Friday, 7 July 2000
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Subj: Latvian mailer and AOL chat
reminder for Sunday, July 9th
Date: 7/7/00
File:
D:\_WWWLA~1.COM\OCT94\PICTS\SASIET~1.JPG (63296 bytes)
DL Time (32000 bps):
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Sveiki, all!
Since last we wrote, Canada and the U.S.
celebrated their independence days. We spent both in Canada, at the Toronto
Dziesmas Svetki (Songfest) — hence no mailer last weekend — and met
several AOLers there as well. For those of you who attended, Peters was in the
combined choir, several rows back toward the middle.
:-)
To bring
you up to date on the news:
- Latvia doubts Russian Federation will pay compensation for Soviet era damages (they still say Latvia joined voluntarily, after all)
- U.N. rankings of world's nations in human development (Baltics did a bit better than in last issue's medical care ranking)
- Russian speakers mistreated in Latvia and Estonia (according to Russia, hoping for a receptive audience in the Danes)
- German, Latvian presidents discuss cooperation in Baltic region
- Latvians opposed to utility sale win key victory
- Georgia buys passenger train made by Latvia (heavy industry is alive after all!) and Germany
- Latvia set to join NATO, EU — foreign minister Berzins
- Protesting Latvian farmers block Lithuanian borders
- Latvia seeks Australia aid over war crimes suspect (Kalejs)
- Moscow criticizes Latvia for sentencing Soviet officer (Savenko)
There's sports news from the Tour de France as
well.
And for those of you still starved for information, this week's
link provides even more news.
This week's
photograph is a reminder that the Latvian summer is
short and that the days there are already growing shorter. Here a hay bale is
still out in the field, soaking up the last rays of autumn.
Quite a
number of people have had problems receiving the picture the last two mailings.
If you have problems, just connect to our home page to access the web-enabled
mailer. (The mailer is usually available on our site within a day or so after
the Email is sent out).
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,
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.
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For even more news, the newspaper LAIKS is working on an online presence — some of you were lucky to see a PC demo in Toronto. It's a work in progress, but there's a lot of good reference there already. Their link is at:
Currently only the English version is populated.
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Latvia doubts Russian Federation will pay
compensation for Soviet era damages
RIGA, June 28 (Itar-Tass) — Latvian
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said it would be unrealistic to make Russia pay
a compensation for the damage it caused to her county in Soviet times.
"Russia has not recognised the occupation of Latvia and
I doubt that it will recognise the damage", she said before flying to Germany
on Wednesday.
She also added that "relations with
Russia will deteriorate immediately"
if such a move is taken.
(c) 2000 ITAR-TASS
Rankings of world's nations in human
development
Copyright 2000 Reuters
Ltd.
UNITED NATIONS, June 29
(Reuters) — The annual U.N. Human Development Report surveys 174
countries in an effort to measure the lives of people beyond economic
statistics, such as who goes to school or who has access to water.
Following are the rankings, released on Thursday, based
on income, health care, life expectancy and educational levels. Canada heads
the overall list, followed by Norway and the United States:
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Russian speakers mistreated in Latvia and
Estonia
COPENHAGEN, June 29
(Itar-Tass) — The status of Russian-speaking minorities in Latvia and
Estonia contradicts the internationally accepted norms, Russian First Deputy
Foreign Minister Alexander Avdeyev stated here in the course of the
Russo-Danish diplomatic consultations.
He told
Itar-Tass on Thursday that "the insolvency of the claims that everything is
allegedly normal in this domain were disproved by means of concrete figures,
references to international standards and to articles of the Latvian and
Estonian laws." The Russian diplomat said that the Danish side had assured him
that it would continue its efforts to improve the lot of national minorities in
the Baltic states.
(c) 2000 ITAR-TASS
German, Latvian presidents discuss cooperation in
Baltic region
BERLIN, June 29
(Itar-Tass) — German President Johannes Rau and Latvian President
Vaira Vike-Fraiberga met in Berlin on Thursday to discuss bilateral cooperation
in the Baltic region.
During the meeting, the
presidents discussed Germany's support for Latvia's soonest accession to the
European Union and NATO, diplomatic sources said.
Rau and Vike-Fraiberga also considered relations
between Latvia and Russia.
The Latvian head of state arrived in Germany on
a working visit. On Friday, she will take part in an international exhibition
Expo-2000 in Hanover.
(c) 2000 ITAR-TASS
Latvians opposed to utility sale win key
victory
Copyright 2000 Reuters
Ltd.
RIGA, July 1 (Reuters)
— Latvians opposed to the privatisation of their power utility,
Latvenergo, have won a key victory that will force parliament to vote on
legislation banning the sale, the electoral commission said on Saturday.
If parliament rejects or amends the
opposition-sponsored bill, the issue will then be decided by referendum.
The electoral commission said in a statement a petition
aimed at forcing parliament to consider legislation banning Latvenergo's sale
gained the signatures of 22 percent of the electorate, versus the one-tenth of
eligible voters they needed.
A vote in parliament
is not expected before August, a spokeswoman for the commission told
Reuters.
"It will take us some four to five weeks
to verify the signatures, which means that we would not be ready to hand the
draft law to the president before August," the spokeswoman said.
Under Latvian law, the central electoral commission
presents the legislation to the president, who then sends it to parliament.
Parliament must then vote on it, and a referendum will be called automatically
if it rejects or amends it.
The ruling four-party
coalition, which has pledged to privatise Latvenergo, holds 69 of parliament's
100 seats and is expected to block the legislation, even if one of its smaller
partners defects.
The government earlier launched
the preliminary stage of the privatisation with a tender for an adviser on the
sale, which the privatisation agency is expected to pick on July 17.
Latvia is also exploring a possible merger of
Latvenergo with Estonia's utility, Eesti Energia.
A
panel of experts set up by the two countries' governments to investigate the
possibility of a merger submitted an official proposal for the deal on
Friday.
The panel's merger proposal, submitted to
the two countries' economy ministries, recommended a merger of equals. No time
frame for the plan was given.
Georgia buys
passenger train made by Latvia and Germany
TBILISI, July 4 (Itar-Tass) — A new
high-speed passenger train, which had been manufactured by the Riga plant in
cooperation with Germans, arrived in Tbilisi from the Latvian capital on
Tuesday.
The train will make shuttle trips on the
Tbilisi-Batumi route. It has 350 seats and Mercedes engines.
This is the third passenger train produced by Latvia
and Germany that has been bought by Georgia. The two other trains are being
used on the Tbilisi-Batumi and Tbilisi-Ozurgeti routes.
(c) 2000 ITAR-TASS
Latvia set to join NATO, EU -- foreign minister
TBILISI, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — Visiting
Latvian Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins said on Wednesday that Riga's top
priority was to join NATO and the European Union.
"Latvia's current top priority is membership of NATO
and the European Union," Berzins told reporters.
The minister added that Latvia was getting ready to
enter the Alliance in compliance with the plan devised at the NATO summit in
Washington in 1999.
"Latvia backs Georgia's
aspiration to join NATO," he said. The minister stressed that he was ready to
impair Riga's experience to Tbilisi so that the latter do not repeat the
former's mistakes.
Over the past six months,
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has repeatedly said Tbilisi "will knock
at NATO's door" by 2005.
"This door may open not at
once, but several years later," he added. ala/
(c) 2000
ITAR-TASS
Protesting Latvian
farmers block Lithuanian borders
Copyright 2000
Reuters Ltd.
RIGA, July 6
(Reuters) — Latvian farmers protesting against the government's
agricultural policies have blocked the country's two main checkpoints on the
border with neighbouring Lithuania, the border guard said on Thursday.
Farmers blocked the Grenctale and Meitene border
crossings to Lithuania on Wednesday, stopping traffic of lorries, although they
were allowing passenger vehicles to cross.
However,
on Thursday they began stopping all traffic except police cars and ambulances,
Andris Neilans, a border guard duty officer, told Reuters.
"From 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) the protesters have stepped up
their blockade because of the lack of progress, as they see it, in their talks
with the government," Neilans said.
The border
guard said there were no cars or trucks backed up at the Meitene crossing but
some 200 trucks were waiting at Grenctale on the Latvian side of the border and
a number of passenger cars was also beginning to line up.
The farmers are protesting against what they say is the
government's failure to keep an agreement over levels of state support.
They said the protest was not directed at import/export
policies but was seen as the most effective way of attracting attention.
Latvia seeks Australia aid over war crimes
suspect
Copyright 2000 Reuters
Ltd.
RIGA, July 7 (Reuters)
— Latvian prosecutor general's office said on Friday it had asked
Australian authorities to question 86-year-old suspected Nazi war criminal
Konrads Kalejs as part of a continuing investigation.
Kalejs, who holds Australian citizenship, has lived in
Melbourne since fleeing Britain six months ago. He is suspected of helping in
the World War Two slaughter of Jews in Latvia as a member of the Nazi-backed
Arajs hit squad.
Kalejs denies the charges, saying
he fought Russia on the eastern front and was studying at university when the
killings took place in 1941.
Janis Osis, senior
prosecutor in charge of investigating totalitarian crimes, told Reuters the
prosecutor general's office had sent questions to Australia about Kalejs.
"Those are the questions for Kalejs interrogation which
have arisen during the investigation," Osis said. "We can't forecast the time
of the answer. It will depend on Australia's possibilities to fulfil our
request."
Latvian prosecutors re-opened the
investigation into Kalejs' wartime past late last year when it was discovered
that he was living in a retirement home in Britain.
Last month prosecutors said that they were discussing
the possibility of filing charges against Kalejs and were expecting a final
decision later in summer.
Australia approved the
signing of an extradition treaty with Latvia on Wednesday. Latvian authorities
are expected to sign the treaty in Riga next week.
The treaty, which could take effect before the end of
the year, paves the way for Kalejs's extradition if sufficient evidence is
produced to warrant a trial.
Moscow
Criticizes Latvia for Sentencing Soviet Officer
MOSCOW, July 7 (XINHUA) — Russia on Friday
criticized Latvia for sentencing former Soviet security officer, 87-year-old
Russian citizen Yevgeni Savenko to two years' imprisonment, accusing Riga of
"launching a political campaign to exonerate fascism and its followers."
Earlier Friday, Latvia's Kurzeme circuit court
sentenced Savenko to two years in jail, on the charge of taking part in the
persecutions against about 60 people in Latvia in 1940.
"Savenko committed a grave crime that has no statute of
limitations. He took part in repressing of 57 people, nine of whom were
sentenced to death and another nine died in prison," the Latvian prosecutor
said.
However, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a
statement that Savenko is innocent because he did all under the orders of his
superior.
"Latvian authorities is whipping up a
political campaign to exonerate fascism and its followers. The campaign
includes court sentences to various prison terms old and infirm people who, in
their time, liberated Latvia from the Nazi occupation," it said.
Riga "attempts to revise the results of the World War
II and to unashamedly maltreat those old and infirm persons, who defended the
world against the Nazi plague," said the ministry.
Copyright 2000 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
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The Latvians are making a go of it!
Results of
Tour de France
PARIS, July 7
(XINHUA) - Following are the results in the seventh stage of the Tour de
France over 205.5 kms from Tours to Limoges on Friday:
- Christophe Agnolutto, France, AG2R, five hours 11 minutes 41 seconds
- Marcel Wust, Germany, Festina, 1 minute 11 seconds behind
- Erik Zabel, Germany, Deutsche Telekom
- Romans Vainsteins, Latvia, Vini Caldirola
- Zoran Klemencic, Slovenia, Vini Caldirola
- Paolo Bettini, Italy, Mapei
- Jans Koerts, Netherlands, Farm Frites
- Stefano Zanini, Italy, Mapei
- Enrico Cassani, Italy, Polti
- Glenn Magnusson, Sweden, Farm Frites, all same time
Overall standings:
- Alberto Elli, Italy, Deutsche Telekom, 24 hours 11 minutes 32 seconds
- Fabrice Gougot, France, Credit Agricole, 12 seconds behind
- Marc Wauters, Belgium, Rabobank, 1:17
- Pascal Chanteur, France, AG2, 2:56
- Jose Luis Arrieta, Spain, Banesto, 3:08
- Jacky Durand, France, Lotto, 3:21
- Salvatore Commesso, Italy, Saeco, 3:52
- Servais Knaven, Netherlands, Farm Frites, 4:31
- Arvis Piziks, Latvia, Memory Card, 4:38
- Laurent Jalabert, France, ONCE, 5:40
Copyright 2000 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
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Summer is all too fleeting in Latvia! This week's picture was taken along a country road not far from Mordanga. (That's near Stende and Spare in Kurzeme.)