Freedom Monument Rededication           OpEd
Latvian Link
News
Picture Album
November 18, 2002

Sveiki, all!

Happy Independence Day, celebrating the 84th birthday of Latvia. There aren't that many left who remember back that far; Peters' mother remembers it was a far simpler time when Latvia seemed much larger.

In Latvia, the occassion was marked with a military parade. At the Freedom Monument, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga declared: «Es ticu Latvijas nakotnei tapec, ka es ticu jusu un musu spejam. Iesim un darisim ar paceltu galvu, ar ticibu un milestibu pret savu valsti. "I believe in the future of Latvia because I believe in your, and our, strength and abilities. Let us go forth and work, heads held high, with faith in and love for our country."

We've got a few words in addition in this week's editorial section.

In the news this week:

This week's link is to a statesman who, in a surprise to Peters, had Latvian ties.

This week's picture is of the Freedom Monument, of course!

Remember AOL Lat Chat Sunday nights! We've still been extremely busy, our apologies for not yet having written back to those of you who have sent us Emails the last few weeks!

(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 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,

Silvija Peters

 

  OpEd

When we're asked, why the mailer, why the website? we never have a very eloquent answer. However, we came across one not so long ago in the words of Janis Jaunsudrabins [translated from the far lovelier and more expressive Latvian...]:

"Latvians, whatever lands you may come to, -- proclaim the name of Latvia! Never and nowhere in your life will you ever hear a more beautiful word than this word; whoever of you carries this word forth, shirk not, therefore, from spreading it far and wide; cease not to praise our country -- Fathers, inculcate it into your children; mothers, sing of it by your children's and grandchildren's cribs; but, if you are a child born in exile, -- relent not in ceaslessly interrogating your parents about this land. Let Latvia be in your thoughts and imaginings as a distant, beautiful island in the sea of the world; as you sail your course through life, always keep your prow pointing towards it. Day or night, dusk or dawn, -- keep it in your thoughts, utter its name, fall in love it ever more passionately!"

And so we have done and continue.

 

  Latvian Link

Peters, at least, has always had a historically dim view of Yalta -- where Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin carved up the world in pursuit of victory over Japan and Germany. And that those actions rendered subsequent words of support for Latvia from the United States and England empty and without meaning. Imagine Peters' surprise reading about Churchill visiting Latvia (and taking time out to look up some Latvia roots!)

http://www.winstonchurchill.org/ffhlangw2.htm

The lesson? Never be so sure of you convictions that you cease to question them.

 

  News


Oil tanker in danger of sinking off Spain's northwest coast
AP WorldStream Wednesday, November 13, 2002 11:55:00 AM
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press

      MADRID, Spain (AP) — Helicopter-borne rescue crews evacuated the 27-member crew of a Bahamas-flagged oil tanker that was listing and taking on water in rough seas off Spain's northwest coast on Wednesday.
      The 44,000-tonne tanker (48,500 US tons) Prestige was heading for Gibraltar with an unknown amount of fuel oil it had loaded in Latvia.
      Maritime officials in Spain's northwestern port of Finisterre said none of the oil had spilled but the ship was listing 25 degrees and in danger of sinking 30 miles off the coast.

Baltics say only NATO can tame Russian bear
Reuters World Report Wednesday, November 13, 2002 9:05:00 PM
Copyright 2002 Reuters Ltd.
By Erik Brynhildsbakken

      GRUTAS, Lithuania, Nov 14 (Reuters) — Stalin still rules in one corner of the Baltics, but his steely gaze holds no terror for three ex-communist republics on the verge of joining NATO.
      The Gulag-style Gruto Park in southern Lithuania urges Baltic citizens not to forget their past as they "return to Europe," but many want to wipe out all memory of five decades of Moscow's rule, and the park has armed guards to keep vandals out.
      "I had to live through the Soviet occupation, that's enough for me," pensioner Antonia Mikaloniene said, pointing at the park while gathering mushrooms in the nearby forest.
      Inside, grim mementoes of half a century of Soviet rule are preserved for posterity, including a dozen giant statues of Lenin and a cattle-wagon used to deport people to Siberia.
      But the park could only muster one and a half Stalins.
      The man who occupied the Baltics and deported hundreds of thousands to the Siberian wastelands does not deserve to be remembered, many locals say, still angry that their small nations were lost behind the Iron Curtain.
      After regaining independence from Moscow in 1991, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia immediately embarked on painful reforms aimed at qualifying them for both NATO and European Union membership.
      The Baltics see EU entry, probably in 2004, as the key to getting their economies back on their feet.
      As for joining NATO, there seems little need for discussion.
      Nearly 60 percent of the three states' combined seven million population, which include sizeable Russian minorities, say only NATO will do.
      "Neutrality is so unrealistic, it's not even brought up in serious discussions," said Vytautas Landsbergis, who led Lithuania's freedom movement and was president at independence.
      He is certain NATO leaders will invite the Baltic states to join the alliance when they meet in Prague on November 21 and 22.
      "If they don't name Lithuania in Prague, it would be totally unexpected and felt as the greatest betrayal," he said.
      The Prague meeting is also expected to extend membership invitations to Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania.
      BIG DREAMS, SMALL ARMIES
      When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's "glasnost" reforms eased Moscow's iron grip in the 1980s, the Baltic states edged closer to their dream of independence.
      On August 23, 1989, two million Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians joined hands to form a 600 km (375 mile) human chain through the three capitals of Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn.
      Lithuania then spearheaded the Baltic freedom movement by declaring full and immediate independence in 1990.
      Shocked by the move, Moscow cracked down hard on the independence movement in January 1991, killing 20 people in Vilnius and Riga, but failed to crush the dreamers buoyed by the fall of the Berlin Wall.
      Since then, the three countries have built their armies almost from scratch and are ready to offer NATO airspace surveillance, peacekeepers, a defence college and minesweeping.
      The Baltic states hoped to be part of NATO's first wave of eastward enlargement that saw Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic join the alliance in 1999, but they were blocked by Russian opposition to NATO expanding to its border.
      Undeterred, the three pushed on, taking military spending above NATO's demand of two percent of GDP, despite ailing welfare systems and tight economies, adamant to make their total of 20,000 full-time troops a boon, not a burden.
      NATO entry for Estonia and Latvia will strip away a buffer zone between Russia and NATO in the former Soviet Union, creating a new border between the two old Cold War foes.
      And, with the poor Russian enclave of Kaliningrad between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast, Moscow will even have an awkward outpost surrounded by NATO and EU territory.
      "This is something new for NATO, but not for us," Landsbergis said. "It will be much better if NATO negotiates with Russia about Kaliningrad than if Lithuania were left alone to stand up against Russia."
      SURE ABOUT PRAGUE
      The Baltics are confident of their NATO chances now that Moscow has relaxed its hard line and U.S. President George W. Bush has called for the alliance to expand "from the Baltic to the Black Sea."
      Most take Bush's plan to visit Vilnius straight from the Prague summit as the surest sign yet that their bids are on track. Diplomats and cafe owners are gearing up in case Bush pops in on the "victory lap."
      Estonian Prime Minister Siim Kallas said Baltic membership of NATO would mark the end of a difficult transition and a new beginning firmly anchored to Europe.
      Landsbergis said it was all part of coming home to a family of values such as democracy, free market economy and respect for human rights from which they had been brutally cut off.
      "The Soviet Union was not a family, but a prison," he said.
      Estonia and Latvia both struggle with large Russian minorities often sceptical about Western integration, but Kallas said there was no ethnic divide in Estonian society.
      "This is seen as a problem from the outside, but not in Estonia itself," he said. "There have never been any clashes."
      COMING OUT FROM THE FOREST
      The same birch-and-spruce forest where Mikaloniene strolls to fill her mushroom basket gave Baltic-wide shelter to the "Forest Brothers" who waged a guerrilla war until 1953.
      In Latvia, one such brother only emerged from hiding in the forest in the mid-1990s.
      For Janis Ozolins, the 80-year-old leader of Latvia's National Partisans' Association who spent 15 years in Soviet labour camps, NATO brings peace of mind.
      "Our lives are drawing to an end, but it means security for our children and grandchildren," he said.
      "On our own we are small and divided, but together with NATO we have an army -- we can then stop fearing the Russian bear."
      Latvian history professor Artis Pabriks agreed: "Now we can finally get out of the forest," he said, adding NATO membership would free up Baltic leaders to tackle domestic problems and not worry so much about security issues.
      "And the Russian speakers will realise that the transition period is over -- that we are past the point of no return -- and be more able to integrate into society," he said.
      But, despite all the talk of a brave new world of stability and growth, Mikaloniene still harbours some doubts.
      "We've been under the Russians and forced to serve them. With NATO, it'll be the same thing -- we'll just be their poor slaves," she said before slipping behind the trees again.

NATO-bound Lithuania buys U.S. anti-aircraft missiles
AP WorldStream Thursday, November 14, 2002 9:02:00 AM
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press

      VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuania agreed to buy 60 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles from the United States, some of which will be deployed to protect the ex-Soviet republic's sole nuclear plant in case of an attack, officials said Thursday.
      The sophisticated, hand-held weapons will be the first of their kind sold to the Baltic states, which include Estonia and Latvia. All three former Soviet republics expect to win invitations to join NATO at an alliance summit next week in Prague.
      The $31-million-dollar deal was signed by Lithuania's Defense Minister Linas Linkevicius and U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania John Tefft on Wednesday in Vilnius, the capital of this coastal nation of 3.5 million people.
      Teftt said the purchase of the Stingers was a "big step both to assure the defense of the people of Lithuania and to prepare Lithuania's armed forces to participate fully in NATO operations."
      Heat-seeking Stinger missiles are designed to shoot down low-flying airplanes and helicopters as well as cruise missiles.
      "We're very happy about this," said Ona Tatolite, chief of procurement at Lithuania's Defense Ministry. "This is a vote of confidence in our military; it means the U.S. trusts us."
      Tatolite said the Stingers would be delivered to Lithuania sometime in 2005, when Lithuania should already be a full member of NATO.
      She said the missiles will reinforce the country's overall airborne defense and an unspecified number would be deployed near the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Vilnius.
      Following the Sept. 11 airborne assaults in the United States last year, Lithuania spent more than 1 million litas (dlrs 250,000) beefing up security and imposing a no-fly zone around the Soviet-built power plant, saying it was vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
      Ignalina, which has no containment shell and is more than 15 years old, has two reactors that are the same type as those at Chernobyl, Ukraine -- site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986. Safety improvements were made after Lithuania regained independence during the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Key facts about NATO's plans to take on new members
AP WorldStream Friday, November 15, 2002 11:05:00 AM
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press
By The Associated Press

      BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — NATO leaders meeting Thursday in Prague, Czech Republic, are expected to invite seven candidates to join the alliance. If chosen, they are expected to become full members in early 2004.
      The contenders:
      SLOVENIA: Armed forces 9,300. Always a frontrunner to be invited, but many Slovenians oppose membership and could vote against in a referendum.
      SLOVAKIA: Armed forces 35,000. Chances much boosted by September elections that rejected authoritarian former prime minister Vladimir Mercer.
      ESTONIA: Armed forces 5,000. Needs to modernize military. Russia has toned down opposition to NATO membership for Estonia and Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania.
      LATVIA: Armed forces 3,500. Recent Pentagon report indicated security shortfalls, but government is committed to meeting NATO standards, stepping up defense spending.
      LITHUANIA: Armed forces 10,800. NATO welcomes increased military cooperation with Latvia and Estonia, including joint units, such as Baltbat peacekeeping battalion.
      ROMANIA: Armed forces 170,000. Must streamline military, fight corruption, reform secret services. Hopes boosted by strategic position in Balkans, strong support offered to U.S. war on terrorism.
      BULGARIA: Armed forces 75,000. Situation similar to Romania. NATO says swift action by Bulgarian authorities means suspected sale of weapons parts to Iraq by arms factory won't hinder membership bid.

Russia's Communist Party leader criticizes Putin over NATO
AP WorldStream Monday, November 18, 2002 8:43:00 AM
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press

      MOSCOW (AP) — Days before NATO was to invite seven former Warsaw Pact members to become members, Russia's Communist Party leader lashed out at President Vladimir Putin on Monday for allegedly doing nothing to curb the alliance's expansion into Eastern Europe.
      Russia has shown "complete helplessness and impotence ... in opposing NATO expansion onto the territory of former Union republics" and will soon be faced by the prospect of NATO troops stationed in the former Soviet republics in the Baltics, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov told reporters.
      At the summit beginning Wednesday in Prague, NATO is expected to invite the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania along with Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria to join the alliance. It will be NATO's second post-Cold War expansion: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined in 1999 despite Russia's loud protests.
      Putin has said the alliance's expansion into the Baltics and former Warsaw Pact countries should not harm Russia's security interests, but warned that Russia's military would keep a close eye on developments.
      His reaction has been markedly calmer than that of his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, who regularly railed against the idea of NATO expansion.
      Zyuganov said Moscow should further integrate with former Soviet states Ukraine and Belarus as a bulwark against NATO aggression.
      The Communist leader also criticized Czech authorities' decision to refuse a visa to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to attend the Prague summit, because of the autocratic leader's poor human rights record at home.
      "The discrimination that's taking place against Lukashenko and the leaders of Belarus is totally intolerable," Zyuganov said.
 

  Picture Album

Latvia's freedom monument, draped in the colors for its rededication, lined with flowers in remembrance.

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