RFE/RL on recent events in Riga
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 23:05:22 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: RFE/RL on recent events in Riga
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Jekaterina Dorodnova <[email protected]>
RFE/RL on recent events in Riga
(From the moderator: Being a member of the Riga city council, I
was directly involved in the incident. I will definitely post my personal
reflections to the list - hopefully, tomorrow. I believe that the topic
is worth discussing, indeed, and also in the context of the minority
situation in Latvia.
Boris)
----------------------
POLICE USE FORCE TO DISPERSE DEMONSTRATORS IN RIGA
(RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 43, Part II, 4 March 1998)
More than 1,000 people blocked a street near the Riga city council
building on 3 March to protest low living standards, BNS reported.
When the demonstrators failed to comply with a request to clear the
street, police used batons to beat the demonstrators, most of whom
were elderly Russian- speakers. According to "Diena," no one was
hurt. Riga police chief Aivars Valcis said later that the police
dispersed the crowd because the demonstrators had not sought prior
permission to hold the rally and because they were blocking the
street. Interior Minister Ziedonis Cevers declined to comment several
hours after the incident, saying he was not familiar with all the
details. JC
PRIMAKOV CONDEMNS POLICE ACTION AGAINST RIGA
DEMONSTRATORS...
(RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 44 , Part II, 5 March 1998)
Russian Foreign Minister Yevgenii Primakov on 4 March said Latvian
police had committed a "glaring violation of elementary human rights"
while breaking up a demonstration of largely Russian-speaking
pensioners in Riga the previous day, Russian news agencies reported.
Primakov added that he considers the use of force against the
demonstrators "disgusting" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 March 1998).
Meanwhile, the Russian State Duma on 4 March rejected a proposal
by Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR)
faction to postpone a Duma delegation's visit to Latvia scheduled for
16 March, Interfax reported. Earlier the same day, the LDPR faction
walked out of the Duma chamber after Duma speaker Gennadii
Seleznev took the floor away from LDPR deputy Yurii Kuznetsov,
who had denounced Latvia as a "fascist regime." LB
.WHILE RIGA REFUTES ALLEGATIONS. The Latvian Foreign
Ministry, meanwhile, responded by issuing a statement saying that
Russian politicians' attempts to "politicize developments during the
unauthorized picket at Riga City Hall" are "inadmissible," BNS
reported on 4 March. The ministry said it was "astonished" over the
way Russian officials were trying to "interpret an administrative
breach [to give it] a political and ethnic nature." It added that such
attempts were detrimental to the development of bilateral relations,
mutual trust, and understanding. Interior Minister Ziedonis Cevers has
asked the police leadership to provide a detailed report of the
demonstration as well as an evaluation of whether the police actions
were in accordance with the law and police regulations. JC
RUSSIA, LATVIA SPAR OVER RIGA POLICE ACTION.
(RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 45 , Part II, 6 March 1998)
Russian presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembskii on 5 March
said Boris Yeltsin agrees with Foreign Minister Yevgenii Primakov's
assessment that Latvian police violated the human rights of
Russian-speaking pensioners when they broke up a recent
demonstration in Riga (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 and 5 March 1998).
Yastrzhembskii ruled out even preliminary talks on organizing a
meeting between Yeltsin and Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis,
Russian news agencies reported. Also on 5 March, the Russian
Foreign Ministry called on the international community to take action
against Latvia. Meanwhile, the Latvian Foreign Ministry called on
Russian officials to stop making "biased" comments about the
unsanctioned demonstration, and Latvian Prime Minister Guntars
Krasts said Russia may have helped stage the pensioners' rally,
BNS reported. Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin on 6
March condemned Krasts's remarks, saying "there can be no
justification" for violating human rights. LB
BELARUS ALSO CONDEMNS RIGA EVENTS. Belarusian Foreign
Minister Ivan Antonovich said on 5 March that it shares Moscow's
view that the use of force against a demonstration of ethnic Russian
pensioners earlier this week was "unacceptable," ITAR-TASS
reported. Antonovich recommended that the issue be resolved by
the governments of Latvia and other Baltic States within the
framework of recommendations made by the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe. Russian presidential
spokesman Yastrzhembskii said that "one can imagine the
European Union's reaction if this happened in Minsk." PB
RUSSIA ESCALATES RHETORIC OVER LATVIA.
(RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 46, Part II, 9 March 1998)
Russian officials have raised the volume in condemning the breakup
of the 3 March demonstration staged by Russian-speaking
pensioners in Riga. Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin on 6 March
slammed his Latvian counterpart, Guntars Krasts, for suggesting
that Russia may have helped stage the rally. Chernomyrdin said it is
a "big shame" that Latvia has a premier such as Krasts, adding that
it is "impermissible to live like this in Europe at the end of the 20th
century with the humiliation of entire nations," Reuters reported. On
7 March, presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembskii told Interfax
that imposing trade sanctions against Latvia would be a "justified"
response to the treatment of the demonstrators. He said President
Boris Yeltsin's foreign policy advisers have already recommended that
the president curtail economic relations with Latvia, noting that the
Latvian economy relies on Russian energy supplies. LB
DUMA DEMANDS 'ALL NECESSARY MEASURES' AGAINST LATVIA.
The Russian State Duma on 6 March unanimously approved a
non-binding resolution asking Yeltsin to take "all necessary
measures," including possible economic sanctions, to protect the
"political, social, and economic rights of Russian compatriots" in
Latvia, RFE/RL's Moscow bureau reported. According to Russian
news agencies, the resolution also called for delaying a Duma
delegation's visit to Latvia, which was scheduled for 17 March.
Deputies had rejected a proposal to postpone that trip on 4 March.
The Duma also asked the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly and
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to "pass
judgment in terms of international law" on the Latvian authorities'
response to the pensioners' rally. Meanwhile, the pro-government
Our Home Is Russia Duma faction has put off a visit to Riga by
several of its members, which had been scheduled for 9 March. LB
LATVIA AGAIN DENIES WRONGDOING. Following a special
cabinet session on 7 March, Latvian Premier Krasts told journalists
that the police had acted "properly" and there had been no violation
of human rights at the 3 March demonstration, BNS and Interfax
reported. Interior Minister Ziedonis Cevers likewise stressed that the
police had not beaten the demonstrators. An Interior Ministry report
presented to the cabinet said that police officers used "special
means, including truncheons, because the demonstrators had tried
to attack the policemen, striking and pushing them." The report also
said the rally was illegal and had blocked one of the capital's main
streets. Meanwhile, the Latvian Socialist Party and the Equity
movement are seeking permission to stage a rally in downtown Riga
on 17 March to protest irregularities in issuing passports to
non-citizens. JC
RFE/FL All Rights Reserved
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