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News highlights from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

News Highlights from November 16-November 23, 1998

• The Latvian politician asked to put together a government after elections last month says he has failed to woo the largest party in Latvia’s parliament and will have to settle on the formation of a minority government.
          Vilis Kristopans announced on November 19 that his coalition government would include two centrist parties, his own Latvia’s Way and the New Party, plus the right-wing Fatherland and Freedom.
          But the proposed government does not include the center-right People’s Party, which has the largest number of seats in the 100-seat Latvian parliament, or Saeima, with 23.
          When Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis named Kristopans as his candidate for prime minister earlier this month, the president said a government with a clear, stable majority would be best for Latvia. Reports said President Ulmanis wanted the People’s Party included.
          But coalition talks with the People’s Party broke down because of sharp personality clashes between Kristopans and People’s Party leader Andris Skele.
          "I don’t see today that the People’s Party can be fully trusted," Kristopans told journalists after proposing his coalition government.
          Combined, the three would-be government parties control just 46 seats in the 100-seat Latvian legislature, or Saeima, and they would have to secure the support of parties outside the coalition in order to win parliamentary approval.
          Kristopans said he would likely seek the support of the leftist Social Democrats, who have 14 legislative seats, possibly by offering them several ministerial posts.
          But Fatherland and Freedom has opposed cooperation with the Social Democrats, whose leaders include former high-ranking communists.
          Kristopans, a member of Latvia’s Way, also said he rejected a request by Fatherland and Freedom that it be handed the post of foreign minister.
          Kristopans said a top priority of his government would be improving relations with Russia, and he said Fatherland and Freedom wouldn’t be able to achieve that goal.
          All three parties in the proposed coalition broadly agree on the need to maintain free-market reforms, and they all say NATO and European Union membership should remain top Latvian priorities.
          A vote on the new government is expected after Kristopans names specific ministerial candidates this week.

• Estonia’s government said on November 20 that it opposes a Swedish proposal to recover hundreds of bodies trapped inside the Estonia ferry that sank in 1994.
          Government press spokesman Daniel Vaarik said the decision to oppose the proposal, made last week by a Swedish government appointed panel, took into account overwhelming opposition to the idea in Estonia.
          "Our decision is based on the opinions of the relatives of victims, of religious leaders and opinion makers here," he said. "There was very strong opposition everywhere."
          In an official statement, the Estonian government said it wanted a 1995 agreement between Sweden, Finland and Estonia declaring the shipwreck a sanctuary to remain in effect.
          "This agreement and other legal acts that proceed from it stipulate that the wreck and its surroundings must remain the last resting place of the victims," the Friday statement said. "The Estonian government does not consider it necessary to change this trilateral agreement."
          Estonian President Lennart Meri also opposed the body-retrieval plan, saying it runs counter to the seafaring traditions of Estonia.
          "The place where a person has had his life taken by the sea is just as sacred as any graveyard next to a church," Meri told journalists.
          The building-sized ferry that bore this country’s name sank in a 1994 storm en route from Tallinn to Stockholm. Over 800 people died, including 280 Estonians. Only 137 people survived.
          The Swedish body that made the recommendation said it widely consulted survivors and family members of ferry victims and that the majority supported the plan to recover bodies entombed in the ship.
          But that hasn’t been the prevailing opinion in Estonia, where the Swedish proposal has prompted widespread dismay and outrage.

• A court has sentenced a prominent Lithuanian legislator and former Defense Minister Audrius Butkevicius to five and a half years in prison for corruption.
          The 38-year-old Butkevicius was found guilty on November 18 of taking a 15,000-dollar bribe from a Lithuanian oil company in exchange for a promise to use his connections to have a suit against the firm dropped.
          Butkevicius, an independent MP, has already spent 13 months in prison awaiting the conclusion of his trial and that time will be subtracted from his sentence.
          During Lithuania’s drive for independence from Moscow, Butkevicius was considered a hero by many for organizing the defense of Lithuania’s parliament when Soviet troops threatened to attack it in January 1991. He also played a major role in setting up the Lithuanian national army in the early days after the country regained independence.

• Maroon and white national flags fluttered from homes and buildings across Latvia on November 18 as the country celebrated 80 years since first declaring independence.
          "Everyone, in every corner of Latvia, sees this as a most important day in our history," Latvian Foreign Ministry spokesman Toms Baumanis said from Riga. "It’s a very big day."
          Celebrations included a military parade, concerts and a firework display along Riga’s Daugava River, where tens of thousands of people gathered.
          The presidents of Estonia and Lithuania also traveled to Latvia to take part in the festivities. National flags also flew across Estonia and Lithuania in honor of Latvia’s independence anniversary.
          Following centuries under German, Swedish, Polish and Russian rule, Latvia declared independence on Nov. 18, 1918, securing its freedom two years later after battling both Russian and German forces.
          But after just two decades of independence, Latvia was occupied and forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union at the outbreak of World War II. It only regained its independence in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
          Baumanis said Latvian living standards during the nation’s first period of independence quickly caught up with and even surpassed living standards in countries like Sweden and Finland.
          "But after decades of Soviet rule we had to start all over again," he said. "We’ve had to build up our state twice this century, 80 years ago and then again seven years ago."
          Latvia has implemented tough free-market reforms since breaking with Moscow and its economy has recently seen strong growth. But living standards in Latvia, where many people earn less than 200 dollars a month, still fall far below standards anywhere in western Europe.
          On the eve of the independence celebrations, Latvian Foreign Minister Valdis Birkavs called for improved relations with Moscow, telling a seminar in Riga that "Latvia is interested in engaging Russia in dialogue."

News Highlights from November 9-November 16, 1998

• Estonian prosecutors have indicted a former official of the Soviet secret police for his alleged role in deporting hundreds of Estonians during the Stalinist era, Estonia’s media reported November 9.
          Mikhail Neverovsky, 78, is accused of ordering the deportation of 278 Estonians in 1949 when he was a top official of the NKVD, a predecessor of the KGB.
          He is charged with crimes against humanity, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
          After the Soviet Union occupied Estonia during World War II, tens of thousands of Estonians were deported by Soviet forces. Most were shipped in train wagons to Siberia, where many deportees died in harsh conditions.
          Charges related to Stalinist-era crimes are also pending against Vasily Bleskov, 80, and Vladimir Loginov, 73. The trial of 77-year-old Johannes Klaassepp, also accused of taking part in deportations, began in May.
          Two other men suspected of crimes against humanity during the Soviet period, Vassili Riis and Idel Jakobson, died before their cases reached the courts.

• If Lithuania hopes to join the European Union, it must set a date for the closure of its Chernobyl-type power station, the president of the European Parliament said during a visit to Vilnius this past week.
          Jose Maria Gil-Robles said Lithuania would not be required to close its Soviet-built Ignalina atomic power plant before starting talks on EU membership but would have to set a firm timetable for its closure.
          Since Lithuania regained independence in 1991, it has made full EU membership a No. 1 foreign policy goal. It was hoping to start talks on membership as soon as next year.
          But there has been increasing speculation in Lithuania that the Ignalina power plant could be a main obstacle to joining the EU. Even with safety upgrades in recent years, many environmentalists say Ignalina, located some 130 kilometers northeast of Vilnius, remains a potential danger.
          The statement by the European Parliament president was the clearest indication from a leading European politician that there is a link between Ignalina and Lithuania’s EU aspirations.
          Some Lithuanian officials have said they would like to see one of the plant's two RBMK reactors shut down within 10 years and the other within 20 years, but the government has not committed itself to closing Ignalina.
          The plant supplies over 80 percent of Lithuania's energy needs and many government officials have said costs of closing the plant and developing new energy sources are prohibitive. Western experts have suggested that total costs could amount to more than 4 billion dollars.

• Estonians have widely opposed a proposal to retrieve the bodies of their countrymen who perished on the ill-fated MS Estonia, saying the plan runs counter to their nation’s seafaring traditions.
          Reacting to the proposal made November 12 by a Swedish government-appointed panel, Estonian President Lennart Meri said Estonians regarded sites of shipwrecks as holy places that should not be disturbed.
          "The place where a person has had his life taken by the sea is just as sacred as any graveyard next to a church," Meri told journalists in Tallinn.
          Estonia’s government did not immediately adopt an official position on the body-recovery proposal, but did name Minister of Transport Raivo Vare to study the question.
          But commentaries in Estonian newspapers widely echoed the president’s opposition to any recovery of bodies still entombed inside the building-sized ferry that bore the country’s name.
          "The sacredness of sea graves has been part of the seafaring traditions of Estonians and also Swedes for centuries and there is no reason to change these traditions now," Estonia’s Postimees daily said in an editorial.
          The ferry Estonia sank in a 1994 storm en route from Tallinn to Stockholm. Over 800 people died, including 280 Estonians. Only 137 people survived.
          Postimees said any attempt to find and recover the some 700 bodies still missing comes as many Estonians were beginning to come to terms with the tragedy.
          "There is no urgent need to now rip open the wounds of the victims’ families who have only recently dried their tears of mourning," the daily wrote.
          The Swedish panel, whose recommendation is not binding on the Stockholm government, said as many bodies as possible should be recovered by divers. The panel said raising the entire ship would be technically possible but extremely expensive, at around 12 million dollars.
          Panelists said they widely consulted survivors and family members of ferry victims, saying the recommendation was supported by the majority of them. A Swedish newspaper said some 70 percent of victims’ relatives in Sweden have expressed support for raising the bodies.
          But that didn’t seem to be the prevailing opinion in Estonia.
          Estonia’s Eesti Paeveleht daily reported that a 1996 poll of relatives of Estonian ferry victims found that some 80 percent opposed retrieving bodies from the wreck.
          The mother of Avo Piht, an off-duty ship captain who went down with the ferry, said many family members would have supported a plan to recover the bodies in the months after the accident.
          "But it wouldn’t be right to do it now, over four years later," Eesti Paeveleht quoted Meira Piht as saying. "If they raised the bodies of loved-ones now, it wouldn’t even be possible to recognize them anymore."

• Proud European Union faces turned to embarrassed shades of red after a special bus meant to promote the all-mighty European club broke down on an Estonian country road.
          The bus, painted in the color and stars of the EU flag and carrying assorted VIPs, was traveling across Estonia late last week to raise awareness about the elite European organization.
          But, according to Estonian dailies, the promotional tour went wrong when the bus developed a mechanical problem and ground to a halt, forcing the EU dignitaries to miss a scheduled town meeting in the central Estonian city of Paide, where a band and assorted other festivities awaited them.
          Most Estonians support EU membership, but some skeptics say the Brussels-based organization is too bureaucratic and will stifle Estonian economic and cultural development.

• More than a dozen freight tanks carrying diesel fuel derailed near Riga and burst into flames on November 11, though the fire was later brought under control.
          Investigators said a faulty wheel caused one of the train cars to slip off the railway, which then forced 32 out of 55 fuel tanks to tumble off an embankment. Fourteen of the tanks then caught fire.
          No injuries were reported, but a task force lead by Latvian Environment Minister Anatolijs Gorbunovs was called in to assess the environmental damage, including many tons of spilled oil.
          The accident near the town of Vecumnieki, about 45 kilometers south of the Latvian capital, occurred in the early morning. Firefighters had largely contained the blaze by midday.
          The train was carrying hundreds of tons of diesel fuel refined in Russia and Belarus to the Latvian port of Ventspils, where it was to be exported.

• Estonian officials cut the sole water supply to the Russian border town of Ivangorod for non-payment of bills on November 10, then allowed the water to begin flowing again two days later.
          The decision to switch the water back on followed urgent talks by telephone between Estonian Prime Minister Mart Siimann and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko, who promised that Moscow would begin paying at least part of Ivangorod’s $1.2 million debt.
          But officials in the nearby Estonian city of Narva, where the area’s main water utility is located, said it wasn’t clear Russia had agreed to pay the entire debt and so it was only releasing 25 percent of Ivangorod’s normal water capacity.
          The Narva Water Company said it initially turned off the water supply to Ivangorod because the town of 12,000 had not paid its bill for more than a year.
          After its water was shut off, Ivangorod made desperate appeals to the Russian and Estonian governments, saying it would have to implement water rationing and may also have to shut down the town’s water-reliant heating system.
          Ivangorod and Narva, about 200 kilometers east of Tallinn, have had a common water system since before World War II, when Ivangorod (then called Jaanilinn) was part of Estonia. After Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, their infrastructures became more intertwined. With the Soviet collapse in 1991, Ivangorod came under the jurisdiction of Russia and Narva remained part of Estonia.
          While Narva has seen strong growth under Estonia’s radical market reforms, Ivangorod has fallen into near-economic ruin under Russia. Officials in Ivangorod say city coffers are empty and that they haven’t been able to secure additional funds from Moscow.
          Estonia’s Eesti Paeveleht daily said in an editorial this week that Ivangorod’s inability to pay its debt highlighted the severity of Russia’s economic crisis. The newspaper expressed doubts the water debt would ever be fully paid.
          "In the long run, the prospects of the Ivangorod’s water debt being paid in full are just as gloomy as the prospects for the Russian economy as a whole," the newspaper said.
          Estonian government spokesman Daniel Vaarik said the problem involved national and municipal governments and also privately-owned companies, which made finding a permanent solution more difficult.
          "This is a serious situation and very complicated to solve," he said. "But someone has to pay the bill or the Narva Water Company, which is partly private, will go bankrupt. That'd be a huge problem for Narva and all of Estonia."

• Russia will soon open a new radar base in Belarus to replace the radar which was recently switched off in Skrunda, Latvia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) recently reported.
          The Skrunda radar base, Russia’s last operational military object in the Baltic states, was shut down in August as part of a long-standing agreement between Riga and Moscow.
          Russia's new radar will resume the duties of the Skrunda base and scan the Western skies for incoming aircraft and missiles. It will be located near the Belarussian city of Baranovichi, according to RFE/RL, citing a report in the Moscow Nezavisimaya newspaper.
          Paul Goble, a leading analyst at RFE/RL, argued that the fact Russia has found a replacement so quickly raised serious doubts about Moscow’s past claims that it had to stay at Skrunda after Latvian independence.
          "Moscow's construction of a new site in Belarus undermines Russia’s claims, supported by many in the West, that the Skrunda site was integral to East-West arms accords and that Moscow had no choice but to continue to operate the Skrunda site in Latvia long after Soviet power fell there," Goble said. "Indeed, it was largely on the basis of these Russian claims that the Latvian government was pressured into allowing the Russian military to continue to operate the Skrunda site until this summer, four years after the last Russian soldier left, and to have eighteen months more to dismantle that site."
          But Goble said the fact that Russia ultimately fulfilled the Skrunda agreement was encouraging.
          "Russia’s willingness to live up to its commitment to shut off the Skrunda site in Latvia demonstrates that most in Moscow are coming to accept that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are no longer part of what some in Russia call its natural "sphere of influence" in the same way that they view the former Soviet republics," he said.

• The trial of alleged Nazi war criminal Aleksandras Lileikis has been suspended because the accused is too ill to appear in court, a judge in the case ruled on November 9.
          Lileikis, 91, appeared in court in a wheelchair and proclaimed his innocence the week before. But minutes after making his statement, he complained of shortness of breath and was then rushed away in an ambulance.
          "I was working for my nation and my country for all my life and now I am old and weak. But I can still say I did nothing wrong in my lifetime," he told the court before being taken to a hospital.
          A doctors’ report cited by the judge said Lileikis suffered from coronary heart disease and would be unable to leave the hospital for at least several weeks. No new trial date was set by the judge and observers said it is unlikely court proceedings will resume this year.
          Lileikis is charged with genocide for allegedly sending scores of Jews to their deaths when he headed the Vilnius security police during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation of Lithuania. About 90 percent of Lithuania's 240,000 prewar Jews were killed during Nazi rule.
          Lileikis, lived in the United States for 40 years after World War II and returned to Lithuania in 1996 as a U.S. court was moving to revoke his citizenship and deport him.