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  News

Latvia, U.S. Sign Treaty
COMTEX Newswire Thursday, 2001. December 13. 0:56:00
Copyright 2001 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

      RIGA, December 13 ( Xinhua ) -- Latvia and the United states signed a treaty on Wednesday on non-proliferation of mass destruction weapons, said the Baltic News Service.
      The 7-year treaty was signed by Latvian Foreign Minister Indualis Berzins and U.S. Under Secretary of Defense Ministry Douglas Feith in Washington.
      Under the treaty, the U.S. will help Latvia with border control, army training and enforcement of its intelligence service, it added .
      The departments concerned include border guards, security forces, Fire bureau, customs, coast guard and the monitoring committee for the importation of strategic goods.
      According to the treaty, the first year of financial aid from the U.S. is one million dollars. In exchange, U.S officials will receive ease of entry into the country and customs duties exemption.
      It was also reported that two other Baltic Republics, Estonia and Lithuania, would also sign similar agreements with U.S.

Prosecution's case against alleged Nazi Kalejs continues
AP WorldStream Thursday, 2001. December 13. 11:34:00
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- The legal case against alleged Nazi Konrads Kalejs could not be presented in court before he died of old age, and now can't be closed even though he's dead, the prosecutor's office said Thursday.
      "The prosecutor's office has done all it can in the Kalejs case, but we can not close it under our legislation," prosecutor Eriks Zvejnieks was quoted as telling the Russian-language newspaper Chas in Thursday's edition.
      Latvian prosecutors charged Kalejs with genocide for allegedly taking part in the murder of Jews during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation of Latvia. But he died recently in Australia before he could be extradited to face trial. He was 88.
      Investigations of war crimes are kept open by law in case evidence emerges implicating suspects still living, said Indulis Zalite, a government investigator of both Nazi- and Soviet-era human rights abuses.
      Posthumous trials aren't permitted under Latvian law, so there's no chance a court will hand down a verdict on Kalejs, he added.
      Kalejs immigrated to Australia after World War II. He would have been the first accused Nazi to stand trial in Latvia after it regained independence following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Latvia holds Russian blast suspect in murder case
Reuters World Report Friday, 2001. December 14. 7:29:00
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

      RIGA, Dec 14 (Reuters) -- Latvian police said on Friday they had re-arrested a Russian under investigation for a synagogue bombing to probe his possible links with the murder of a judge.
      The suspect, first held by security police in the synagogue case and conditionally released on Thursday, was re-detained hours later by criminal police in connection with the murder enquiry.
      Criminal police said they had detained Dmitry Mashkov to probe a possible link to the murder of Judge Janis Laukroze.
      The suspect, a former member of an elite Soviet paramilitary force, was released by the security police on condition that he remain under surveillance in the 1998 Riga synagogue bombing case.
      "All I can say at the moment is that we detained him yesterday in connection with the murder of Judge (Janis) Laukroze," Krists Leiskalns, a criminal police spokesman, told Reuters.
      The criminal police said Mashkov, from St Petersburg, was the same suspect the security police had detained and released, and had identified only as "Dmitry."
      The security police have said the man served in the OMON paramilitary group used by Soviet hardliners to crack down on Baltic attempts to regain independence in the early 1990s.
      No charges have been filed against Mashkov, who was born in 1971.
      The 1998 synagogue bombing came amid a diplomatic row between Latvia and Russia. It caused no deaths or injuries but was condemned by the United States, Jewish groups and Latvian leaders.
      Latvia regained independence in 1991 after a 50-year Soviet occupation but its post-Soviet relations with Russia were marked by tension, which surged in 1998 when Moscow accused it of descriminating against its Russian-speaking minority.

Latvia starts three new genocide probes
Reuters World Report Friday, 2001. December 14. 10:15:00
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

      RIGA, Dec 14 (Reuters) -- Latvian prosecutors said on Friday they had started an investigation into three former Soviet security officials suspected of taking part in mass deportations of Latvian families to Siberia in the 1940s.
      "The prosecutors have opened three criminal cases on possible genocide against Latvian residents," Dzintra Subrovska, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor general's office, told Reuters.
      "These cases have been opened against former staff members of the (Soviet) security ministry," she added.
      The prosecutors did not identify the suspects, but said the investigation related to Soviet deportations in 1949.
      No charges have been filed against the suspects.
      Ten years after regaining its independence, Latvia is still dealing with the legacy of the Soviet Union's 50-year rule, when the regime jailed, deported or killed thousands in an attempt to suppress occupied nations.
      Historians estimate 230,000 people were deported from Latvia in the 1940s and 1950s.
      Since 1991, Latvia has charged nine former Soviet security officials under the genocide law, leading to three convictions. The other cases are still being heard.

Latvia drops Prince Charles flower girl charge
Reuters World Report Friday, 2001. December 14. 13:30:00
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

      RIGA, Dec 14 (Reuters) -- Latvian prosecutors said on Friday they had dropped a hooliganism charge against a girl who tried to swipe Britain's Prince Charles in the face with flowers during a visit to the Baltic state in November.
      But a spokesman for the prosecutor general's office said she could still face disciplinary action.
      "According to regulations, her case has been sent to a Riga district court which has to decide whether compulsory re-education measures were necessary, or she could be let alone," the spokesman told Reuters.
      Previously police had said the schoolgirl, 16-year-old Alina Lebedeva, could be charged with assaulting a foreign dignitary, an offence carrying a possible 15-year jail sentence.
      In the event, the only charge brought against her was one of hooliganism and that has now been dropped. Prince Charles himself had made a plea for leniency.
      The sanctions she could still face include work to reimburse any material damage caused by the incident or being sent to a special reform school.
      "But the court also has the right to let it go like that, if the court so decides," the spokesman added.
      Lebedeva was seen on television screens worldwide lurching at the heir to the British throne with a bunch of carnations, shouting that she was angry about the conflict in Afghanistan, after he laid flowers at Latvia's Freedom Monument during a visit in November.
      The incident drew an immediate apology from Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who accompanied Charles.
      Lebedeva and her family have sent the prince letters of apology.
      Britain has been the strongest supporter of U.S. military strikes against Afghanistan, intended to root out Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on the U.S.

EU leaders name candidates likely to join in 2004
Reuters World Report Saturday, 2001. December 15. 16:54:00
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.
By Gareth Jones

      BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Reuters) -- European Union leaders on Saturday named the 10 mostly ex-communist countries they believe are on track to join their wealthy club by 2004, but made clear the candidates still have a lot of work ahead to qualify.
      The decision came after the 15 EU leaders had had lunch with heads of state and government from the 13 candidate countries during a summit at the royal palace of Laeken in Brussels which has focused on the future shape of the Union.
      "(The leaders) agree with the report of the European Commission, which considers that if the present rate of progress of the negotiations is maintained, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic and Slovenia could be ready," they said in a statement.
      The Commission, the EU's executive body, said in its annual enlargement report last month that up to 10 countries could wrap up accession negotiations by the end of 2002 and become full members in time for the European Parliament elections in 2004.
      Saturday's statement went further than originally expected. France, in particular, has been reluctant to name candidates for fear of removing an incentive for them to continue reforms.
      But the statement stressed what is known in EU jargon as the principle of differentiation, or judging candidates strictly according to their merits, diplomats said.
      POLAND TRAILING
      This will reassure more advanced candidates such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, which are worried that they may have to wait for Poland to qualify.
      Poland, the biggest candidate, has fallen behind other frontrunners in accession talks, but Germany, the EU's biggest economy, insists that enlargement is unthinkable without Warsaw.
      "For the Czech position it doesn't matter. We are in second place (in the negotiations) -- we have the silver medal," said Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman.
      The Czech Republic has closed 24 of the 31 chapters or policy areas which candidates have to negotiate. Only Slovenia has closed more, at 25. Poland has closed 19 so far.
      Poland's new left-wing Prime Minister Leszek Miller welcomed the naming of the candidates and pledged to step up reforms to ensure his country qualified in time.
      "We will do everything to complete accession talks in 2002 to be part of the first enlargement wave in 2004," he said.
      The statement omitted a reference from an earlier draft to the financing of enlargement. Diplomats said Germany, biggest contributor to the EU budget, wanted to avoid drawing attention to the costs of expansion ahead of its election next autumn.
      LAGGARDS
      The statement also had encouraging words for the two candidates not named, Bulgaria and Romania, and promised a "precise framework with a timetable and appropriate roadmap" for the two impoverished Balkan states.
      EU diplomats say Bulgaria and Romania are unlikely to join before 2007, though Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg has signalled that he too wants to catch up with the top 10.
      Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase also said on Saturday that he wanted his country to join sooner.
      Asked when Romania, at the back of the queue in the negotiations, might join, Nastase said: "Maybe 2006, maybe 2005, it is up to us. We have to make our economy competitive, modernise our institutions, adopt laws, eradicate corruption."
      The 13th candidate, Turkey, has yet to begin negotiations due to concerns over its human rights record, but Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit also sounded an optimistic note.
      "I believe we can comply with the Copenhagen criteria more rapidly than many people expect," he told reporters, referring to the economic and political criteria that all candidates must meet before being able to join the EU.
      The summit statement welcomed Turkey's recent constitutional reforms aimed at bringing it closer to EU norms but made clear that Ankara was not yet ready to begin negotiations.
      (Additional reporting by Marcin Grajewski)

Latvia wins approval from human rights watchdog
Reuters World Report Tuesday, 2001. December 18. 12:37:00
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

      RIGA, Dec 18 (Reuters) -- Latvia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the decision of Europe's leading security and human rights watchdog to close its mission there granted Latvia's 10-year-old democracy a seal of approval.
      The Organisation for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe has monitored Latvia, and the rights of its Russian-speaking minority in particular, since 1993, shortly after the tiny nation broke away from the Soviet Union.
      "The successful completion of the mission is yet another testimony to the fact that Latvia's legislation and its implementation is in line with international standards," said Vilmars Henins, a spokesman for the ministry.
      "It also shows Latvia's readiness to become a full-fledged member of associations of democratic nations: NATO and the EU."
      The organisation's approval is seen by the European Union and NATO, which want potential members to deal with any ethnic minority problems before entering, as a benchmark of democracy.
      The mission will close on January 1, 2002.
      Latvia's Russians account for about one-third of the country's 2.4 million people and are mainly the legacy of a 50-year Soviet occupation that ended in 1991.
      After regaining independence, Latvia passed laws to protect its language and national identity, including restrictions on citizenship.
      The ministry said the OSCE had praised Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga's initiative to scrap the condition that candidates for elected office must speak Latvian, one of the conditions for the mission's closure.
      The Latvian parliament has yet to approve this legislative change.
      The OSCE decided to close its mission in Estonia earlier this month after the country brought its laws up to international norms by scrapping the requirement that holders of public office speak Estonian.

Latvian Girl Apologises for Attacking Prince Charles
COMTEX Newswire Wednesday, 2001. December 19. 4:01:00
(c) 2001 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK

      Dec 19, 2001 (WENN via COMTEX) -- Charges have been dropped against a 16-year-old Latvian girl who slapped PRINCE CHARLES with a flower last month (NOV01).
      ALINA LEBEDEVA struck the heir to the British throne in the face with a red carnation as he toured Riga, the former Soviet Republic's capital. She claimed she was protesting against the war in Afghanistan.
      A charge of hooliganism was formally dropped last Friday (14DEC01), according to DZINTRA SUBROVSKA, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office. She says a written apology by the teenager to Charles influenced the decision.
      Subrovska explains, "She has no criminal record, she's a good student and she apologised for what she did."

Latvian central bank candidate promises stability
Reuters World Report Wednesday, 2001. December 19. 8:44:00
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

      RIGA, Dec 19 (Reuters) -- Latvia's parliament is expected to vote on Thursday on a new central bank head, who will oversee monetary policy as the Baltic country prepares to join the European Union and gears up for eventual adoption of the euro.
      Parliament will vote on only one candidate -- current deputy central bank head, Ilmars Rimsevics -- after former Economy Minister Ingrida Udre withdew from the race earlier this week.
      Rimsevics promises to keep the lat national currency's peg to the SDR basket of world currencies unchanged if he is elected.
      "My appointment would secure continuation of policies and predictability," Rimsevics told parliament's budget and finance committee during a meeting ahead of Thursday's vote.
      If elected Rimsevics will replace Einars Repse, who introduced the lat currency in 1993, two years after the country left the Soviet Union. Repse handed in his resignation on November 30 to enter politics. His last working day is December 21.
      Repse, with Rimsevics at his side, was widely respected for keeping the lat stable through a banking crisis in 1995 and global emerging markets turmoil in 1997 and 1998.
      The next president of the Bank of Latvia, elected for a six year term, will most likely be at the helm when the country joins the EU, which is expected to be in 2004.
      Rimsevics said the task for the next central bank head is to press on with preparations for full-fledged membership of the European Monetary Union and introducing the euro -- but stressed that the lat's SDR peg should remain in place until then.
      "This may seem like a routine operation but it will demand a strenuous effort in harmonising legal and financial legislation, as well as (the running of) the payment system and the use of monetary instruments with the EU directives," Rimsevics said.
      Rimsevics also said fiscal prudence, trimming the budget deficit -- favourite themes of Repse's -- remained the only way to keep in check the country's current account deficit, which was recently put under pressure by slowing exports.
      Rimsevics, 36, has been deputy central bank head since 1992, and enjoys broad approval from the markets and the media, who say they view him "as stable as the lat currency itself."
      Rimsevics has been nominated by MPs of two coalition parties -- the People's Party and For Fatherland and Freedom. Prime Minister Andris Berzins' Latvia's Way Party said Rimsevics enjoys their "full support."

Latvia's slow justice system threatens EU hopes
Reuters World Report Thursday, 2001. December 20. 21:05:00
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.
By Burton Frierson

      RIGA, Dec 21 (Reuters) -- Nineteen-year-old Pavel has been serving hard time in a Latvian prison for the last three and a half years. The worst part of his sentence is that he is still to be convicted.
      He has been sitting in the juvenile section of Latvia's grim Brasa remand prison since he was 15, whiling away his youth awaiting trial on theft charges.
      "What can you do? Just read books and watch television," Pavel says in his native Russian as he stands to attention, military-style, along with his eight cellmates.
      Then there's Igor, also 19, who says he has been waiting a year and a half for trial on charges he would rather not discuss.
      "My trial is delayed and I don't know how long it will take," said Igor, who says he fills his many empty hours reading, studying English and praying.
      "My mother went to the judge to ask when the trial will take place and the judge said she's so overloaded with cases she cannot say when."
      An astounding 60 percent of Latvia's juvenile inmates are in pre-trial detention awaiting their day in court. The problem is so glaring the European Union has told the Baltic republic to clean up its act or its drive for membership by 2004 will be at risk.
      With many inmates ethnic Russians, who as a group complain of discrimination in the Baltics, the issue leaves Latvia vulnerable to accusations that it mistreats its minorities, a sensitive charge as it campaigns to win a NATO membership invitation next year.
      STAGGERING STATISTICS
      Out of the entire prison population of adults and juveniles, 42 percent are awaiting trial by a largely unreformed Soviet-era justice system ill-suited to a modern democracy.
      The EU -- sensitive to worries that eastward expansion will mean a westward migration of criminals -- certainly wants countries applying for membership to catch their crooks.
      But it also wants to make sure they convict them in a timely way that meets Western notions of justice and rule of law.
      "Often, maybe for reasonable or even good intentions, it takes too long before judgements appear and this, if it takes too long, can amount to a denial of proper justice," the head of the European Commission in Riga, Gunter Weiss, told Reuters.
      The EU recently singled out Latvia's justice system for criticism, saying the situation with pre-trial detention was a "serious concern."
      Latvia is not alone among the 10 largely ex-communist states hoping to join the EU in 2004 in having clogged courts that cannot deal with a backlog of detainees awaiting due process.
      The EU's annual report on Lithuania, the largest Baltic state, also expressed concerns about pre-trial detentions.
      In Estonia, the EU noted progress had been made to shorten the duration of pre-trial imprisonment, but ill-treatment and use of punishment cells were "issues of concern."
      ETHNIC TWIST
      Adding to the problem in Latvia is the ethnic twist that is the legacy of 50-years under Soviet rule during which thousands of Russians and Russian-speakers were encouraged to move to the Baltics to help dilute the region's independent-mindedness.
      This minority now figures disproportionally among inmates and makes them, like Pavel and Igor, more likely to be killing time in pre-trial detention.
      Although only about one-third of the 2.4 million population, ethnic Russians make up 40 percent of prisoners.
      Experts say little study has been done on whether Russians face unfair treatment but point to the difficulties Russian speakers have faced since Latvia regained its independence.
      "Latvians are on average better rooted in the society, which makes them less tempted to illegal activities," said Weiss.
      Restrictive citizenship, language and election laws have made it more difficult for Russians to get passports, operate in their native tongue and gain representation in government.
      Latvia came in for international criticism for some of the restrictions but changes since 1998 have won it praise.
      Europe's leading security and rights watchdog, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, recently gave Latvia's efforts a key seal of approval, announcing that it would close its mission monitoring human rights.
      NO ARGUMENT
      In Latvia, prison and judicial officials do not deny the problem of pre-trial detention.
      "It's to our shame that we have such big periods of pre-trial imprisonment," said Vitolds Zahars, director general of prison administration in the justice ministry.
      But officials say they are making progress and instances of pre-trial detention over one year are exceptional and declining.
      Parliament approved legislation earlier this year setting a one-year limit for juveniles to be held before trial judgement.
      Brasa prison officials say the change appears to have helped new inmates, but difficult old cases are still slow to process.
      To further reduce cases, officials want to change the way the courts work by introducing flexibility into a rigid system designed to dispense harsh Soviet justice.
      This will take some persuading for a public still up in arms over a decade-old crime wave that followed the collapse of communism, but officials say they have no other options.
      "The first way is to add more judges, the second is to simplify the process," said Gunars Kutris, the justice ministry's deputy state secretary for legislative affairs.
      "We are working with the second way because we don't have money in the budget for judges."
      Changes include introducing alternatives to trials and for sentencing. They will also launch a new probation service -- although funding has been slow to come from the government -- and continue increasing community service sentences where possible.
      For Pavel, Igor and their cellmates, change can't come too soon. With one school lesson per week and one trip to the gym per month, life in remand prison is hardly stimulating.
      No one ever said jail was a picnic, but completion of the trial phase, even in the case of conviction, might mean an improvement, since it would allow transfer to a permanent facility with more resources.
      "Transfer would be better because in other prisons there is a more open regime," said Pavel. "Here there is nothing to do but sit in your room."

Russia protests OSCE decision to close missions in Baltics
AP WorldStream Saturday, 2001. December 22. 8:30:00
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

      MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia on Saturday protested the impending closure of two missions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that had been set up over allegations of discrimination against ethnic Russians in Latvia and Estonia.
      The OSCE announced recently that the missions would be closed, saying the former two Baltic nations had taken concrete steps to integrate Russian speakers and eliminate discrimination.
      "We continue to believe that the mandates of these missions are far from exhausted," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
      "Many serious tasks in guaranteeing the legal rights of the Russian-speaking population have yet to be solved in these countries in the spheres of education, language policy and social integration."
      The OSCE said it was satisfied with moves by Estonia and Latvia to soften language and citizenship laws and that its missions there were no longer necessary.
      The missions were set up in 1993 partly in response to Moscow's concerns over the treatment of Russians in the Baltics following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Reuters historical calendar -- December 26
Reuters World Report Wednesday, 2001. December 19. 13:06:00
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

      LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters) -- Following are some of the major events to have occurred on December 26 in history:
      2000 -- Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed into law bills restoring the music selected by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin as Russia's national anthem.

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