on Thursday with a letter to OSCE foreign ministers over what it called Russia's increase in rhetoric towards Latvia.
     "The campaign of spreading deceiving information about events in Latvia started by Russia is in strong contrast with all the positive steps that have been taken (by Latvia)," Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins said in the letter.
     The Latvian president told Reuters that since gaining independence (from the Soviet Union in 1991) the Baltic state's criminal code had new provisions for genocide and crimes against humanity.
     "These have no statute of limitations so that the age of these subjects does not enter into play and these are not placed under any ideological flag," she said.
     Russia's objections raised during a February 24 meeting of the OSCE's permanent council centred on another trial, that of a 77-year-old partisan jailed for killing civilians during the war.
     Vasili Kononov was sentenced to six years for killing nine civilians in 1944. At the time, Soviet guerrillas were fighting Nazi German occupation. Many Latvians hated Stalin, who seized their country in 1940, more than Hitler, who invaded in 1941.
     Russian Acting President Vladimir Putin has said the jailing violated international law and decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal that punished Nazi war criminals after World War Two.
     Latvia has convicted two ex-KGB officials of genocide and Kononov of war crimes.
     However, it has faced criticism for failing to prosecute soldiers who fought on the Nazi side during the war, although it recently agreed to step up its efforts.
     © 2000 Reuters Ltd.
     MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters)—Latvia's ambassador to Russia protested to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday after vandals smeared the Baltic state's embassy with paint.
     Relations have been strained by Moscow's allegations that Latvia mistreats its large Russian minority. Tensions rose recently after Latvia jailed a World War Two Russian partisan. Latvia rejects Russia's allegations.
     "We expressed our incomprehension and protest at what happened and asked that the damage be repaired," Latvian embassy First Secretary Vilmars Heninsh told Reuters.
      The vandals, said by Russian news agencies to be left-wing Russian nationalists, smeared the walls with black paint and broke a window on the second floor of the building.
     The embassy has been vandalised before and radical left-wingers often hold small protests in the street outside.
      Russia this week accused Latvia of helping restore fascism with its prosecution of the partisan, 77-year-old Vasili Kononov, convicted for killing nine civilians in 1944.
     Latvia, under Soviet rule for 50 years before regaining independence in 1991, angrily rebutted Moscow's charge on Thursday and said it had complained to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
     
     MOSCOW, March 3 (XINHUA)—The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday expressed regret over a Friday morning attack by unidentified persons on the Latvian embassy in Moscow.
     Describing this incident as "rascaldom," the ministry said "the unlawful actions against the Latvian embassy are being investigated."
     This message was sent to Latvian ambassador Imants Daudis, who conveyed a protest note against the attack to the ministry earlier Friday.
     A group of unidentified persons broke windows and splashed paint on the front of the embassy building early Friday.
     Latvian embassy press secretary Vilmar Henins said "significant damage was done to about one third of the building," calling it the most violent attack against the embassy in several years.
     A flammable substance was splashed on embassy walls carrying such an acrid stench that one can only enter many of the rooms wearing a gas mask, according to the diplomat.
     There is some special reason behind the incident: Monday, the Kurzem district court in the Latvian town of Liepaja started examining the criminal case of former Soviet KGB officer Yevgeny Savenko.
     The 85-year-old Liepaja resident is charged "with crimes against humanity and with genocide," which by Latvian legislation is punishable by prison terms from three to five years or by life imprisonment.
     Earlier, in January, Latvia's Riga (Capital) Court sentenced a former Soviet anti- fascism guerilla member with Russian nationality to six years in prison on a charge of "killing civilians."
     These cases have provoked strong dissatisfaction and anger among some Russian citizens, first, among those old ex-Soviet soldiers who took part in the World War-II.
      © 2000
     
     © 2000 Reuters Ltd.
     CANBERRA, March 6 (Reuters) - Nazi hunter Eli Rosenbaum said on Monday he was optimistic a Latvian investigation into Konrad Kalejs would lead to his trial over allegations he aided in the World War Two slaughter of Jews.
     "I'm trying to remain optimistic that in the near future they (the Latvian government) will decide that they can marshal sufficient evidence and perhaps will even request Mr Kalejs extradition from Australia," said Rosenbaum, director of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations.
     Rosenbaum said Latvia was facing considerable international pressure to act on the Kalejs case after a meeting of prosecutors from six countries in Riga in February.
     "What we learned when my team went to Riga a few weeks ago was that the Latvians were not in fact aggressively investigating Mr Kalejs. They hardly did any investigative work at all," Rosenbaum told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
     "The Latvians, as a result of the Riga prosecutors meeting, agreed to our demand that they put this case on a fast track.
     "They know that all of the other governments are watching and are expecting an investigation with real integrity," said Rosenbaum, now in Australia to investigate war criminals.
     The 86-year-old Kalejs fled to Australia in February when he was forced to leave Britain to avoid deportation because of his alleged involvement in war crimes.
     Kalejs, who holds Australian citizenship, has already been deported from the United States and Canada over the war crimes charges, but cannot be deported from Australia.
      Kalejs has denied all charges, saying while he was a member of the Nazi-backed Arajs hit squad in Latvia he only fought Russia on the eastern front or was studying at university when the killings took place in 1941.

  Picture Album

The side streets of Vecriga offer an endless opportunity for picture-taking!

Old Riga
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