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News highlights from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

News highlights from March 15—March 22, 1999

• Estonian President Lennart Meri has asked the man widely credited with bringing the nation’s moribund economy back to life after the Soviet collapse to again take up the post of prime minister.
         Mart Laar, who led a radical pro-reform government from 1992-1994, was nominated by the president on March 19—weeks after his center-right Fatherland party and two allied parties triumphed in parliamentary elections.
         In the March 7 election, Fatherland, the Reform Party and the Moderates won a 53-seat majority in the 101-seat Riigikogu parliament, beating out a rival center-left grouping, the Center Party, which won 23 seats.
         The 38-year-old Laar is expected to present a new cabinet to the legislature within a matter of days, and he should easily win confirmation.
         Laar, a historian and one-time school teacher, was just 32 when he first became premier in 1992, a year after Estonia regained independence. A staunch free-market advocate, he slashed Soviet-era subsidies, cut trade tariffs and balanced the national budget.
         His government was also known for its unusually young cabinet: his foreign minister was 26, his defense and interior ministers were 28, and most of his top government aides were under 30.
         By the time he left office in 1994, Laar was a lightening rod for economically hard-hit Estonians who complained reforms had been unnecessarily harsh. Many believed Laar’s political career might be finished.
         But policies implemented by Laar are now credited with spurring the fast-paced growth of recent years that pulled Estonia out of the economic wreckage of communist rule.
         During campaigning, Laar toned down some of his pro-market rhetoric, saying Estonia now needed to devote more attention to social issues and also to restructuring the country’s farm sector and education system.
         In foreign policy, Laar says Estonia needs to push even harder for NATO and European Union membership. He says improved Russian relations may have to wait until Estonia firmly integrates into Western Europe.

• Soviet soldier Nikolai Kuzmin was most used to seeing the Waffen SS fixed in the cross-hairs of his rifle sight right before he shot them dead.
         He said he never imagined he'd see them fifty years later walking in a procession through the cobble-stoned streets of the Latvian capital where he lives or that they'd parade with the approval of Latvian authorities.
         But on March16 veterans of the Latvian Waffen SS did march in a procession through Riga with official permission, and Kuzmin says he's incensed.
         "It's an insult," said the burly 76-year-old, a Red Army captain during the war. "These guys should remember they were defeated, they were the losers. They should just sit down and be quiet."
         Some 300 Waffen SS veterans walked about a half a kilometer from the Dom church in the Riga old town to the nearby Freedom Monument, where the veterans laid flowers.
         The solemn march proceeded without incident.
         When the veterans stepped up to lay their flowers at the Freedom Monument, several hundred onlookers clapped. One Russian women, however, shook her fist and jeered the passersby.
         The controversial gathering of the Waffen SS veterans, most of them in their 70s and 80s, angered many in Latvia and abroad who said it was an affront to the millions who died at the hands of the Nazis.
         A similar march last year brought a storm of protest from around the world, especially from Russia and Israel. The event contributed to a serious deterioration in Russian-Latvia relations.
         Russia condemned the march this year, but their response was mute compared to the furor directed at Latvia last year.
         Controversy this year was heightened by a parliament decision to name March 16 an official remembrance day. Legislators say it was a day meant for all veterans of all wars, but critics say the day is widely associated just with the Waffen SS.
         Many Latvians argue that Latvian history during the war and the role of the Latvian Waffen SS has been badly misunderstood, and purposefully twisted by Russia to taint Latvia’s image abroad.
         The Soviets occupied Latvia at the start of the war in 1940, Germany ruled here from 1941-44, and the Soviets retook it in 1944. Latvia regained its independence from Moscow in 1991.
         With Latvia sandwiched between the Nazi and Soviet armies, about 250,000 Latvians ended up fighting on one side of the conflict or the other. Some 150,000 Latvian combatants died.
         Latvians say the Latvian Waffen SS, also known as the Latvian Legion, was a front line force and that most Latvians were drafted into it. Others volunteered as a way to fight for Latvian independence against the Soviets.
         Waffen SS veteran Visvaldis Lacis, a leading organizer of Tuesday's controversial gathering, said that after one year of repressive Soviet rule in 1940, the majority of Latvians saw the Nazis as the lesser evil.
         "None of us were motivated by Nazi ideology," said Lacis, 74. "We were motivated by the desire to keep the Soviets out."
         Lacis, a platoon commander in the 19th Waffen SS division, said he knew Jews had been killed by the Nazis, but insisted that the Latvian Waffen SS, unlike camp guard SS units, never took part in atrocities themselves.
         He added that, in difference to those who suffered under the Nazis, participants in the Waffen SS gathering were told they shouldn't display any Nazi insignia.
         That was cold comfort to some 11,000 Jews living in Latvia.
         They say the Waffen SS gathering and declaring Tuesday an official remembrance day illustrate society-wide insensitivity about the massacre of nearly all Latvia's 70,000 pre-war Jews.
         Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis took the lead in trying to calm passions in the run up to Tuesday's march, calling in representatives of the tens of thousands of Soviet and Nazi veterans for urgent consultations.
         But presidential appeals for reconciliation between the two sides were flatly rejected by both Waffen SS and Soviet veterans groups.
         Representatives of Latvia's six main Waffen SS veterans groups dismissed a proposal by President Ulmanis that they simply meet in a church and then disperse without a procession through Riga.
         "He said the West wouldn't understand, that it'd hurt Latvia's image," said Waffen SS veteran Visvaldis Lacis. "But what are we? Thieves? Must we really crawl around so no one sees us? What for? Our president is a coward."
         Soviet veteran Nikolai Kuzmin said he too was in on the meeting with the president, who also recommended that Soviet and Waffen SS veterans get together in a church or possibly in a pub for a quiet round of drinks.
         "We said no," Kuzmin said. "Soviet and Waffen SS veterans are destined to die before we ever come to terms with each other."
         Kuzmin said he has some sympathy for the Waffen SS veterans, conceding that most were trapped by circumstances beyond their control, and that they were probably sincere in believing they were fighting for Latvia.
         But he turns red and his voice rises when asked if the men marching on Tuesday are right to claim, as many do, that they were heroes, that they bravely fought to defend their Latvian homeland.
         "What heroes are they? They lost," said Kuzmin, throwing his head back and groaning. "These are just stupid old men."
         The Latvian government prohibited officials or members of the armed forces from participating in the procession. Last year, the head of the country's armed forces was fired after taking part in the event.
         The commemoration day and Waffen SS march has caused near-panic in the government, which frantically tried to reduce the PR damage to the entire country.
         Many national leaders, including half the government cabinet, went on trips abroad, leading to accusations they were trying to duck responsibility for the controversy.
         In an interview on March 16, Latvian Foreign Minister Valdis Birkavs said he wished the Waffen SS veterans would keep a much lower profile, but argued that they had a right to remember their comrades who died in battle.
         "These men had no way of escaping Nazi conscription and suffered very heavy casualties," he said. "The right to remember and mourn the tragedy of World War II is not forbidden anywhere."
         He also said the Waffen SS procession was being blown out of proportion.
         "This is a mountain being made out of a mole hill," Birkavs said.

 

SPECIAL March 7th Estonian Elections

• Strongly pro-market, pro-Western parties scored a convincing victory in Estonian parliamentary elections on March 7 and are virtually certain to form the country's next government.
         The three government-bound parties--Fatherland, the Reform Party and the Moderates--secured 53 seats in the 101-seat Riigikogu parliament, which should be just enough to put together a stable majority government.
         In the final weeks of campaigning, the election shaped up as a race between a center-left grouping led by controversial former Prime Minister Edgar Savisaar versus the center-right alliance.
         The Center Party did win 28 seats, more than any other single party, but appears doomed to sit in the opposition for the next four years. Center Party leader Savisaar has been accused of having a strong authoritarian streak and center-right parties said they would never consider cooperating with him.
         "Estonians have said yes to the West, yes to the European Union, no to populism and simple solutions, and no to Big Brother," said Moderates leader Toomas Ilves as it became clear the center-right bloc won enough seats to form a government.
         The victorious parties say they will maintain the unambiguous market-oriented policies that have made Estonia a success story of the former Soviet Union, and will also continue Estonia's drive for European Union and NATO membership. But they also say Estonia has reached a new stage, where fundamental reforms have been done and where new, more wide-ranging reforms are called for.
         All three center-right parties say Estonia needs to begin reforming sectors, like farming, that were neglected as Estonia focused single-mindedly on pulling itself from the economic wreckage of communism immediately following the Soviet collapse.
         With an eye on joining the European Union early in the new century, all three parties say Estonia has to become more competitive. They have said restructuring the education system and the agricultural sector, and generally improving government efficiency, are high priorities.
         "Estonia has done the basic economic reforms, and done them very well," said Mart Laar, the leader of Fatherland and pegged as a front-runner to be prime minister in the new center-right government. "But now we need to devote ourselves to reforms we didn't get to earlier.''
         But the determination to pay more attention to education and agriculture could be complicated by the need to cope with the bigger economic picture again.
         Because of the Asian and Russian crises, Estonia's economic growth fell from an impressive 11 percent in 1997 to 5 percent last year. Growth could drop to below 4 percent this year. Most analysts say Estonia's isn't facing an economic crisis but will have to work harder at making growth happen.
         Estonian President Lennart Meri said any new government needed to find new markets for Estonian goods and also develop new industries.
         "The next parliament has to figure out what Estonia should be known for around the world," he said. "Every country has to have its face...Estonia has to have its Nokia (the Finland's dominant, worldwide mobile phone company)."
         But because of Estonia's small size, he said he was confident the country would be able to do the things to turn the economy around fast.
         "Estonia's like an Eskimo's kayak and can turn on the spot," said Meri in an interview at his palace residence the day before the election. "Bigger countries are like a supertanker that needs 16 nautical miles (to make a turn)."
         Estonian business leaders have enthusiastically welcomed the victory by the center-right, saying committed free-market leaders in power would help Estonia get back on the track of explosive growth. On Monday, the day after the election, the Tallinn Stock Market rose by more than 3 percent.
         The business community has also expressed confidence that a center-right government would also be tougher negotiators with the EU, which Estonian businesses fear is trying to impose unnecessarily bureaucratic and potentially harmful regulations on Estonia as a condition of membership.
         But Estonia's ability to switch gears to a higher level of economic growth could be undermined by disagreement on economic policy details among the center-right parties.
         The pro-business Reform Party wants a drastic tax cut to trigger an economic boom, proposing that the 26 percent corporate tax be eliminated altogether. The centrist Moderates, who are more oriented towards social policy, say they oppose a tax cut, arguing that it could lead to greater economic disparities.
         The two parties, however, say the disagreement over taxes doesn't preclude them being strong partners in the same government. They're also bound to be united by a desire to keep Edgar Savisaar of the Center Party as far away from the levers of power as possible.
         The theme of inequality is likely to be picked up by Savisaar's Center Party, which made the yawning gap between rich and poor a major election issue. The Center Party drew strong support by suggesting higher taxes on the rich as a way to even-out economic inequalities.
         "Our economy has been very successful," Savisaar said in an interview during the campaign. "The main issue in this election is: Has the price of success been too high for some, like the poor and elderly? I think so...Our goal should be not to have too many rich or too many poor, but to have a large as possible middle class."
         His message appeared to have strong appeal with people who feel economic reforms have left them in the dust. Ethnic Russians, who now make up almost 20 percent of the Estonian electorate, also voted heavily for the Center Party.
         But the dour, heavy-set Savisaar became the bogeyman of the campaign, with center-right parties warning that he had a strong authoritarian bent. His critics pointed to ads featuring Savsiaar's eyes blown up to billboard size and his slogan, "The Center Party knows the solutions."
         Toomas Ilves of the Moderates said a 1995 scandal in which Savisaar was forced to resign as interior minister for secretly tape recording rival politicians illustrated his undemocratic tendencies.
         "He's the real threat to Estonian democracy," Ilves said before the election. "The Orwellian eyes, the claim to the truth, the taping scandal: Savisaar just doesn't get the notion of liberal democracy."
         Savisaar says his big-eye ads were meant to show voters his eyes were honest. And he dismissed the authoritarianism charge as desperate rhetoric.
         While the other Estonian parties accused Savisaar of exploiting social issues with populist talk about class conflict, they also agreed that the country does need to begin devoting more attention to social issues, especially growing poverty.
         The center-right has generally argued that spurring stronger growth was the key to making sure Estonia's new-found wealth trickles down to everyone, though the Moderates have called for some government help for the hardest hit segments of society.
         During campaigning Edgar Savisaar also diverged from the center-right parties by arguing that Estonia should put greater emphasis on improving relations with Russia.
         Relations have been tense at times over the status of Estonia's 400,000 Russian-speakers, and also over Estonia's push to win membership in the NATO alliance--which Moscow says it is vehemently opposed to.
         "We can't pick up Estonia and put it down someplace else, like next to Australia,'' said Center Party leader Edgar Savisaar. "It's better that neighbors close to you be your friends, not your enemies."
         But Center-right politicians said Estonia first needs to firmly root itself in Western Europe before it can significantly improve relations with Russia, arguing that Moscow will be less likely to bully Estonia when it is part of a large bloc of nations, like the EU.
         Toomas Ilves of the Moderates, who is considered the center-right's most likely candidate for foreign minister, said another obstacle to improved relations with Russia was jealousy.
         "For Russia, there is a certain cognitive dissonance that a former subject state is doing so much better than they are," he said. "They just can't get their minds around that."
         Asked how he assessed the overall quality of election campaigning, Estonian President Meri said he was disappointed that political discourse on the issues was simplistic and left voters confused and angry. He also criticized the catchy political sloganeering.
         "I feel deeply sorry that this campaign has been shallow and Americanized," he said.
         Turnout for the election was around 55 percent, significantly down from a 69 percent turnout in the last parliamentary poll in 1995.

New seat distribution for the 101-seat Estonian parliament:
For the center-right
Fatherland, 18 seats (16.09% of the votes cast)
Reform Party, 18 seats (15.92%)
Moderates, 17 seats (15.21%)

For centrists
Coalition Party, 7 seats (7.56%)

For the center-left
Center Party, 28 seats (23.4 %)
Country People's Party, 7 seats (7.27%)

For the far left
United People's Party, 6 seats (6.13%)