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Latvian Link News Picture Album March 20, 2002 |
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If anything, the news this week once again demonstrated how little progress there's been between Latvia in Russia in cutting down on Russian rhetoric, or Russia coming to grips with its Stalinist past. (Our opinion, of course!)
It's weeks like these that we want to grab every Congressman by their lapels and shake them, and ask when will the U.S. demand Russia disassociate itself from its Stalinist past, repent, and condemn that past for what it was, before receiving one more penny of financial aid from the international community. Sheer fantasy on our part, of course. But, as Emerson said, "Every majority begins as a minority of one." In a complete about face of mood, this week's link is to an assiduously gathered picture collection. This week's picture (returning to the previous mood) is of the radio station building in Riga, from Peters' visit in 1994. If you look closely on the bottom right, you'll see several dark pockmarks, left by the bullets of the Russian Black Berets. There's free speech for you. Any reports that the Duma will patch the holes in an act of contrition are greatly exaggerated. As always, join in Sunday nights for AOL Lat Chat... our apologies for our missing several chats because of personal goings-on...chat starts 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 ("Success in all things"),
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Arvids Krumins has done a yeoman job gathering a
truly wonderful set of Latvia pictures, some his own, some he's gathered from
arount the net. We were tickled he he had the good taste to include some of
ours :-) |
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COMTEX Newswire Tuesday, March 12, 2002 7:52:00
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Copyright 2002 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY RIGA, Mar 12, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — Both the Estonia defense minister and the Lithuanian defense minister went to United States Thursday to join their Latvian counterpart to seek America's support to their countries effort for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership. The Baltic defense ministers will meet the American defense minister on Wednesday before attending a U.S. Senate hearing on whether the Baltic states are ready for entering NATO. They will also be present at a seminar held by the U.S. strategic and defense institute. They will tell the Americans in one voice that their countries have gotten ready to entry NATO, and hope the NATO Summit in Prague this fall will approve their application. As another diplomatic initiative to join NATO, the three defense ministers plan to visit Berlin together in April. AP WorldStream Tuesday, March 12, 2002 8:23:00
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Copyright 2002 The Associated Press By J. MICHAEL LYONS Associated Press Writer RIGA, Latvia (AP) — A popular Russian-language radio station accused of violating on-air language laws said it would ignore an order to stop broadcasting at midnight Tuesday, but tower officials said they were prepared to pull the plug. Management at Radio Bizness and Baltic said a refusal last week to renew its broadcast license on grounds it didn't include enough Latvian-language content was a violation of free speech. "The decision is illegal and we will not in any way make it legitimate by abiding by it," programming director Andrei Khoteyev said in Riga, the capital of this ex-Soviet Baltic republic. The decision has angered many Russian speakers, who make up nearly 40 percent of Latvia's 2.4 million population. Radio Bizness and Baltic, part of the Moscow-based Russkoye Radio network, has some 250,000 listeners. Officials at Latvia's main transmission tower, the National Radio and Television Center, said they're prepared to pull the plug on Latvia's most popular Russian-language station if it doesn't shut down on its own. "We would rather not. They are one of our best customers," said the center's director, Maris Poudres. "But unless (the broadcasting authority) changes its mind, we have no choice." The National Radio and Television Council refused to issue the license after determining that the station hadn't fulfilled a requirement that 75 percent of its 24-hour-a-day programming be in Latvian. It also said the station broke copyright and accounting laws. Khoteyev said the station has filed an appeal with Riga's District Court. He said he hoped officials would refrain from switching off the station until the court ruled, which it should do within 30 days. The council has the authority to let the station stay on the air temporarily. But an attorney for the agency, Dace Buceniece, said it was highly unlikely that it will do so. Latvians say the broadcast laws, passed after Latvia regained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, stem from fears that their native language will be overwhelmed by Russian -- which Moscow favored during its rule. Neighboring Russia has said Latvia's language laws are discriminatory. AP WorldStream Tuesday, March 12, 2002 4:50:00
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Copyright 2002 The Associated Press By J. MICHAEL LYONS Associated Press Writer RIGA, Latvia (AP) — The only known Stalinist-era secret police agent imprisoned in the ex-Soviet Baltic republics will be released from prison on Wednesday after a court ruled he was too ill to finish serving his term. Mikhail Farbtukh, 85, was jailed in May 2000 after being convicted on charges that he helped deport scores of Latvians in 1941. He was sentenced to seven years in prison -- though that term was later reduced to five years. A Riga district court upheld Farbtukh's request that he be released from a cramped cell in the city's Matisa Prison for health reasons. "He is a sick man and he should not have been in jail," said Vitolds Zahars, director of the Central Prison Administration. "It's absolutely the right decision." Farbtukh, who suffers from diabetes and other health problems and requires around-the-clock care, is due to be released by Wednesday afternoon, Zahars said. Farbtukh has lobbied authorities for his release since he began serving the sentence, including several court appeals that were rejected. His lawyer Alexander Ogurtsov filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights last fall. Zahars said he believes that the appeal added pressure on the Riga court and led to the decision to release Farbtukh. Farbtukh, who has pleaded innocent, is the only man known to be serving time in prison specifically for repressions carried out during Josef Stalin's iron-fisted reign in the Soviet Union. At least 15 million people were killed and some 40 million deported -- including more than 200,000 people from the Baltics -- by the vast communist secret police apparatus during Stalin's rule. Russian officials strongly criticized his conviction, saying Latvia was exacting revenge on an ailing, elderly man. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are the only ex-Soviet republics to have prosecuted former secret police. They say they're shedding light on a dark era in their history and bringing overdue justice to victims of Stalinist crimes. Farbtukh became chief of the feared NKVD, the precursor to the KGB, in the Latvian city of Daugavpils after the Soviet Union occupied the three Baltic states in 1940. He was accused of deporting 31 families, including children, to Siberia. AP WorldStream Thursday, March 14, 2002 8:46:00
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Copyright 2002 The Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's Foreign Ministry on Thursday grudgingly praised a decision by a Latvian court to release an imprisoned Stalin-era secret police agent convicted of deporting scores of people during World War II because he was too ill to finish serving his term. Mikhail Farbtukh, 85, is the only person known to be serving time in prison for repressions carried out during Josef Stalin's iron-fisted reign in the Soviet Union. He was jailed in May 2000 and sentenced to seven years in prison, though the term was later reduced to five years. On Wednesday, a Riga district court upheld Farbtukh's request that he be released from a cramped cell in the city's Matisa Prison for health reasons. "We evaluate this as a human act, although it is two years too late," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, complaining that Farbtukh's previous appeals for release were repeatedly denied. "The imprisonment of this veteran was for him a moral torture. We continue to believe that the charges of genocide against him are unfounded," the statement said. The vast Communist secret police apparatus during Stalin's rule is believed to have killed at least 15 million people, mainly Soviet citizens, and deported 40 million, including more than 200,000 people from the Baltics. Russian officials strongly criticized Farbtukh's conviction, saying Latvia was exacting revenge on an ailing, elderly man who had fought valiantly against the Nazis. "Russia will continue to speak out against efforts for similar historical revenge by well-known political forces, whose ideological forefathers were guilty of a genocide on Latvian soil known in world history as the Holocaust. It was with those forces that Farbtukh and other anti-fascists fought, and it is no one's right to redefine history," it said. COMTEX Newswire Friday, March 15, 2002 9:56:00
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Copyright 2002 ITAR-TASS By Andrei Surzhansky WASHINGTON, Mar 15, 2002 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) — The defence ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have notified the United States about their countries' plans to join the international anti-terrorist operation. Itar-TASS was told at the Pentagon that the defence ministers of the three Baltic countries raised this question on Thursday in the course of their talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz. The main purpose of their visit to Washington is to persuade the U.S. leadership that their countries are ready to joint the North Atlantic Alliance. In the course of their visits to the Pentagon and to the State Deparment, the ministers informed American officials that forces of the three Baltic republics would be sent to Kyrgyzstan in April, where an international contingent is to be deployed under the command of Danish officers. The U.S. State Department has acclaimed, through Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, the decision of the three Baltic state to accede to the anti-terrorist operation. The American side described it as "a logical continuation" of the participation of Lativa, Lithuania and Estonia in several peace-making missions. AP WorldStream Monday, March 18, 2002 9:06:00
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Copyright 2002 The Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's Foreign Ministry on Monday protested the shutdown of a popular Russian-language radio station in neighboring Latvia over its refusal to broadcast more programming in Latvian. "The decision is yet another confirmation of the obvious fact that Latvia violates the rights of minorities," the ministry said in a statement. "In addition, we are talking about the closure of a private station, and therefore about limits on the freedom of private enterprise in the media sphere." Radio Bizness and Baltic, part of the Moscow-based Russkoye Radio network, was taken off the air last week. The Latvian National Radio and Television Council refused to renew the station's license because it hadn't fulfilled a requirement that 75 percent of its 24-hour-a-day programming be in Latvian, and said the station broke copyright and accounting laws. The station management called the decision a violation of free speech and filed an appeal with Riga's District Court. "How does such a practice relate to the Latvian leadership's insistence that it is ready to live by the rules of a uniting Europe?" the Russian statement said. Latvia and the other ex-Soviet republics in the Baltics are eager to join the European Union and NATO, which has angered Russia. Latvians say the broadcast laws, passed after Latvia regained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, stem from fears that their native language will be overwhelmed by Russian, which Moscow favored during its rule. But Russian speakers make up nearly 40 percent of Latvia's 2.4 million population, and many Russian listeners have been angered by the radio's disappearance. Radio Bizness and Baltic had some 250,000 listeners. AP WorldStream Monday, March 18, 2002 2:13:00
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Copyright 2002 The Associated Press By MATTI HUUHTANEN Associated Press Writer HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — The Helsinki Stock Exchange on Monday announced plans to acquire a majority stake in the Riga, Latvia, bourse as it moves to increase its presence in the former Soviet Baltic republics. Under the agreement, HEX group, the bourse operator, made a conditional offer to acquire more than a 75 percent stake in the Riga Stock Exchange. The offer also required that the Riga bourse, which has a 27 percent stake in Latvia's central securities depository, acquire the remainder of the shares. Financial terms were not announced. The transaction requires regulatory approval, which was expected by July, HEX said. Last month, HEX merged with the Tallinn Stock Exchange in the neighboring Baltic state of Estonia, after purchasing a 62 percent stake in the market. It also is negotiating similar moves in Vilnius, Lithuania. "It's part of our expansion strategy," HEX chief executive Jukka Ruuska said. "We're looking at Vilnius and we've had negotiations with them too, but we want to take one step at a time." Ruuska said he expects only "modest" trading volumes in Riga in the short-term but that mergers have a greater significance in HEX's long-term planning. "The Baltic area is a market of 8 million people, and economic growth is much faster here than elsewhere," he said. "The amount of investment capital will grow faster too." Guntars Kokorevics, president of the Riga Stock Exchange, said Latvia had been hoping to join forces with a developed Western market. "We have been shopping around for a while and (HEX) is the best partner we could hope for," he said in Riga. "We could operate as a single market but I don't think we'd last very long if we did." Of the 13 listed companies on the Riga exchange, the most actively traded are the oil shipping concern Ventspils Nafta and the monopoly natural gas utility Latvijas Gaze. Last week, the average daily trading volume in Riga was 7,000 lats (dlrs 11,000). In Tallinn, the average daily trading volume last year was 16 million kroons (dlrs 900,000). The Helsinki Stock Exchange had a daily turnover last year of 814 million euros (dlrs 700 million). — On the Net: HEX Group site: http://www.hexgroup.com Reuters North America Wednesday, March 20, 2002
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Copyright 2002 Reuters Ltd. RIGA, March 20 (Reuters) — The Latvian parliament approved a first reading on Wednesday of a bill to make Latvian the sole language of all elected bodies in the former Soviet republic. Though the move would complete the banishment of Russian from parliament, it is aimed, together with further legislation, to ease criticism of discrimination against Latvia's big Russian minority and ease the Baltic state's admission to NATO. The bill to amend the constitution was passed 79-16, officials officials said. Two further readings, for which no dates are set, are needed to make Latvian the sole language of parliament and local governments in law, as it already is in practice. The bill is aimed at diminishing nationalist opposition to the scrapping of another law under which ethnic Russians -- roughly a third of the 2.4 million population -- have to prove they speak good Latvian before standing in elections. Western nations had called the law discriminatory and NATO officials have indicated its removal should help Latvia's bid to join the alliance in November. Riga is also a candidate to join the European Union, which has also criticised discrimination. Language is an extremely sensitive issue in the Baltic state, which emerged in 1991 from five-decades of Soviet occupation during which Russians were encouraged to move there. Many Latvians were deported to Siberian camps. Latvian was marginalised under Soviet rule but has been the language of parliament and municipalities since independence, although this has not been enshrined in the constitution. The new legislation should mean that ethnic Russians will be eligible for election even if they do not speak Latvian -- but would then need to learn the language to follow proceedings. Among other measures, Wednesday's bill would also introduce an oath of office for elected officials and a clause guaranteeing the right of Latvians to make inquiries and receive replies from state institutions in Latvian. Latvia is one of nine countries hoping to win an invitation to join NATO at the alliance's November summit in Prague. AP WorldStream Wednesday, March 20, 2002 7:12:00
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Copyright 2002 The Associated Press By J. MICHAEL LYONS Associated Press Writer RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Mikhail Farbtukh, the only known person recently in prison for Stalinist-era human rights abuses, hailed his release in this former Soviet Baltic republic last week and maintained his innocence. "I have no remorse because I am not guilty," the 85-year-old former secret police agent said at his tiny apartment in Latvia's capital, surrounded by flowers sent by well-wishers. As he spoke, he leaned his arm on a pair of crutches. A court ruled last week that he was too ill to complete his five-year term for deporting 31 families to Siberia in 1941. Many of his victims, including children, were executed or died in the harsh conditions of exile, prosecutors said. Farbtukh became a district chief of the notorious NKVD, the precursor to the KGB, after the 50-year Soviet occupation of the Baltic states began in 1940. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania regained independence in 1991. A self-described aficionado of French literature, Farbtukh insisted in the Tuesday evening interview that he had served in the NKVD's counterintelligence branch and had not take part in deportations. He also showed no sympathy for deportees. "You have to remember that the war was coming, and these people were not simple farmers. They were spies, and they were dangerous," Farbtukh said, speaking in clear, sharp sentences. Farbtukh, who has diabetes, entered a Riga prison on a stretcher in 2000. During his two years in prison, he required around-the-clock care. "Those who put me in there have, I think, seen the wrong in what they did, and they have corrected that wrong," he said. He became the only man in prison for Stalinist-era human rights abuses after the death last month of 77-year-old Karl-Leonhard Paulov, who died while serving an eight-year sentence in Estonia. At least 15 million people were killed, and some 40 million — including 200,000 from the Baltics -- were deported during Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's rule. The Baltic states are the only ex-Soviet republics to have prosecuted former secret police. They say their main aim is to shed light on a dark era in history and to bring overdue justice to victims. Moscow has condemned the prosecutions as revenge on elderly, ailing men. Latvian prison officials applauded Farbtukh's release. "He's a sick man and should not have been in jail," said Vitolds Zahars, director of the Central Prison Administration. Others opposed it. "We do not seek revenge, only justice — and in the Farbtukh case, justice has now been tainted," said Gunars Resnais, a member of the Society of the Politically Repressed. Farbtukh has some notable supporters, indicated by a set of red carnations in one corner of his apartment. He said they came from the Russian Embassy in Riga. Russia's Foreign Ministry praised Farbtukh in a statement last week as "a fighter of fascists." His son Vladimir said he'd keep defending other ex-agents in line to be tried. "As far as our family, we have won," he was quoted as telling the Baltic News Service. "If we think about those many old men who still have to stand trial, though, I must say we will have to do a lot more fighting yet." |
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The bullet holes in the radio building facade are a reminder of true suppression of free speech. Lest we forget. |
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