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The Weekly Crier
News highlights from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Updated every Monday.
News Highlights from September
4-September 11, 2000
During a swing through the Baltic region, China's parliamentary speaker dramatically
cut short his visit to Lithuania after taking offense at a Vilnius conference devoted to
communist atrocities.
Li Peng arrived on September 5 in Lithuania, where he
was slated to stay for two days. But he ended up limiting his visit to the Vilnius airport
and flying on to neighboring Belarus after just two hours.
The second meeting of the International Congress
on the Evaluation of Communism, co-sponsored by the ruling Conservatives, got
under way the day before Li arrived and continued throughout the week; it included a mock
trial of atrocities committed by the Soviet Union, China and other communist states in the
20th century.
One of the conference's main backers was Parliament
Speaker Vytautas Landsbergis, a Conservative leader who has spoken out against
China's occupation of Tibet and called for world communist leaders who killed or jailed
opponents to be tried.
Ironically it was Landsbergis who invited Li to visit
Lithuania when the Lithuanian leader was in China last year. Landsbergis met Li briefly at
the airport before the Chinese delegation left the country.
Opposition parties blasted the Conservatives
for what was widely seen as a diplomatic fiasco, saying the clumsy scheduling of the
conference and Li's visit could cost Lithuania millions in potential Chinese
investment.
Li, China's No. 2 leader, flew on to Latvia and
Estonia later in the week and spent several days in both countries. China has reportedly
eyed Latvian and Estonian ports for shipping its exports to the European Union.
Latvia's and Estonia's well-developed ports are
linked to China some 4,000 kilometers away by a rail network crossing through Russia. By
rerouting some of its European trade through Russia and Baltic ports, China has said it
could save on transit costs.
China currently accounts for less than 1 percent of
Latvia's and Estonia's total trade, but experts say that figure could soar if the two
countries can successfully woo Chinese business.
Far-left Russian community leaders in Latvia have called on local Russians to launch a
campaign of low-level civil disobedience to protest new language rules they say are
discriminatory.
Russians have been asked not to comply with
requirements that they file applications to state offices only in Latvian.
Russian-speaking officials were also urged not to follow new rules that mandate Latvian be
used in all state-funded public events.
The rules, approved by the government last month to
supplement a national language law, are aimed at bolstering the status native Latvian,
which suffered under five decades of Soviet Russian rule.
The new regulations require that state-employed
doctors, lawyers and top civil servants speak Latvian fluently. State workers in less
critical jobs, such as bus drivers, must meet lower levels of Latvian proficiency.
The rules, which came into force on Sept. 1, don't
apply to the private sector, except where public health or safety are at stake.
Information about fire exits at private businesses, for instance, must be in
Latvian.
Those affected are mostly ethnic Russians who
immigrated here during Soviet rule, when both Latvian and Russian were commonly used by
government offices. Most Russians can't speak Latvian or speak it poorly, so they would
have to seek help in applying for permits or requesting information from government
offices.
The calls for civil disobedience have also come from
For Equal Rights, a far-left, mostly Russian party with 16 seats in the 100-seat Saeima
legislature.
The government urged residents not to heed the
protest appeal, saying it could unnecessarily split society.
Moderate Russian leaders also criticized the
civil-disobedience plans, saying they were an overreaction to a basically fair and
much-moderated law.
Europe's human rights watchdog, the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said the week before that the new rules
largely complied with international norms.
Investigators of the Estonia ferry accident, which killed 852 people in 1994, said
after studying new film footage of the wreck on September 5 that they saw nothing that
might warrant opening a fresh investigation.
"I can say there are no new facts requiring a
new investigation. None at all," said Kari Lehtola, a Finnish member of the
tri-nation commission that investigated the maritime disaster, Europe's worst since World
War II.
A 1997 report by the Estonian-Finnish-Swedish
commission blamed faulty locks on the 50-ton bow door and a slow-to-react crew for the
shipwreck, though conspiracy theories, including that a bomb exploded on board, have been
rife.
The four other investigators who also screened a
half-hour excerpt of the film, taken by a privately funded diving expedition last week,
all agreed nothing new was revealed, according to Finnish investigator, Tuomo
Karppinen.
The film was shot by a diving team led by 71-year-old
American businessman Gregg Bemis Jr, whose most sensational claim after ending his mission
was that he may have found a hole in the hull, possibly indicating a blast sank the
ship.
The private screening of the film in Tallinn was the
first time investigators from the now disbanded commission closely scrutinized longer
segments of the film.
The investigators, who watched footage that Bemis
said could be of a hole, scoffed at the claim. Lehtola and Karppinen said the alleged hole
was most likely just a shadow projected by a bright camera light behind a sand
deposit.
"Before Mr. Bemis went down, he said he'd show
the world an
explosion hole. So what's he showing us now? Footage of a sandbed and a shadow. That's his
hole!" said Karppinen, who added he was exasperated by the American's claims.
Estonian state television paid 2,000 dollars for
two-and-half hours of raw film footage, edited versions of which were aired on September
6.
In the program, an elongated black spot on the hull,
just below a large sand deposit, was visible and there appeared to be some sort of
rusted-away indent. But it wasn't clearly a hole.
Bemis also said his divers filmed six bodies around
the ferry, which appeared to contradict the commission's report that no victims were seen
outside the ship by its own film crews weeks after the ferry sank.
But Karppinen said the focus of the official
investigation was never to find corpses, but to identify causes of the accident. He
estimated 50 bodies could be outside of the ship, including people trapped on deck and
sucked down when the ship sank.
"From the point of view of the accident
investigation, there's nothing significant in whether there are bodies outside the
ship," he said. "True, we didn't find any, but we weren't looking for
them."
Ruling Conservatives face the prospect of a crushing defeat in October 8
parliamentary elections, according to an opinion poll published on September 9 in the
Lietuvos Zinios daily.
Just 5 percent of Lithuanians interviewed by the
Baltijos Tyrimai agency said they would cast ballots for the Conservatives, widely
blamed for rising unemployment and deep spending cuts.
The Social Democratic coalition garnered the
most support, with 14 percent of respondents saying they'd vote for the left-wing bloc,
led by former President Algirdas Brazauskas.
Close behind was the center-left New Union,
headed by former prosecutor Arturas Paulauskas, with 13 percent; the centrist Center
Union and the center-right Liberal Union both drew around 8 percent support.
Some 25 percent were undecided and 13 percent said
they wouldn't vote.
The New Union, Center Union and Liberal
Union have already said they would join forces to form a government if they win a
combined majority in the 141-seat Seimas legislature. They ruled out any cooperation with
the Social Democrats.
Most analysts say this trilateral centrist alliance
has by far the best chance of forming the next government.
The current government's popularity plummeted as
unemployment rose this year to a post-Soviet high of 11 percent. Conservative
leaders, in power since 1996, have imposed austerity measures to rein in a yawning
national budget deficit.
Lithuania slipped into recession following the 1998
financial crisis in neighboring Russia, one of the nation's largest export markets.
Analysts say the Baltic state should see positive growth of at least 1 percent this year.
Commentary—David Sepp, sepp_david@hotmail.com. Lithuanians have yet again demonstrated that they are either
extraordinarily brave or extraordinarily scatter-brained. The Conservative-led
government, I understand from your reports, invited China's Parliamentary Speaker Li Peng
to Lithuania for an official visit and then went through what one imagines was the
agonizingly difficult effort to organize it and iron out all the necessary protocol.
Meanwhile, some of the same busy bodies running
around preparing for Li's stay (i.e Vytautas Landsbergis) were simultaneously organizing a
major anti-communist gathering that includes, amazingly, a mock trial of communist crimes
(i.e.Vytautas Landsbergis). And who were among the communist leaders in the dock at this
high-minded mock trial? Li Peng himself, for his starring role in the 1989 Tiananmen
Square massacre.
It all leaves one awestruck. On one hand, who doesn't
think the Chinese deserve to get kicked in the behind as hard and as frequently as
possible for all the misery and death they've inflicted on their hapless subjects, like
the Tibetans. On the other hand, if the Lithuanians were as hungry for Chinese trade and
investment as they insisted they were, did they really not know this was a sure-fire way
to kiss better business links with China goodbye? Surely they did know. Surely this was
all merely an ingenious trap laid by the upstanding Lithuanians for these no-good human
rights abusers, to let them and the rest of the world know that, in Lithuania by God!,
principle comes before business. It couldn't be that the Lithuanians didn't know what they
were in for, that they are so out of touch that the consequences never occurred
them. Say it ain't so.
If you'd like to sound off about any of the news items
addressed in the Weekly Crier—for possible publication here—write
to: "News Editor" at cityp@pb.uninet.ee.
Comments should be no longer than 300 words, and should include a full name and email
address.
News Highlights from August 28-September 4, 2000
In a major diplomatic spat, Estonia moved to
expel two Russian diplomats accused of spying, prompting Russia to retaliate by ousting
two Estonian diplomats, officials in both countries said on August 31.
The two Russian diplomats were given 48 hours to
leave Estonia, though Estonian officials declined to offer names or other details,
including when the notice was given or when the expulsion was carried out.
Local media reports, citing unnamed intelligence
officials, gave the names of the Russian diplomats as Vladimir Telegin and Juri
Radtshenko, employees at Russia's embassy in Tallinn.
The Postimees newspaper said that the two
diplomats were attempting to gather classified information about Estonia's border
defenses.
Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement that
the Estonian ambassador in Moscow was called in and told that two Estonians were being
expelled in response.
Moscow denied its diplomats were spies.
"This is a matter of deliberate provocation,
which inflicts serious damage to Russian-Estonian relations," the Russian statement
said. "We regret that the positive tendency in bilateral relations that has been
observed recently has been sacrificed to the ambitions of the Estonian intelligence
service."
All top Estonian officials refused to speak to
journalists about the incident, saying only that the country never comments about
intelligence matters.
But Trivimi Velliste, a deputy from the ruling
coalition and a former foreign minister, said he didn't believe the affair would
dramatically affect bilateral relations.
"These kinds of things happen from time to time
between countries," he said. "Relations shouldn't suffer if there's no will to
use these incidents to downgrade them. I don't think there is."
Relations between Russia, Estonia and Baltic
neighbors Latvia and Lithuania have occasionally been tense since they regained
independence, and spying allegations have increased.
In June, Russia accused a Lithuanian of trying to
hack into secret Russian computer networks. In March, Moscow said a Russian citizen
charged with spying for Britain was recruited with the help of Estonian intelligence
agents.
Last year, Russia accused Estonian resident Pyotr
Kalachyov of spying near a Russian army base near the Estonian border and expelled him.
Estonian intelligence chief Eerik Kross denied the
allegations at the time. He said Estonia didn't spy on Russia and could get all the
information it needed to monitor developments in Russia from public sources, including the
Internet.
Government and Olympic officials say they are offering cash bonus to athletes who bring
home medals from this month's Sydney Olympic Games.
Latvia will pay 165,000 dollars, 83,000 dollars and
50,000 dollars for gold, silver and bronze respectively, while Lithuania will pay 100,000
dollars, 50,000 dollars and 40,000 dollars.
Estonia's prize money is being put up by its national
Olympic committee, which said it will hand over 65,000 dollars for gold, 45,000 for silver
and 30,000 for bronze.
Estonian government officials said they'd decide
after the Games whether to supplement the prize money, especially if their Olympians
performed better than expected and the national committee suddenly found itself strapped
for cash.
Winning too many medals and having to give away too
much prize money hasn't recently been a problem faced by the three nations, which only
rejoined the Olympics in 1992, a year after their occupation by the Soviet Union
ended.
Between them, the three small countries won fewer
than five medals in the last two Summer Olympics combined, including two bronze medals for
Lithuania's basketball team and a gold medal for Estonian cyclist Erika Salumae.
Baltic athletes won a relatively large number of
medals when they participated in the Games as independent nations in the 1920s and '30s,
and then again when they were forced to don Soviet uniforms during five decades of rule by
Moscow.
All three Baltics hope to win at least one medal each
at this year's Games.
Decathlete Erki Nool, fencer Kaido Kaaberma and judo
star Indrek Pertelson are Estonia's best hopes, while Lithuania's looking for medals from
discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna, rower Birute Sakickiene and cyclists Diana Ziliute and
Edita Pucinskaite. Lithuania also hopes to do well in the basketball competition, though
its chances to medal lessened when star center Arvydas Sabonis decided he wouldn't play
because of a foot injury.
Latvian cyclist Ainars Kiksis and weightlifter
Viktors Serbatihs are thought to have outside chances of winning medals
Chinese Parliamentary Speaker Li Peng will cut short a visit to Lithuania because of a
communist crimes conference taking place at the same time in the Baltic state, media
reported on September 2.
Li was to spend two days in Lithuania starting
September 4, but will now stay for just a few hours because of Chinese anger over the
conference, which is cosponsored by the ruling Conservatives.
The gathering, dubbed the International Congress
on the Evaluation of Communism, will include a mock trial of atrocities committed by
the Soviet Union, China and other communist states last century.
One of the main organizers of the conference is Li
Peng's Lithuanian counterpart and expected host, Parliament Speaker Vytautas Landsbergis,
a fiery anti-communist who has spoken out forcefully in the past against China's
occupation of Tibet.
It was Landsbergis who invited Li to visit Lithuania
to discuss bilateral relations and investment opportunities when the Lithuanian leader was
on a visit to China last year.
At the first session of the conference in June,
Landsbergis said communists who killed or deported opponents should be tried before an
international court of justice in the same way Nazis were after World War II.
Lithuania's reformed communist Democratic Labor Party
has also blasted the conference's mock trial of communism, saying it is a populist ploy by
Conservatives to draw electoral support in October parliamentary elections.
Since regaining independence, Lithuania, more than
almost any other post-communist state, has endeavored to address the legacy of
totalitarian rule, including by passing laws placing job restrictions on former agents of
the Soviet secret police, the KGB.
Some 80 percent of Estonians polled said they don't believe official conclusions about
why the ferry Estonia sank six years ago this month in one of Europe's worst
maritime disasters, local media reported on September 2.
Investigators said the Sept. 28, 1994 tragedy,
which killed 852, occurred when fierce waves broke badly made locks in the bow door,
causing it to fall off and for water to flood the ship. They also said the crew reacted
too slowly.
Critics said the investigation was sloppy and
conspiracy theories, including that a bomb blast may have crippled the vessel, have
abounded. Some relatives of the mostly Swedish and Estonian victims have called for a new
investigation.
Of 400 Estonians questioned by ES Market Research,
78 percent said they didn't accept the 1997 findings of official Estonian, Finnish and
Swedish investigators, reported the Eesti Paevaleht daily, which ordered the
survey.
Sixty-seven percent also said they backed last week's
controversial dive of American Gregg Bemis to the Baltic Sea site of the shipwrecked
ferry, which area governments opposed as a desecration of an officially declared
gravesite.
The poll, which had a margin of error of 4 percent,
was conducted just before the dives got underway. Bemis said on September 1 that he may
have found a previously undiscovered hole in the ship's hull, though he said it required
further study.
In an editorial, Eesti Paevaleht said Swedes
were more likely to believe the official conclusion, though it didn't cite poll results.
It said Estonia's past under Soviet totalitarian rule made it more skeptical of official
findings.
Jaan Metsaveer, one of the investigators, adamantly
defended the official explanation, arguing that laymen sought simplistic answers because
they couldn't understand the technical accounts in the commission's lengthy final
report.
"It was a document that was written for experts,
not for the general public," he was quoted as saying. He said some relatively minor
details about the accident remain unknown, but that the general conclusions still
stood.
Estonia's government also dismissed suggestions that
the dives led by Gregg Bemis last week may have made significant enough discoveries
to justify a new investigation.
"From the government's point of view, we've seen
nothing new," government spokesman Priit Poiklik said. "We don't believe a new
investigation is warranted."
Ander Paeorg, who lost his wife on the Estonia
and opposed the diving expedition, said Bemis got the hopes of relatives up that he would
find something new during his expedition.
"I feel sorry for those people because they were
promised new answers. But I don't believe there will be any new answers," he said.
"Those people will fell badly let down."
Estonia's economy grew 7.5 percent the second quarter of 2000 compared to the same
period last year, more proof Estonia is back on the road to strong growth after a
lackluster 1999, officials said on September 1.
The economy last year slipped into a recession
triggered by 1998 financial turmoil in neighboring Russia; in the second quarter of 1999
it shrank by 2 percent and, for the year overall, contracted by 1 percent.
The first sign of positive growth after the collapse
of Russia's
market, one of Estonia's largest, came in the last quarter of 1999. Four percent growth
that quarter was followed by 5.2 percent growth in the first three months of 2000.
Buoyed by strong exports to Western markets and
increasing consumer demand, analysts say the economy has performed better than expected
and that annual gross domestic product growth for 2000 should be a respectable 4-6
percent.
"These latest growth numbers are encouraging.
The economy's livening up," Daniel Vaarik, spokesman for Estonia's Finance Ministry,
said.
But he warned Estonia had to maintain fiscal
discipline to ensure
economic stability and sustainable growth. He said the center-right
government expected to balance the national budget in 2001, though more spending cuts may
be needed.
If you'd like to sound off about any of the news items
addressed in the Weekly Crier—for possible publication here—write
to: "News Editor" at cityp@pb.uninet.ee.
Comments should be no longer than 300 words, and should include a full name and email
address.
News Highlights from August 21-August 28, 2000
An American-led diving team began a
controversial search on August 22 of the shipwrecked MS Estonia, which sank en route from
Tallinn to Stockholm six years ago in one of Europe's worst ever maritime disasters.
The privately funded expedition was meant to find new
clues about the accident, but regional governments, especially Sweden's, condemned the
dives as a desecration of an officially designated gravesite where 852 died and some 750
bodies remain entombed.
Many victims' relatives, however, say they back the
dive as a way to answer questions still haunting them about exactly why the huge luxury
ferry sank in stormy seas on Sept. 28, 1994.
Ulo Veide, a 62-year-old Estonian whose twin
daughters died on the Estonia, said he is closely monitoring the expedition. He said he's
been waiting for such a mission for five years.
"They speak about disturbing the peace of the
dead. But what about the peace of the living?" he asked. "We deserve answers to
why our children died. It's about time there was an expedition like this."
With Swedish and Finnish coast guard ships looking
on, American-led divers began inspecting the ferry Tuesday and were expected to continue
for at least a week.
Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, Lithuania, Russia
and Britain have declared the site an off-limits sanctuary. But they can't arrest the
divers because the wreckage is in international waters.
Gregg Bemis, an American millionaire leading the dives, dismissed
official appeals to abandoned the mission, saying he's determined to find new information
about why the Estonia went down or confirm official versions of events once and for
all.
Veide and other relatives enthusiastically welcome
the effort, saying they doubt official conclusions that poorly made bow door locks on the
Estonia broke, causing the 50-ton door to crash into the sea and allowing water to rush
onto the car deck.
Veide, whose 24-year-old daughters Hannely and
Hanka-Hannika were at their first day of work on the ferry, suggests a bomb or collision
with a submarine might have sunk the ferry—persistent theories that investigators dismiss as
fantasies.
"We're very thankful to Mr. Bemis. He's doing a
wonderful thing," Veide, a metal works director, said.
Others are less complimentary.
Ander Paeorg, whose wife died in the accident, said
the dive was unnecessary and only brought bitter memories back to the fore.
Witnesses described scenes of horror on the
building-sized Estonia as it sank, with sea-water swirling up stairwells and slot machines
and tables crushing people as they slid across restaurants and dance floors.
"I see my wife in the eyes of my son every day,
so of course I can't forget," said Paeorg. "But I have found a new rhythm in my
life, and so these kind of events, these dives, can be very hurtful."
Paeorg also said he was suspicious about the divers'
motives, saying that vested interests wanted to divert attention away from the bow door
locks, which Paeorg said he accepted was the primary cause of the accident.
He said Germany's Meyer-Werft, which
constructed the locks and faces possible legal action, would be particularly pleased if
Bemis later claims he found proof an explosion.
Film footage is also being taken of the dives which
will later be sold to television stations, prompting critics to ask whether the dive is a
for-profit venture.
Others wondered about the competence of the diving
team, saying they didn't appear to have the expertise or equipment to assess what they
were seeing.
Official investigators based many of their own
findings on 100s of hours of film footage of the Estonia taken within months of the
disaster, and they have stood by their conclusions.
Some survivors say they don't know who to
believe.
Risto Ojassaar, one of just 138 people who managed to
get out of the ship alive as it rolled over and sank to the bottom of the Baltic Sea in 15
minutes, said he hopes Bemis finds something that would shed light on the most terrifying
day of his life.
"But I very much doubt he will," he said.
"I don't think we will
ever know what really happened."
(Also on this site see, How it Happened and Risto Ojassaar's Story,
about the sinking of the Estonia.)
A three-man team of Latvian sailors on August 24 guided their makeshift boat across the
Gulf of Riga to Estonia—the vessel was kept afloat by none other than 20,000 inflated condoms.
The day-long voyage, sponsored by a Latvian-based
condom maker, was a trial run for a possible trip across the Baltic Sea—which would reportedly be the
longest condom-powered voyage of its kind.
The Latvians said the condoms held up well against
the buffeting wind and waves. Several thousand of them did break en route, but the Latvian
vessel was never thought to be in serious danger of going down.
The Latvians said one of the most difficult aspects
of the expedition was blowing up the thousand of contraceptives, which took about a
week.
After months of bitter controversy and years of hard negotiations, the United
States-based NRG Energy signed an agreement on August 25 to buy 49 percent of
Estonia's main power generation plants— in the biggest deal of its kind in Estonian history.
NRG will pay 65 million dollars and 300
million dollars more in investment for the stake, while the government retains a 51
percent share of the two plants, which produce some 95 percent of the nation's
electricity.
The agreement has been highly controversial, inciting
some of the most heated political debates in Estonia since it regained independence in
1991.
Opposition parties say the deal will lead to
unnecessarily high energy prices and is a sell-out of Estonian sovereignty to foreigners.
Other critics say the agreement has been too shrouded in secrecy.
A recent poll by Estonia's EMOR agency
indicated 67 percent of Estonians questioned opposed the sale. Many people have said they
don't understand the complicated, legalistic deal or fear higher energy prices.
The government has emphasized that the deal, which
took four years to hammer out, will enhance national security by more closely enmeshing
Estonian vital interests with American interests.
Officials have defended it as economically sound, but
concede geopolitical factors, and not just economics, were main motivations.
"The government has never said it was an
enormously good deal, but it is necessary now and for the future," said government
spokesman Priit Poiklik, who said parliament would not have to approve the deal.
Backers say it will also draw badly needed capital to
modernize the rundown, Soviet-built stations, which are powered by oil shale. Without
American capital, they say the plants will eventually grind to a halt.
The deal comes as giant energy firms from the United
States, Russia and the Nordics vie for a piece of the Baltic energy sector, which is
restructuring faster than other areas of the former Soviet bloc.
Last year, in a deal that also faced fierce
opposition, Lithuania sold 33 percent of the Mazeikiai Oil refinery to the
U.S.-based Williams International for 150 million dollars and 650 million in
investment.
All three Baltic states are bidding to join the
European Union, which is forcing consolidation and a greater liberalization of their
energy markets.
Under heavy pressure from electricity consumers
worried about price rises, Latvia's parliament earlier this month banned the sale of its
state-owned national power utilities, Latvenergo.
(Also see, in the current September/October
edition of CITY PAPER magazine, an interview with the NRG representative in Estonia,
Hillar Lauri.)
Commentary—Janis
Stavrovs, jstavrovs@nmcable.com.
The bombing last week in a Latvian shopping center in which one person was killed and
more than 30 others were injured was certainly a disturbing event. While it was something
little discussed in the international press, certainly many Latvians first cast their eyes
to Russia when they heard news of the blasts. It may turn out that Russia or Russian
intelligence had nothing to do with the bombing, but one should at least entertain the
notion of Russian involvement. It's a possibility.
Those who remember the early 1990s in the Baltic
states, recall the Kremlin using bombings (usually small-scale ones in which no one was
injured) as a way to portray the Baltics as being out of control, in chaos and therefore
in need of a heavy, steadying hand (the Kremlin). Sure, Russia wouldn't be trying to
justify a crackdown these days. But one could ask: Does or does it not serve Moscow's
purposes to create the impression that Latvia is, at least to some extent, unstable or
unsafe. Diplomats and anyone with any contact with Latvia, knows Latvia is no less stable
than most Western countries, this bombing being highly untypical. But for the masses in
Europe and maybe the United States, these kinds of high-profile incidents only serve to
strengthen the argument in some camps that admitting Latvia, and by association, Estonia
and Lithuania, into NATO is too darn risky. Fostering such impressions plays right into
the hands of the Kremlin, which has said it strongly opposes NATO expansion to the Baltic
states.
Reader Commentary—Stewart Johnson.
NRG's purchase of 49% of Estonia's shale driven power plants is nothing more than
profit-driven, despite claims it will enhance Estonian national security by tying it more
closely to Washington. It is highly possible NRG will shut the plants down sooner
than expected to force Estonia to purchase electricity from other sources more profitable
to them. This possibility is supported by examining U.S. business trends for the past
three decades. NRG spokesman Hillar Lauri has all but admitted that the purchase
would provide no benefits for Estonia in terms of security and quickened entry into NATO
by transferring all responsibility for these security questions to the U.S. embassy.
Anyway, does entry into the European Union and other international organizations really
require selling off all valuable states assets in Estonia to foreigners? Some 300 million
dollars, the amount NRG says it will invest, is not pocket change by US standards,
but it is nowhere near the amount that would make the U.S. government so concerned about
Estonian security that it might plausibly risk a confrontation with Russia.
Lauri also says that NRG would save and create
new jobs in the economically hard-hit Narva area, where the plants are located in the
northeast of Estonia. That's hard to believe. That's just not how U.S. companies work in
this day and age; the emphasis is on streamlining, and this would actually increase the
unemployment rate. I feel the NRG-power plants deal is crooked and unfair to
Estonia.
If you'd like to sound off about any of the news items
addressed in the Weekly Crier—for possible publication here—write
to: "News Editor" at cityp@pb.uninet.ee.
Comments should be no longer than 300 words, and should include a full name and email
address.
News Highlights from August 14-21, 2000
Powerful city-center bombs killed one and
injured at least 34 others in the Latvian capital on August 17—one
of the worst incidents of its kind in the
Baltic state's history.
Two bomb blasts came minutes apart at the Centrs shopping
center in an area where people check in bags while they shop. The early evening explosions
appeared to be professionally planned and designed to injure as many people as possible,
coming at peak shopping hours.
A 53-year-old employee at the check-in area became
the first fatality, dying four days after the attack. She had fractured her skull as she
was thrown violently by the force of the first bomb, said to be the equivalent of a
kilogram of dynamite; she also sustained major burns and lacerations over most of her
body.
Witnesses described scenes of mayhem as the bomb
detonated, cutting through crowds of shoppers and sending people, dazed and bleeding,
stumbling onto the street. Others, including shopping officials, rushed to the scene—only to be injured in the second
explosion ten minutes after the first.
The five-story shopping center, which features
fashion boutiques and specialty stores in the heart of Riga's Medieval-era old town, is
one of Latvia's most popular and busiest malls. After the explosions, Centrs employees
and passersby milled around outside, many in tears or appearing to be in shock.
There were no warnings before the attack, and no one
later called to take responsibility for it.
Police said the possibility the bombings were a
terrorist act was being seriously considered. They said they could also be related to a
business dispute or an attempt at extortion. Others said they couldn't rule out political
motives.
Latvia has seen more than a dozen, mostly minor
bombings since regaining independence 1991. But they have often been linked to gangland
activity; explosions have usually occurred late at night when streets or stores are empty,
and injuries have been rare.
There have been several apparently politically
motivated bombings, including in 1998 when a small explosive went off across the street
from Russia's embassy. Many Latvians said such attacks were designed to give the
appearance of instability in the country and some observers at the time even pointed the
finger at Russian intelligence.
Police said the explosive materials used in
Thursday's shopping center attack may have included hexogen, a nuclear missile
propellant that Russian police said was also the explosive used in the devastating
apartment bombings in Moscow last September.
Riga police said they hoped that security cameras in
the Centrs building might have picked up pictures of those who carried out the
bombing, though some of the monitoring systems were badly damaged by the explosion.
A drawing of one possible suspect—a man of about 40, with dark hair and
blue eyes—was put
together from witness interviews. Police said he left bags at the check in area and left
the building before the explosions occurred.
Those badly injured included Knut Kviskvik,
general-director of the Norwegian-owned Rimi grocery store, which is located right
next to the area where the blasts occurred on the ground floor. He ran to the bag check-in
area after the first blast and was injured when the second bomb went off just meters away.
He was said to be in serious but stable condition.
Another employee who collected bags also suffered
burns over more than 50 percent of her body. She was also said to be in serous but not
life-threatening condition.
Thirty-two others suffered less serious burns and
cuts caused by flying glass and splinters, and still others reported hearing loss from the
sound of the detonations—which shook the ground and rattled the windows of nearby
buildings.
Latvian leaders expressed outrage at the attack and
vowed that authorities would pursue those responsible and bring them to justice. Among
world leaders who sent their official condolences over the attack was Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
Reader Commentary—from David Sepp, David_Sepp@hotmail.com.
Recent news that Latvia has banned the privatization of its energy utility, Latvenergo,
and that many Estonians are incensed by the sale of its main power plants to Americans
goes to show that the pro-West, pro-reform Baltic states also have xenophobic strains. We
tend to hear almost exclusively flowery analyses about these whiz kids of post-communist
reforms, so one could have gotten the impression the that Baltics don't have such
problems. There's no doubt the three Baltic countries have come much farther than their
hapless neighbors, like Russia and Belarus, which have been walking disaster zones when it
comes to reforms. But no one should be surprised that these foreigner-phobic elements also
exist in the Baltics, as they exist almost everywhere in the world.
The question is: Are these threads strong and deep
enough to do real and lasting damage to the solid pro-market reputations the Baltics
generally enjoy? Will it really mean these countries will close in on themselves and keep
American and other international investors at arms length for the sake, supposedly, of
national pride? I'm guessing the answer is no. And as someone who has followed
Baltic economic progress with glee, I'm hoping I'm right.
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News Highlights from August 7-August 14, 2000
Lithuanian officials said on August 7 they
were preparing to publicly expose ex-KGB agents and informers who missed a deadline to
confess their links with the once-mighty Soviet secret police.
More than 1,400 former KGB collaborators came
forward by the deadline, which passed on August 4. But officials said thousands more did
not confess as required by law and many of them could have their names made public within
the month.
Some official estimates put the total number of
former KGB collaborators in Lithuania during Soviet rule, from 1940-1991, as high as
10,000.
According to the KGB law, passed last year, all
ex-agents and informers had six months to file detailed confessions. Those who met the
deadline will have their names kept on a confidential database.
Anyone about to have their name published will
be told in advance and would have a chance to appeal. If the person doesn't appeal or
loses the case, their name would be printed in a state newspaper.
The law supplements earlier legislation banning
ex-agents from most public and some private jobs. Informers also had to register, though
most job restrictions only apply to former KGB employees.
The law's supporters say it's needed to keep
tabs on ex-agents and ensure they are never in a position to sabotage national security.
Other say it addresses the bitter legacy of KGB human rights abuses.
But critics question the motives behind the
law, strongly backed by the ruling Conservatives. Names could be published prior to
October national elections, undermining some parties if any of their members are pegged as
ex-KGB.
Estonia will soon begin setting up one of the world's first country-wide gene banks
where the detailed genetic codes of two-thirds of the population will be stored, the
government said on August 9.
The depository, which will take five years and
200 million dollars to complete, would help scientists link genes to diseases and would
enable Estonians to benefit from personalized, gene-specific drugs in the future,
officials said.
Scientists believe breakthroughs in the study
of genes, which make up the blueprint of how the human body develops, could dramatically
improve knowledge of illnesses and open the way for revolutionary new medications.
Estonia (pop. 1.4 million) says its small size
makes it easier to collect the large number of gene samples required by researchers. The
only other nation that has launched a similar project is Iceland (pop. 270,000).
Estonia's Cabinet on August 8 approved the
project and submitted a bill to parliament limiting access to the gene data to researchers
and forbidding access to employers or insurance firms, government spokesman Priit Poiklik
said.
The project is expected to get fully underway
in 2001, when people will be asked to give blood samples to their family doctors and
provide detailed family medical histories.
Surveys found that 90 percent of Estonians were
willing to take part, meaning the genes of at least 1 million people would be stored, said
Andres Rannamae, head of Estonia's Genome Foundation which drew up the project
details.
Estonians, who say their country hasn't
developed a strong enough industrial base since regaining independence from the Soviet
Union in 1991, hope the gene-bank program will also help spur the growth of a dynamic
biotechnology sector.
"With other companies that will spring up
around this project, the biotech industry here could boom by ten fold in just a few
years," said Rannamae.
At least half of the funding is expected to
come from business sources, including firms which would buy rights to access and later
profit from Estonia's storehouse of gene research. Other funds would be provided by the
government.
Despite strong privacy rules in the government
draft bill, critics warn that that the genetic information, possibly indicating someone is
prone to a debilitating illness, could still be leaked to employers or insurance
companies.
Others argue that costs of the project are too
high and that money would be more effectively spent on improving the nation's ailing
post-Soviet medical system or funding advertising campaigns to stem high alcohol and
cigarette use.
"Estonian living and health standards
aren't so high that we can afford such expensive projects as this," Tiina Tasmuth, a
medical
professor in wrote recently in Estonia's Postimees daily.
But advocates say any costs or potential risks
are outweighed by the benefits and by the chance for the country to leave its mark.
"This is a rare chance for Estonia to make
scientific history," Rannamae, of the Genome Foundation, said.
Lithuania's ruling Conservatives seem destined for a resounding defeat in upcoming
parliamentary elections, drawing less than five percent support in a poll released on
August 8.
The party's popularity has waned thanks to a
struggling economy, including a jobless rate of over 10 percent. Belt tightening measures
by the government and unpopular privatizations have also hurt the Conservatives.
The poll, conducted by the Baltijos Tyrimai
agency, said the Conservatives were supported by just 3.6 percent of respondents, meaning
the party's four year-reign is almost certainly coming to an end.
Elections to the 141-seat parliament are slated
for October 8. Parties must pass a five percent threshold to win seats in the legislature.
The center-left New Union, which is led by
former prosecutor and one-time presidential candidate Arturas Paulaskas, scored best in
the poll, drawing 16.5 percent support.
The reformed Communists, the Democratic Labor
Party, registered 6.8 percent support, and the Liberal Union, headed by former Prime
Minister Rolandas Paksas, received 6.9 percent. The Center Union had 5.5 percent.
There appeared to be room for poll numbers to
change in the coming weeks, however, with 19 percent of those polled saying they were
still undecided about how to vote. Another 17.8 percent said they didn't plan on casting
ballots at all.
The same poll also indicated that the top four
politicians in the country were President Valdas Adamkus, former President Algirdas
Brazauskas, Arturas Paulaskas and Rolandas Paksas—in that order.
The two highest-profile leaders of the
Conservatives, Prime Minister Andrius Kubulius and Speaker Vytautas Landsbergis, didn't
even make it into the top-twenty list of Lithuania's most popular politicians.
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News Highlights from July 31 to August
7, 2000
A main motivation behind a recent to decision
to sell a stake of Estonia's power stations to Americans was to boost national security,
Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar wrote in an article published on August 4.
Estonia, which has security concerns vis-a-vis
neighboring Russia, agreed to sell a 49 percent stake in the plants to the U.S.-based NRG
Energy for 55 million dollars and 361 million more in investment.
Opposition parties blasted the deal, saying it would
lead to unnecessarily high energy prices. They also said the sale of the plants, which
produce 95 percent of the country's electricity, would jeopardize Estonian sovereignty.
But writing in Estonia's Postimees daily, Laar
said the controversial deal was not only sound economically, but would enhance national
security by more closely enmeshing Estonia's vital interests with those of the United
States.
"The NRG investment will guarantee an
American presence here...ensuring that the only superpower in the world will have a
continued interest in the stability and fast development of our region," he wrote.
"Who could be a better advocate (for Estonia) in
the U.S. government than a company which seeks a profit in this region," said Laar,
who also criticized the center-left opposition for what he said were displays of
disturbing xenophobia in opposing the deal.
He said the price of electricity, which NRG
energy will be allowed to raise by over 20 percent, shouldn't be the only criteria by
which to judge the deal.
"The price you pay for security can never be too
high," he said. "It is a price that is assessed in human lives—not kilowatt hours."
Backers of the agreement say it will also draw badly
needed capital to modernize the rundown, Soviet-built stations, which are powered by oil
shale. Without American capital, they say the plants will eventually grind to a halt.
The government said a few days earlier that the deal,
in which the state would keep a 51 percent share, was virtually sealed and that intense
opposition from some parties and business groups would not be able to stop it from going
through.
The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based NRG, a world
leader in the power generation sector, has not made national security an explicit benefit
of selling the utilities to them.
But if the plants fall into disrepair, NRG warned
that one of Estonia's only options would be to turn for electricity to Russia, a nation
Estonia has been anxious to distance itself from—including by seeking membership in NATO.
Energy issues also took center stage in Latvia, where parliament on August 3 voted to
ban the privatization of Latvia's state-owned energy utility, the nation's largest
company.
Responding to widespread public sentiment against
its sale, the 100-seat Saeima convened a special session in the middle of its
summer recess to approve the legislation by a 50-to-22 vote; 21 deputies abstained, and
seven were either absent or didn't vote.
Opposition parties solidly supported the bill, but
several pro-government parliamentarians also backed it. The government said it opposed the
ban.
Critics of privatizing the utility, called Latvenergo,
say it's the backbone of the economy and so should be kept in state hands.
Successive governments have talked about privatizing Latvenergo.
But disputes over sale terms—frequently within the ruling coalitions themselves—have continually thrown the
process off track.
Thursday's vote is a setback for the government,
which had earlier said it planned to auction off a 49 percent stake in the utility.
But government officials said the ban wouldn't
preclude the privatization of Latvenergo in the long run. They said they would wait
until emotions over the issue subsided before they revisit the issue.
Anti-privatization groups circulated a petition in
recent months calling for a referendum on banning the sale of Latvenergo. Some
300,000 people signed the petition—emboldening the opposition to go forward with Thursday's vote.
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address.
News Highlights July 24-July 31, 2000
Controversy has erupted over the sale of
Estonia's main energy plants to Americans—with opponents of the deal on July 25 attempting to turn up
the heat on the government and the U.S investors.
The government last month agreed to sell a 49 percent
stake in the two power stations to the Minnesota-based NRG Energy for 55 million
dollars and 361 million more in investment to revamp the Soviet-built utilities.
The state-owned Estonian Energy would retain a
51 percent share of the installations, which burn oil shale to produce some 95 percent of
Estonia's electricity.
Negotiators for the government and NRG say
they hope they'll be able to sign a final agreement next month; it would also need to be
approved by parliament.
But the NRG deal has angered opposition
parties and also many local business leaders who say the desire to cozy up to the United
States for national security reasons has led the government to accept unfavorable economic
terms.
In one of the largest rallies in Estonia in recent
years, some 1500 people denounced the deal outside parliament Tuesday, saying it forfeit
Estonian sovereignty. "The government's sold the state, it's sold us," one
placard read.
Opposition deputies on July 25 also returned from
their summer recess to try to force through a special session of the 101-seat Riigikogu
parliament to debate the sale, but they fell four seats short of the 51 necessary for a
quorum.
Critics have focused on provisions allowing NRG
to raise the price of electricity by some 20 percent over the next few years. Opponents
say higher electricity bills will hurt the poor and slash profits of many Estonian firms.
The opposition has launched a campaign against the
deal, including ads showing a man sitting in a jail-like room under a
switched-off lightbulb—his hands tied behind his back: "Is this what we wanted?," the ad text
says.
But backers say the sale to NRG is the only
sure way to draw
desperately needed capital to modernize the rundown stations and to make the plants, which
spew tons of sulfur dioxide into the air daily, more environmentally friendly.
Another decisive benefit, they say, is that the deal
will enhance Estonian national security by enmeshing the economic interests of this Baltic
state with the United States.
NRG also adamantly defends the sale.
Hillar Lauri, NRG's representative in Estonia,
said that without the capital the Americans were able to scrape together and invest, the
aging plants would continue to deteriorate and could eventually grind to a halt.
"These plant are crumbling," Lauri said,
speaking Monday at NRG's office in Tallinn. "We will be able to guarantee that
electricity will be there when needed. There's no such guarantee today."
Lauri said local investors have neither the
experience to carry out the complicated restructuring nor the access to big capital the
project will require.
He also said the price rises envisioned by NRG
were moderate and necessary to ensure the plants can reinvest profits into repairs that
have been put off since Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
If the plants fall into disrepair, Lauri said one of
Estonia's only options would be to turn for electricity to neighboring Russia, a nation
Estonia has been anxious to distance itself from—including by seeking membership in NATO.
"Do you want to depend on Russia? That's the
question. That's your alternative," he said.
Andres Tarand, a leader in the three-party ruling
coalition and once a skeptic of the NRG deal himself, said he now see that the NRG
deal is the best offer on the table.
"Now I believe that the NRG deal is the
least of evils," Tarand was quoted as telling Monday's Postimees daily.
"We don't have that many choices."
A leading industrialist, Viru Mine director Gennady Gribovsky, was murdered on
July 22 , police reported Monday.
The 60-year-old, who headed the oil-shale mining firm
for over 10 years, was shot three times by an unknown assailant outside his apartment in
Johvi, 175 kilometers east of Estonia's capital, Tallinn.
Investigators were looking into the possibility that
the killing was family related or linked to illegal business activity, regional police
chief Alexander Zhegulov told Eesti Paevaleht.
"He is known to have been involved with some
illegal business
activity, but just what that was isn't yet clear," Zhegulov was quoted as
saying.
A former co-worker of Gribovsky's, Vaino Viilup,
doubted the
suggestions.
"We were former colleagues and also neighbors,
and I certainly never noticed anything suspicious in his behavior or activities,"
Viilup was quoted as saying. "Gribovsky was one of Estonia's best industrial
leaders."
Viru Mine, one of Estonia's largest industrial
concerns, extracts the bulk of Estonia's rich deposits of oil shale, which is used to
generate the country's power stations.
News Highlights from July 24-17, 2000
Police say they believe one of Lithuania's
wealthiest men, oil tycoon Gediminas Kiesus, has been kidnapped—though they still have very few leads in the case.
Kiesus, 45, disappeared two weeks ago along with his
20-year-old son Valdas and his driver, Alfonsas Galminas, 38. They were thought to be
driving at the time from Vilnius to the coastal city of Mazeikiai.
The luxury Mercedes in which they were traveling was
later found in Vilnius, unlocked and with the keys in the ignition. Police said there were
no signs that there had been a struggle.
Police said they hoped the three men were still
alive, but left open the possibility that they had been murdered.
No ransom has been sought, though 25,000 dollars was
withdrawn from an ATM machine using the businessman's credit card a day after he vanished.
Desperate for leads, police have also consulted
professional psychics for hints about the whereabouts of the men.
Kiesus headed Mazeikiai Oil until state-owned
shares in the refinery were sold to the U.S.-based Williams last year. Since then,
he has continued to be involved in the oil business.
Moscow said on June 21 it would have a new early-warning radar up by the end of the
year to replace the station in Skrunda, Latvia, which Russia turned over to Latvia last
year.
The radar will be in Baranovichi, in neighboring
Belarus. Russia has said the lack of a radar in the region has left its western flank
vulnerable. Western experts also have expressed concern that a weakened air defense system
increased the chances of dangerous false nuclear-attack alarm.
Russia handed control of Skrunda over to Latvia on
October 21, 1999, formally ending its resented, half-century military presence in the
Baltic states.
From 1971 until the radar was switched off, Skrunda
was a key component in Russia’s air-defense network, responsible for scanning the
western skies for any incoming missiles.
In the years after the Baltic states regained
independence in 1991, virtually all Russia’s bases were abandoned and its troops
withdrawn. But as part of a its pullout treaty with Moscow and at the urging of Western
governments, Latvia grudgingly agreed in 1994 to let Russia operate the Skrunda radar for
four more years.
Russia switched the radar off in 1998, then had
18 months more to dismantle it.
Lithuania's parliament has begun discussing a bill calling for the reconstruction of
the Vilnius Jewish quarter, a major center of European Jewish life before the 1941-44 Nazi
occupation.
The proposal aims to restore some ghetto
buildings that fell into disrepair over the past 60 years and completely rebuild
others.
The project, including rebuilding the entire Great
Synagogue dynamited by the Nazis, would require foreign donations. Drafters of the bill
refused to estimate final costs, saying only that Lithuania couldn't cover them alone.
Lithuanian, French and Israeli architects—consulting detailed pre-war maps of the Jewish quarter—have already discussed how to carry out the plans. If the
legislation passes, some work could begin as soon as December.
Proponents say the rebuilt ghetto would help maintain
a key part of the nation's heritage and would also be a major tourist attraction, drawing
tens of thousands of Jews around the world who trace their roots back to Lithuania.
Before World War II, Vilnius was a hub of Jewish
culture, learning and political activism. Many people at the time referred to Vilnius,
home of many influential rabbis and leading Zionists, as the "Jerusalem of the
North."
The ghetto, with its close-knit, 17th century
buildings and narrow cobblestone streets, was also home to leading Jewish theaters,
thriving Jewish publishing houses and the acclaimed Yiddish Institute of Higher
Learning.
But during the Nazi occupation, the district was
circled by
barbed wire fences and became a holding center for most of the city's 60,000 Jews.
Virtually all the detainees were later executed by Nazi killing squads in a nearby forest.
News Highlights from July 10-July 17,
2000
One young man was killed and another badly
injured on July 12 when an explosive they found at an abandoned Soviet military base went
off, Latvian police said.
A 21-year-old died in the blast and his
15-year-old companion received severe burns, shrapnel wounds in the chest and a broken
arm, according to Latvian state police spokesman Krists Leskalns.
Leskalns said investigators were still determining
whether the explosion at the site in Cekule—some 30 kilometers from Latvia's capital, Riga—was caused by an artillery
shell or by some other type of military device.
The men entered the fenced-off base without
permission, possibly to find scrap metal to sell; curiosity seekers also often enter the
area, police said.
Regional authorities have earlier appealed to the
government to clean up the installation, now under the jurisdiction of the Latvian army,
but action has been prevented by a lack of sufficient funds.
The Cekule military base was one of hundreds
abandoned by withdrawing Russian troops in the years after Latvia and the other two Baltic
states, Estonia and Lithuania regained independence.
Virtually all troops withdrew from the Baltics by
1994, but they left behind thousands of discarded shells and other potentially deadly
materials. Unexploded bombs were also left over from fighting during World War II.
Last year in Estonia, a girl was killed during a
school excursion after a classmate placed a World War II bomb into a camp fire, setting it
off. Months later, six teen-agers were injured in Latvia when they tried to hack open a
Soviet-era army explosive with an ax, causing it to explode.
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said on July 13 that he would appeal to the United
States to resume searching for a Lithuanian ship that sailed into a hurricane in the
Pacific Ocean last month and disappeared.
During a meeting with family members of the missing
18-member Lithuanian crew, Adamkus promised he would broach the issue with U.S. rescue
services, according to the president's spokeswoman, Violeta Gaizauskaite.
"The families think there's hope their
loved-ones are alive. So the president felt he had to act," she said, adding the
meeting in the presidential palace was emotional and that family members were still deeply
traumatized.
The official said the request shouldn't imply
Lithuanian criticism of the rescue effort, led by the U.S. Coast Guard. After a
week-long search, rescuers said they presumed the Lithuanian-owned ship sank and its crew
all perished.
"We have no criticism of the rescue work,"
she said. "But you can imagine the feelings of the families. They have hope and they
believe that such a country as the United States has possibilities to do even more."
While two empty liferafts, several buffer tires and
an oar thought to be from the ship were recovered, no bodies, wreckage or signs that some
sailors might have survived were ever found.
The Coast Guard lost contact with the
101-meter Linkuva at midnight on June 20 as it sailed near the eye of Hurricane
Carlotta and lost engine power; at the time, sustained winds were 240 kph in the area.
The ship, on its way to California to refuel before
heading to pick up its cargo in Canada, was 354 kilometers southwest of the Pacific resort
of Acapulco when radio contact was lost, Coast Guard officials said.
The rescue mission was officially called off on June
29.
Latvia and Australia on July 14 signed a long-awaited extradition treaty that is seen
as a turning point in efforts to bring alleged Nazi Konrads Kalejs back to his Latvian
homeland to face war crimes charges.
Jewish groups and Nazi hunters say Kalejs, 86, was a
key figure in the Arajs Kommando, a Nazi-sponsored death squad believed to be
responsible for the murder of 30,000 people, mostly Latvian Jews, during the 1941-44
German occupation.
Kalejs, who denies the allegations, hasn't been
indicted as
prosecutors have said the investigation is ongoing. But they said this month they hoped to
bring charges soon, but also warned a final decision could take several more months.
"These cases should be investigated very
carefully and we should proceed only from facts, not from emotions," a cautious
Rudite Abolina, Latvia's lead prosecutor in the investigation, told journalists after the
treaty was signed.
The signing of the treaty cleared a major obstacle to
deporting the Melbourne, Australia resident, but an indictment would have to be handed
down before Kalejs could be put on a plane for Latvia, according to the treaty.
Signed by Justice Minister Ingrida Labucka and
Australian Ambassador to the Baltic states Stephen Brady, it still requires parliamentary
approval. But backing for the treaty is strong and it's expected to take effect by year's
end.
"The government of Australia is committed to the
pursuit of war criminals using all appropriate means. The best means is extradition by the
appropriate country," Ambassador Brady said.
Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff, of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, also welcomed the agreement, but said it needed to be used by Australia and
Latvia without delay to bring the elderly Kalejs to court.
"It's a step forward. But the onus is on the
parties to give the treaty practical effect," he said in a phone interview from
Jerusalem. "The critical moment has arrived."
Other alleged Nazis have died or become incapacitated
before trial proceedings against them could get underway, and so speed was now of the
essence, according to Zuroff.
"Every day that goes by without action only
brings Kalejs closer to evading justice," he said.
Kalejs was deported from the United States and Canada
in the 1990s for lying about his Nazi past. Earlier this year, he fled to his adopted
country of Australia after Nazi hunters tracked him to a retirement home in England.
Kalejs would be the first alleged Nazi to face a
Latvian court on genocide charges since 1991.
Analysis—It’s
official. The Baltic states have put the economic turmoil of the past few years behind
them, according to a recent report by the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development. The Baltic states, it said, are back on the road to positive growth
after lackluster performances in 1999.
Growth fell in the region mainly because of the
financial collapse in 1998 in neighboring Russia, which is still a major Baltic trading
partner. Economic tremors there also coincided with instability in Far East markets and
also lukewarm economic performance in Western Europe.
The Baltic states and the 23 other nations in the
former Soviet bloc all recovered faster than expected and all would see positive growth in
2000, the EBRD said. Estonian growth should rise from minus 1.4 percent in 1999 to
4 percent in 2000; Latvian growth was expected to go up from .1 percent to 3 percent, and
Lithuania’s from minus 4 percent to 1 percent. Other analysts have put
anticipated 2000 growth at a percentage or two higher
in Estonia and Latvia.
Below is a compilation of the key economic statistics
for the three Baltic states going back to 1992 and projecting to the end of 2000:
Estonia
GDP Growth
2000 4.0 percent (estimate)
1999 –1.4 percent
1998 4.7 percent
1997 10.6 percent
1996 3.9 percent
1995 4.3 percent
1994 –2.0 percent
1993 –9.0 percent
1992 –14.2 percent
GDP per capita (in dollars)
2000 na
1999 3.532
1998 3.607
1997 3.187
1996 2.982
1995 2.405
1994 1.530
1993 1.084
1992 707
Annual Inflation (consumer prices)
2000 4.5 percent (estimate)
1999 3.3 percent
1998 8.2 percent
1997 11.2 percent
1996 23.1 percent
1995 29.0 percent
1994 47.7 percent
1993 89.8 percent
1992 1.076 percent
Average Monthly Wage
1999 265 dollars
Unemployment
1999 10 percent (Estonian officials put the figure four or fives points lower)
Top Five Investors (by country in 1999)
1. Sweden
2. Finland
3. United States
4. Denmark
5. Norway
Top Five Export Markets (percent of total exports, 1999)
1. Finland 19.4 percent
2. Sweden 18.8 percent
3. Russia 9.2 percent
4. Latvia 8.7 percent
5. Germany 7.5 percent
Latvia
GDP Growth
2000 3.0 percent (estimate)
1999 0.1 percent
1998 3.9 percent
1997 8.6 percent
1996 3.3 percent
1995 –0.8 percent
1994 0.6 percent
1993 –14.9 percent
1992 –34.9 percent
GDP per capita (in dollars)
2000 na
1999 2.581
1998 2.485
1997 2.291
1996 2.099
1995 1.777
1994 1.440
1993 847
1992 576
Annual Inflation (consumer prices)
2000 4.0 percent (estimate)
1999 2.4 percent
1998 4.7 percent
1997 8.4 percent
1996 17.6 percent
1995 25.0 percent
1994 35.9 percent
1993 109.2 percent
1992 951. 2 percent
Average Monthly Wage
1999 230 dollars
Unemployment
1999 13 percent (officials put the figure slightly slower)
Top Five Investors (by country in 1999)
1. Denmark
2. United States
3. Sweden
4. Germany
5. Russia
Top Five Export Markets (percent of total exports, 1999)
1. Germany 16.9 percent
2. Great Britain 16.4 percent
3. Sweden 10.7 percent
4. Lithuania 7.5 percent
5. Russia 6.6 percent
Lithuania
GDP Growth
2000 1.0 percent (estimate)
1999 – 4.1 percent
1998 5.1 percent
1997 7.3 percent
1996 4.7 percent
1995 3.3 percent
1994 –9.8 percent
1993 – 16.2 percent
1992 – 21.3 percent
GDP per capita (in dollars)
2000 na
1999 2.884
1998 2.901
1997 2.588
1996 2.129
1995 1.623
1994 1.143
1993 716
1992 374
Annual Inflation (consumer prices)
2000 2.2 percent (estimate)
1999 0.8 percent
1998 5.1 percent
1997 8.9 percent
1996 24.6 percent
1995 39.6 percent
1994 72.1 percent
1993 410.4 percent
1992 1.020.5 percent
Average Monthly Wage
1999 250 dollars
Unemployment
1999 14 percent
Top Five Investors (by country in 1999)
1. Sweden
2. United States
3. Finland
4. Denmark
5. Germany
Top Five Export Markets (percent of total exports, 1999)
1. Germany 15.0 percent
2. Latvia 12.7 percent
3. Russia 6.8 percent
4. Denmark 6.3 percent
5. Belarus 5.9 percent
Source: Mostly EBRD; Baltic statistics departments/surveys for unemployment rates,
wages, investors, export markets.
The Weekly Crier Archives
—CITY PAPER-The Baltic States
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