RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Two local African musicians have sued an extreme right-wing political party for libel and defamation of character after they were allegedly tricked into appearing in a racist television advertisement.
      Peter Mensah and Christopher Ejugo, both from Sierra Leone, filed the lawsuit on Wednesday against the Freedom Party, a small, anti-immigration group that is campaigning against Latvia's bid to join the European Union.
      Mensah, 35, appeared in the ad dressed as a Latvian soldier, while Ejugo, 32, was wearing traditional African clothing. Both were standing in front of the Freedom Monument, a downtown Riga memorial that has become symbolic of the country's break from the Soviet Union in 1991.
      Mensah then kisses a Latvian woman. A caption reads, "Today he defends your country, tomorrow he may be your son-in-law."
      The commercial says that EU membership will be followed by an influx of refugees from Africa and Asia who will seek Latvian citizenship.
      Latvia, which is staunchly pro-Western, has made membership in the 15-nation EU and the Western defense aliance NATO top priorities after regaining independence.
      Ziedonis Cevers, head of the Freedom Party and a former interior minister, told reporters that the commercial was meant to emphasize that Latvia was not prepared to handle an influx of immigrants that he believes would come with EU membership. He would not comment on the lawsuit.
      The commercial ran twice on the state-owned Latvian Television on June 21 before station management ordered to be pulled off the air by general director Uldis Grava, who said it promoted "fear and hatred."
      Mensah and Ejugo, who play in a popular reggae band "Los Amigos" and moved to Latvia four years ago, said they agreed to appear in the commercial because they were told it was to be used to promote EU membership and multiculturalism.
      "They lied to us," said Mensah. "Had we known it was going to be used for such a despicable thing we would have never agreed."
      Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga called the advertisement "unacceptable" during an address on state radio Tuesday. "This attitude certainly does not reflect the majority of the people in Latvia," she said.
      Latvia, a coastal nation of 2.5 million people, is among 10 candidate countries that are expected to complete negotiations in time to join the EU by 2004.
      It's also hoping for an invitation to join NATO at an alliance summit in November in Prague, the Czech capital. Leaders of the NATO candidate countries will gather in Riga this weekend to discuss their progress toward membership.

      RIGA, July 4 (Reuters) — NATO applicants gather in the Latvian capital Riga in a buoyant mood on Friday, with seven post-communist states firmly expecting a wave of U.S. support will carry them into the Western defence alliance.
      It is the last meeting of 10 heads of government from eastern Europe before NATO leaders at a November Prague summit issue treasured entry invitations to former Warsaw pact states clamouring for the security offered by alliance membership.
      Washington's desire to fight terrorism on a broad front after the September 11 attacks, and to make NATO a more global organisation capable of dealing with threats far from Euro-Atlantic shores, has led it to back a "robust" expansion.
      In practice that means the Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, former Yugoslav republic Slovenia, and former laggards Romania and Bulgaria now look almost certain to get in.
      Slovakia will join them if autocratic ex-premier Vladimir Meciar and his party fail to regain power in a September vote. Hopefuls Albania, Macedonia and Croatia will not make it.
      "I would say it's looking highly likely, the six plus one scenario," said Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, a London think-tank.
      "Probably the Bush administration has not really decided exactly what it wants. But many European governments that have been talking to them recently have come away thinking seven looks likely," he added.
      "If I compare the situation with what we had even two years ago, things have changed dramatically and very positively for the Baltic states," Latvian Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins told Reuters. "But everything will be decided when everything is decided -- 99 percent doesn't mean 100 percent."
      LOBBYING
      The Riga gathering continues intensive lobbying launched by the Baltic states after they were left out in 1997, to placate Russian opposition, when NATO expanded to 19 by inviting in its first ex-communist members -- Poland, Hungary and the Czechs.
      The United States will demonstrate support with a large Senate delegation and a video address by President George W. Bush, who underwrote ambitious NATO growth a year ago by calling for the alliance to expand "from the Baltic to the Black Sea."
      British Prime Minister Tony Blair is also scheduled to make a video address backing NATO expansion to new states, who hope alliance entry will boost their stature as safe places to invest and anchor them firmly in the European zone of prosperity.
      Even Russia, once a bitter opponent of its Cold War foe expanding into its former empire, has resigned itself to NATO's growth, having secured a new partnership with the U.S.-dominated defence alliance to boost security cooperation.
      The final word on invitations will not come until the Prague summit to ensure candidates have an incentive to continue military reforms and to assuage doubts over less economically and politically advanced states like Bulgaria and Romania.
      Their advocates play down concerns over pervasive corruption and democratic stability while pointing to the strategic advantages of extending the alliance into the troubled Balkans.
      "I don't like to say our chances have improved because of September 11 alone, but Romania is situated in southeast Europe, which is an area most exposed to new threats," Romania's ambassador to NATO, Bogdan Mazuru, told Reuters.
      "Romania can be an important frontier state for NATO. With Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria we can really strengthen this flank of the alliance," he added.

      HELSINKI, July 5 (Reuters) — Until recently, the notion of NATO membership for Finland, the only European Union country bordering on Russia, was taboo; and two-thirds of the population still shun the idea.
      But it keeps cropping up as Europe redraws it security map, and the pace has quickened since the September 11 attacks in the United States which heralded closer Russia-NATO ties.
      Russia, Finland's former foe and perennial security worry, has apparently resigned itself to expansion of the NATO defence alliance since it can no longer prevent it.
      But worries of a Moscow backlash linger in this country, which shares an over 800-mile (1,300 kms) border with Russia.
      Even so, several influential Finns have voiced support for NATO membership, or at least said the old reasons for not joining are no longer valid.
      Non-aligned Finland, which has intensified cooperation with NATO since the mid-1990s, was only a bystander at a landmark meeting of East European NATO applicants this week.
      It keenly watched the Riga meeting of 10 ex-communist countries, including the nearby Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are clamouring to join the Western alliance at its Prague summit this November.
      "In our view the Baltic states' NATO membership will be a stabilising factor for the whole Baltic Sea region," Finnish Defence Minister Jan-Erik Enestam told the meeting, adding his nation's relations with NATO were headed for a lively debate.
      Former president Martti Ahtisaari, a veteran diplomat and international peace broker, said recently he thinks Finland and Sweden will end up in the alliance.
      ON BALTIC COAT-TAILS
      To avoid a political minefield, the coalition government has tried to relegate the thorny issue to its next defence review in 2004. But politicians will hardly be able to avoid a debate as the country moves to general elections next March.
      "This is an odd procedure in a democracy where politicians should say in the election campaign 'These are our opinions, vote for us' and seek a mandate from the people," said Risto Uimonen, editor-in-chief of the daily Kaleva.
      Leaving the decision to 2004, after the Baltic states have joined, may be part of a grand strategy to make it easier for Finland to join once others have done so without problems.
      The government's stated policy is that Finland should stay "non-allied" under current conditions, though politicians know the phrase is sounding hollow as Europe's security landscape is changing faster than anyone dreamed just a few years ago.
      A recent overture by Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen to the opposition to join the discussion ahead of the 2004 security review is seen as a step towards building a consensus for a possible shift in policy.
      And even while two-thirds of Finns oppose joining NATO, many paradoxically think the country will join nevertheless, though they want a referendum on the issue. That paradox is similar to one seen before Finland joined the EU in 1995.

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Leaders of former communist countries hoping to join NATO looked ahead to the responsibilities of membership on Saturday, pledging to bring their democracies in line with Western standards.
      The 53-year-old alliance is just months away from a summit where it is expected to issue invitations for its most ambitious expansion and map out a historic transformation to fulfill the security needs of a post-Sept. 11 world.
      President Bush tied the two together in a videotaped address on Friday, saying that NATO's eastward expansion was necessary to secure democracy and stability after the terror attacks last year.
      But the initiatives will need to be ratified by legislative bodies in the 19 member countries. With that in mind, delegates meeting ahead of the November summit in Prague -- among them a group of U.S. senators -- tempered strong encouragement Saturday with a warning that the former East Bloc countries will face close scrutiny.
      "Prague in this sense is not an end point, it's a beginning point ... that ought to keep the spotlight on reform for all the candidates," said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to NATO.
      Delegates at the two-day conference hailed the expansion as an important step toward the long-awaited reunification of Europe after World War II.
      Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser to former President Jimmy Carter, called it "the final undoing in Europe of the legacies of the Stalin-Hitler pact."
      The reference to the secret nonagression pact that divided Europe into spheres of influence at the beginning of WWII was especially poignant in this Baltic Sea coastal country of 2.4 million people, which suffered decades of brutal Nazi and Soviet occupation.
      Leaders of the candidate countries welcomed the opportunity and promised to keep military and democratic reforms on track.
      "We will not rest on our laurels upon an invitation in Prague," Latvian Prime Minister Andris Berzins said in wrapping up the countries' last joint meeting before the decision is made in the Czech capital.
      The three ex-Soviet Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania along with Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia lead the list of countries expected to get the coveted invitations, although NATO diplomats stressed a final decision would not be made before the summit in the Czech capital.
      The other candidates are Albania, Croatia and Macedonia.
      "We recognize that we are in the midst of a historic endeavor, not only to defend our democracies from the threat to our freedoms posed by terrorism, but also to build a Europe that is truly whole and free," a final declaration said.
      "Thus, we set for ourselves the goal of acting in solidarity and as de facto allies -- toward each other and toward those Western institutions we aspire to join," it added.
      Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined in 1999 after contentious debate in the U.S. Senate and despite disapproval from Russia, which has softened its rhetoric and strengthened cooperation with NATO but remains opposed to seeing its former Cold War enemy creep to its borders.
      Observers also warned there were still strong concerns about corruption, religious intolerance and other problems faced by the eastern countries.
      In their statement, the hopeful nations stressed that they had undertaken "huge economic sacrifices, painstaking reform, and significant political risks" in orienting themselves to the West.
      Speaker after speaker at the conference described contributions from solidarity in the war against terrorism to troops in NATO-led peacekeeping operations as they sought to prove their worthiness.
      Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski pointed to progress made in reforming militaries, promoting regional stability and strengthening democratic institutions.
      He also said his country recently passed a law to ensure the protection of classified information, addressing a concern among some allies that the inclusion of the eastern countries could lead to leaks.
      "Clearly we must again demonstrate our ability to be not just a consumer but a provider of security," he said.
      — — —
      On the Net:
      Summit site: http://www.rigasummit.lv/en/

      VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — A Jewish human rights group announced Monday that it will offer Lithuanians a dlrs 10,000 reward for information that helps them track down those suspected of participating in Nazi atrocities during World War II.
      The Simon Wiesenthal Center said it will publish a plea for information in Lithuanian newspapers this week, with telephone and fax numbers for its office in Jerusalem as well as numbers for the local Jewish community and the prosecutor's office.
      Similar actions were planned for the neighboring Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia, the group said.
      Chief Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff said the project was unveiled in Lithuania to underline the criticism that the former Soviet republic has had a poor record in tracking suspected Nazis and collaborators since it regained independence in 1991.
      "Prosecution of war crime suspects is very far from satisfactory," he said at a news conference. "I hope these phones will start ringing when we make them public. This offer should change the situation dramatically."
      More than 90 percent of Lithuania's 240,000-person prewar Jewish community perished during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation. Historians say hundreds or possibly thousands of Lithuanians collaborated in murdering Jews.
      Simonas Alperavicius, a leader of the country's current 5,000-member Jewish community, welcomed the offer, saying any information received could be "crucial in building evidence against those who killed Jews in Lithuania."
      Government officials were not available for comment, but member of parliament Kazys Bobelis expressed concern that the offer "may spark a flood of hoax information."
      "I'm afraid some people may use this to settle scores with someone they dislike," Bobelis said.
      After regaining independence in 1991, Lithuania, a nation of 3.5 million people, promised to pursue, indict and try those who participated in the massacre of Jews under Nazi rule, but only one man has been convicted and no suspects have spent time in prison.

      BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — The European Union head office on Wednesday proposed the largest overhaul in years of the EU's farm subsidies that would force farmers to do more with less and with greater concern for the environment, public health and food safety.
      In swift reactions, the EU farm lobby said the proposals will erode farmer incomes. By contrast, Britain and Germany called for bigger savings before Cyprus, Malta and eight East European nations join the EU in 2004.
      The European Commission proposed the EU move away from subsidies linked to output -- a practice that causes overproduction and a dumping of produce on world markets.
      It proposed a "direct payment" for farmers based on past income, not future output.
      It would be capped at 300,000 euros (dlrs 295,000) a year, cut gradually over time and supplemented by simplified subsidies for cereals, dairy products and vegetables that would also be reduced.
      EU production and export subsidies have long been criticized by the United States, Australia, Canada and other producers as distorting world trade.
      EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler said farmers must meet tough environmental, public health and food safety standards in the wake of food crises in recent years in Europe, including mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease and dioxin contamination scares.
      The EU farmers lobby, known by its French acronym of COPA, said the Commission tried to rush through "a completely different situation in agriculture" before 10 candidates join in 2004.
      However, Britain and Germany said the proposals were not enough.
      British Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said they seek to "simply recycle money in the (EU) agriculture budget" and lead to no great savings.
      The commission said reform will save 200 million euro (dlrs 199 million) by 2006, money that would be spent on bio-farms and preserving traditional family farms
      German Agriculture Minister Renate Kuenast said the proposals may "set the stage for necessary fundamental EU farm reforms, they are inadequate from a budgetary viewpoint."
      Germany seeks deep cuts in agricultural spending to reduce its disproportionately large contributions to the EU budget.
      Fischler insisted the reforms will work.
      "In future, farmers will not be paid for overproduction, but for responding to what people want-- safe food, quality production, animal welfare and a healthy environment," he said.
      Australian Prime Minister John Howard, visiting to the European Commission, said if the EU package lead "to a cut in surpluses and fewer subsidized exports .... all of that will help Australian farmers."
      He said he wanted to see results first, however. "The last figures I saw" showed EU subsidies amounting to 35 percent of the union's annual agriculture output compared to 21 percent in the United States and 4 percent in Australia, Howard said.
      European Commission President Romano Prodi again criticized the Bush administration for pushing legislation authorizing dlrs 180 billion in spending for U.S. farmers over the next 10 years, a dlrs 73.5 billion increase over existing programs.
      Washington "is going in the opposite direction," said Prodi, standing next to Howard.
      EU farm subsidies were created in the 1960s.
      Initially, they made Europe self-sufficient in food, but led to food surpluses in the 1980s that were then dumped on world markets depressing prices there.
      Support for reforms is slim from farmers and some EU governments whose objections may derail membership talks with 10 candidates that are to be concluded in December.
      France, Ireland and southern EU nations have long resisted reforms because EU handouts to farmers and poor regions have long been solid vote winners in rural areas.
      The EU's farm budget in 2002 costs nearly half of the EU's 98.6 billion euro (dlrs 98.1 billion) budget.
      Expansion has put the current 15 members in a dilemma: The EU has about 8 million farmers. Poland alone has 10 million.
      Separate from the overall farm reform, the European Commission has proposed spending 40 billion euros (dlrs 38.8 billion) on farmers and poor regions in the new member countries -- Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Malta and Cyprus -- from 2004 to 2006. Britain, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands oppose this.