MINELRES: Russian-speakers' Organizations in Estonia: Game Over?

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Larissa Semjonova <Larissa@lichr.ee>


In July 2003 Minister for Population Affairs Mr Paul-Eerik Rummo claimed
at the press-conference that the very absence of pro-minority parties in
the recently elected Estonian parliament is an evidence of successful
integration of the Estonian society. On 29 January 2003 in the national
daily "Postimees" a journalist put down a list of achievements of then
Chief-Director of the "political" Security Policy as they were mentioned
"by officials well-informed about security service activities". The
split of a Russian community that prevented a creation of an influential
pro-minority parliament party was at the top of this list.

We argue that the absence of pro-minority parties in the parliament is
favorable to many Estonian political forces but not to the Russian
community itself. Furthermore the poor results at the elections were the
consequences of inter alia large-scale defamation campaign which
victimized both pro-minority political forces and the Legal Information
Centre for Human Rights (LICHR) which is a leading NGO to deal with
minority rights in Estonia. 

The campaign started in late 2001 when local press published allegations
about corruption in the Tallinn Department of Social Security and
Integration. The message about this politically-motivated case was
posted to MINELRES subscribes on 16 December 2003
(http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2003-December/003105.html). In
short, the scandal regarding the Department was necessary to change the
ruling coalition in the capital and at national level. Furthermore a
chief-director of the department and one of vice-mayors (her curator)
belonged to a leading pro-minority United People's Party of Estonia. 
The case was actively used by Estonian mainstream parties to influence
the local Russian electorate. The investigation was conducted by the
Security Police. However, the Prosecutor's Office failed to prove in
court the "creation of a threat to the safety of the money belonging to
the city" and "blackening by their activities the authority of the city
government and city servants". Both Russian politicians were pleaded not
guilty. Former Director of the Department managed to prove in the
Administrative court that her retirement was also illegal. She was later
granted with compensation for violation of her rights by the Tallinn
City Government.

The Department of Social Security and Integration was the first
specialized municipal institution in Estonia which was to address the
problems of non-Estonian population. It seized to exist in early 2002.
The Legal Information Centre for Human Rights has participated in
different projects of the Department (preparation of the city
integration program, research on interethnic relations in Tallinn,
legalization of illegal minors, etc). In early 2002 the Tallinn Tax
Board started a revision at the LICHR. State auditors paid special
attention to the projects funded by the department. No violations were
found in this regard. Nevertheless the Board made several claims for
additional taxes (mostly regarding the year 2000). These claims were
rejected by the LICHR as ill-founded. The argumentation of the Centre
was prepared in cooperation with the auditors from the Baltic branch of
the "Ernst & Young". The LICHR was waiting for a response from the Tax
Board for 11 months till December 2003! As far as all arguments of the
the LICHR were ignored, the Centre has drafted an official response that
was sent to the Board on 29 December 2003.   

On 22 January 2004 the Tax Center of the Tallinn Tax Department decided
to arrest the banking accounts of the LICHR. The work of the Legal
Information Centre for Human Rights is now paralyzed.

It is worth mentioning that activities of the Tax Board may follow a
tricky scheme. Thus, they normally coincided with pre-election periods
in Estonia. The first claims were made before last local (October 2002)
and national (March 2003) elections when the LICHR Director Aleksei
Semjonov was a candidate of the United People's Party of Estonia. Then,
the Board kept silence for 11 month till the moment when the
participation of Mr Semjonov at the European parliament elections was
under discussion.

In Estonia, tax "problems" are actively used to influence rating of
minority leaders in pre-election periods. Thus, before the last local
elections Estonian press informed about "problems" of Mr Arkadi
Presjazhnyi, then a leader of the Union of Russian Compatriots'
Organizations of Estonia. In July 2003 a former officer of the Tax Board
confessed that he personally sent this information to an Estonian daily.
He was asked to do so by his boss who received similar recommendations
from the Security Police.  It was an interesting precedent in the
Estonian political life.

In 2003 the Tax Board conducted a revision in a private-owned Sillamae
Institute of Economy and Management. No serious violations were found.
However, it influenced the image of this minority education
institution.  Sillamae Institute is one of the leading colleges that
provided higher education in Russian.  Such institutions are the only
chance for many young minority members to get access to advanced levels
of education while public-owned universities are working in Estonian.

In August 2003 the Ministry for Social Affairs closed the public-owned
AIDS Prevention Centre based in Tallinn. In 2001 84% of AIDS infected
persons in the Estonian capital were minority members. The central
authorities were dissatisfied with the activities of this institution
which deals predominantly with Russian-speakers.

In different international fora the LICHR appreciated the successes of a
democratic development in Estonia. Nowadays we regret to inform that few
Estonian officials decided to implement in practice the "advises" of
Central Asian regimes that used to rid of inconvenient NGOs with the
assistance of tax and law enforcement bodies. The accession to the EU is
understood by such politicians as a carte blanche for radical solution
of a minority problem and development of an ethnic democracy model.

Larissa Semjonova

Deputy Director
Legal Information Centre for Human Rights
(Tallinn, Estonia)