The Weekly Crier
News highlights from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Updated every Monday.

News Highlights from December 11-December 18, 2000

A British composer is writing a musical score celebrating a Latvian-based telescope built and then abandoned by the Soviet army, the BBC's in-house newspaper Playback recently reported.
       The composer, Michael Omer, was inspired by a BBC report about the telescope; the report included recordings of the noises that the giant 32-meter wide dish makes as it's scanning the skies for radio waves. 
       The composition for orchestra, entitled Little Star Began to Sing, will premiere in London at the Guildhall School of Music in the Barbican on February 3. There will also be performances in April at the Barbican and in St. John's Smith Square.
       The building-sized telescope, which scientists dubbed Little Star, was used by the Soviet military to spy on NATO communications during the Cold War. 
       Latvians only discovered it existed in 1994, the year the Russian army pulled out of Latvia. Withdrawing troops poured acid on the telescope's motors and destroyed much of the surrounding infrastructure.
       Local Latvian scientists, however, struggled to restored the radio telescope—the largest in northern Europe—and now use it to monitor the stars for possible signs of intelligent life outside the Solar System.
       When it receives radio waves from outer space, transformers begin to vibrate on the telescope's antennas, creating a series of buzzes, bleeps and clanging sounds. The transformers are also called selsyans.
       "Little Star began To Sing is a musical evocation of the selsyans' chorus and the whole ensemble of the forest," explained BBC reporter William Horsley. "And the climax corresponds exactly with the pitch and quality of the notes which I heard ringing out through the Latvian forest."

Estonia's parliament on December 13 approved a plan to set up one of the world's largest gene banks to store the genetic information of 1 million people, which proponents say could help scientists develop powerful new drugs. 
       Legislators in the 101-seat Riigikogu parliament adopted the gene bank legislation by a 42-to-three vote; one deputy abstained and the others either weren't present or didn't vote.
       "This is the fundamental law we need to go forward," said Estonian geneticist Andres Metspalu, the principal author of the gene bank plan.
       He said the project would be launched next year and take five years to fully complete.
       The multi-million-dollar project, strongly backed by the government, seeks to digitally store the genetic codes of at least two-thirds of the 1.4 million population, making the data available to doctors and researchers. 
       Iceland, with 270,000 people, is the only country currently with a gene program on a similar scale. But it doesn't store gene codes, instead using vast archives of family health records to help identify disease-causing genes. 
       Such large-scale studies are key to finding links between genes and common diseases, like cancer. Knowing the genetic factors involved would open the way for the creation of revolutionary gene-specific drugs, Metspalu said.
       Estonians could start giving blood samples and providing medical histories to their doctors by the middle of next year. Participation is voluntary, unlike in Iceland where everyone's automatically included unless they opt out.
        Only a few Estonian scientists and politicians have openly criticized the plan, arguing that unscrupulous employers could manage to gain access to the data, denying jobs to those with gene markers for debilitating illnesses. 
       Backers insist privacy provisions will prevent abuses. Records will be encrypted so even researchers won't be able to match specific names with files. The law also provides for jail terms for anyone violating the privacy rules.
       Less than half the necessary funds, estimated at between 100-200 million dollars, would come from the state. The rest would come from companies that would buy rights to access and later profit from Estonia's gene research.
       No biotech companies have yet signed up, though the U.S.-based Orchid BioSciences has expressed interest, according to Jaanus Pikani, another Estonian geneticist involved.
       American venture capitalist Todd Morrill said at a recent gene conference in Estonia that biotech firms have only begun to learn of the planned gene bank. 
       "But when I explain it to executives I meet in the United States, I can tell you they are very intrigued," he said. "The reaction isn't ,'Ho hum.' It's 'Wow!'" 
(Also see Gene Bank in CITY PAPER No. 49, November / December 2000.)

After years in the sights of Nazi hunters worldwide, alleged Nazi war criminal Konrads Kalejs was arrested on December 13 in Australia after authorities in his Latvian homeland requested his extradition. 
       The 87-year-old, who was charged by Latvian prosecutors earlier this year for allegedly participating in the murder of Jews during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation, appeared in a court in Melbourne and was then released on bail. 
       His Australian passport was confiscated so he couldn't leave the country he has called home since the mid-1950s.
       Jewish groups say the Latvian-born Kalejs was an officer in the Arajs Kommando, a Nazi-sponsored death squad believed to be responsible for the murder of some 30,000 Jews. He has denied taking part in atrocities.
       The process of his extradition to Latvia could take years if he decides to fight his deportation in Australian courts. His lawyers have said he suffers from prostate cancer and dementia. Nazi hunters say he is healthier than his attorneys let on.
       If he is extradited and tried in Latvia, he would be the first person born in Latvia to be tried for Nazi war crimes after 1991. Hundreds of key Nazi figures, including regional SS Commander Friedrich Jeckeln, were tried and executed in Riga in 1946.

News Highlights December 4-December 11, 2000 

People in the Baltic states reacted negatively to a Russian move on December 7 to declare the old Soviet anthem its national hymn, saying it was an ominous throwback to the dark, repressive Soviet era. 
       "This will bring back shadows of a terrible monster, and it was absolutely unnecessary," Lithuania's former president and independence hero Vytautas Landsbergis said Friday. "It's extremely unfortunate Russia has done this." 
       Landsbergis, speaking from Vilnius, said many people across the Baltics would find the restoration of the Soviet anthem offensive. He said it could sour feelings towards Russia and even contribute to undermining Baltic-Russian relations. 
       The Red Army occupied the then-independent Baltic states in 1940; hundreds of thousands of Balts were subsequently deported to Siberia by Soviet dictator Stalin. The Baltics only regained independence after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
       Estonian government spokesman Priit Poiklik refused to comment, saying "Russia's anthem was an internal affair of Russia." But other Estonians were quick to express what they said was their disgust at the Russian decision. 
       "It's a double standard that there isn't an outcry in the West when Russia does such things," said Estonian parliamentarian Mari-Ann Kelam. "In Germany, many such symbols are banned because of the evil they so clearly represent." 
       Russian lawmakers, supported by President Vladimir Putin, overwhelmingly backed the restoration of the anthem, though they said the text of the song, which included praise for Communist leader Vladimir Lenin, should be rewritten. 
       Landsbergis, a professor of music before entering politics, gave a low appraisal of the musical value of the anthem itself, saying it was "very bombastic, in the style of its time." He added that it was irrelevant whether the words were changed. 
       "When people hear the tune, no matter what, they will hear the old words," he said. 
       Kelam, a member of the foreign relations committee in Estonia's parliament, agreed. 
       "Music is unique in that it makes us feel very deeply, very emotionally," she said. "For people in Russia longing for the Soviet past, it will reawaken very powerful feeling, and they certainly won't all be positive ones."

A former Soviet secret police agent may soon begin serving an 8-year prison term after Estonia's highest court refused to hear an appeal to have his sentence overturned, court and police officials said on December 7. 
       While several other ex-agents have been convicted, 76-year-old Karl-Leonhard Paulov would be the first to actually be jailed under Estonia's tough crimes against humanity laws. 
       He would be one of just two or three ex-Soviet officials anywhere in the former Soviet empire to ever go to jail specifically for Stalinist-era atrocities.
       A lower court earlier this year sentenced Paulov for killing three Estonian members of the resistance hiding from Soviet forces in the 1940s, when the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic state. 
       Defense lawyers say Paulov has cancer and is too ill to go to prison. But Estonia's Supreme Court on December 5 refused to hear the appeal, signaling that the lower court's ruling followed the law. 
       Paulov, who lives near Tartu, 190 kilometers southeast of Tallinn, is still free. But police spokesman Indrek Raudjalg said he could be arrested within days or weeks. 
       One of his last recourses would be to ask for a pardon from Estonian President Lennart Meri, who was himself deported by Stalinist agents in 1941 when he was just 12 years old, said Supreme Court spokesman Aivar Jarne.
       "His other legal options have pretty much run out," Jarne said. 
       President Meri hasn't commented on the case. But he said in an interview with the CITY PAPER editor earlier this year that shedding light on Stalinist repressions was more important than punishment. 
       "We should not have an emotional relationship with our past, but a rational one, where, after suspects have had their day in court, we will also have the chance to forgive," he said. 
       Thousands of people in the Baltic states, including Latvia and Lithuania, took refuge in the region's dense forests when the Red Army invaded in 1940. Many sought to avoid deportation, while others took up arms.
       As a young agent, prosecutors said Paulov was ordered to capture or kill the anti-Soviet forest dwellers. They said he shot two victims in the back. He pleaded innocent, saying he acted in self-defense.
       Looking tired and clutching a cane, Paulov told journalists in a rare public appearance last year that he was traumatized by the legal proceedings. 
       "This has all hit me very deeply," he said. "I can't sleep at night." 
       Prime Minister Mart Laar responded that he didn't feel sorry for Paulov. 
       "None of these men have ever said, 'I understand what I did was wrong and I'm sorry,'" he said. "They hint others did the deed or that they were just following orders." 
       After regaining independence, all three Baltic states vowed to bring Soviet agents to justice. More than a dozens cases have gone to trial. 
       Moscow has criticized the trials, saying the Baltics were exacting revenge on ailing, elderly men, some of whom hold Russian passports.
       (See Stalin's Agents and Off to Court for further details about the Stalinist-crimes trials in the Baltic states.)

The three Baltic states said they'll be looking for clear signals to come out of the European Union summit in Nice that the bloc's eastward expansion will continue, and even pick up pace. 
       "We see this as a historic turning point in the process of enlargement," President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said recently in Brussels.
       Other Baltic officials concurred.
       "We want a clear message that enlargement will go ahead at the end of 2002 or early 2003," said Toivo Klaar, foreign adviser to Estonia's president. "We would like to have a clear understanding that things are moving forward." 
       At their French Riviera gathering, EU leaders grappled through the weekend with key expansion issues, such as how a larger EU—expected to grow from its current 15 to 28 members—will make policy decisions.
       Internal reform is seen as a prerequisite to accepting any of the 13 EU-candidate nations, some of which, including the Baltic states, say they'll be ready to join in three to five years. 
       "The worst-case outcome would be if there was serious disarray at   Nice, with EU ministers unable to agree," said Trivimi Velliste, a former Estonian foreign minister. "That could suggest a major delay in the expansion process."
       Soon after regaining independence, the Baltic states began implementing wide-ranging market reforms and adopting hundreds of EU-mandated laws with their eyes on future EU membership. 
       Estonia is considered a top prospect for any first wave of expansion, though EU officials said recently that Latvia wasn't far behind. Delays in restructuring its large farming sector could hold Lithuania back. 
       The Baltics, with a combined population of just 8 million, express some concerns that the powers of smaller EU states could be unfairly curtailed by several reforms now being discussed. 
       Support for EU membership has slipped to some 50 percent in all three countries, partly because of popular fears that the Baltic states could be dictated to by larger nations within the EU.
       Many Baltic officials say they prefer the status quo where all EU states have a place on the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, rather than, as some suggest, fixing the number of commissioners and rotating country participation. 
       Baltic leaders say they don't object to distributing EU votes according to a country's size—if the rights of small nations were safeguarded and they weren't steamrolled by larger nations. 
       In addition to opening up new trade opportunities, the Baltic states, which still have security concerns vis-a-vis Russia, say one of the strongest arguments for joining the EU is that it will enhance their national security.
       "EU member states will hardly ignore a threat or attack against another one of its fellow members," said Harri Tiido, a deputy chancellor at Estonia's Foreign Ministry. Tiido hastened to add that Estonia was as committed to joining the NATO alliance, despite strong Kremlin opposition to Baltic membership in the alliance.

Some 4,000 retirees rallied outside the Estonian parliament on December 5 to demand an increase in their state pensions, which demonstrators complained are currently set at near-poverty levels. 
       The peaceful protest in a square outside the Riigikogu legislature was one of the largest of its kind since Estonia restored its independence. 
       Some protesters criticized what they said was Estonia's rush to join the European Union without attending to the elderly and poor. 
       While many prices, including for basic food stuffs, have risen to Western European levels, the average monthly pension for 350,000 Estonian retirees in a nation of 1.4 million is around 90 dollars.
       The average monthly wage is 300 dollars, though many young professionals make many times that. 
       Some pensioners' groups have called for average pensions to be raised to at least 120 dollars a month. Officials say such a move would cost the states some 10 million dollars a month and would bust the national budget. 
        Since Estonia shrugged off communist rule, it has slashed virtually all state subsidies and stuck to tightfisted fiscal policies. It's often singled out by financial bodies, like the World Bank, as a model free-market reformer.

The wife of Lithuanian NBA star Arvydas Sabonis was arrested by police a second time for drunk driving in Portland, Oregon, where her husband plays as center for the Trail Blazers.
       Ingrida Sabonis was stopped by police shortly after they received a call saying her car was traveling erratically along the road. She had just picked up her kids from school.
       Authorities said she could now potentially face jail time since it was her second offense. Mrs. Sabonis is a former Miss Vilnius.

News Highlights from November 27-December 4, 2000

The U.N. Development Program is closing its office in Estonia because the country has developed so far that it no longer needs the outside help, officials announced on December 1.
       The UNDP, which assists developing nations to alleviate poverty and build up their infrastructure, said Estonia was the first nation from the former Soviet empire where it was closing an office specifically because the country had been so successful. 
        "Estonia's development since the restoration of its independence (from Moscow) in 1991 has been remarkable," a statement released by the UNDP's Tallinn office said. 
       Estonia consented to the office's closure, on January 1 next year, in talks with the United Nation's body and enthusiastically welcomed the move, according to a spokesman for Estonia's foreign ministry, Vahur Soosaar. 
       "The fact that UNDP is going to close the office is a sign of recognition of Estonia's progress," he said. "It's obvious that the presence of the UNDP in many countries is more important than it is in Estonia." 
       After Estonia regained independence following the 1991 Soviet collapse, it quickly implemented radical pro-market polices. The UNDP opened its Estonian office in 1993, and has directly contributed or administered some 8 million dollars in aid to this nation of 1.4 million. 
       In eight years since it cast off Kremlin rule, Estonia has privatized nearly all state firms and slashed inflation from 1000 to 5 percent a year; annual economic growth has gone from minus 15 percent to plus five percent. 
       The UNDP also recently cited Estonian progress in setting up an advanced IT infrastructure, reporting that Estonia has one of the highest per capita rates of Internet access in eastern Europe—higher than in some Western countries. 
       UNDP spokesmen said they recognized that Estonia still had major social and economic problems, but that the Baltic state now seemed more than capable of dealing with them without significant outside intervention.
       Foreign Minister Toomas Ilves said recently that Estonia was now primarily a donor of aid, rather than a recipient. In 2000, Estonia gave some 400,000 dollars in foreign aid, mostly to Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia. 
       Four years ago, Estonia also became the first ex-Soviet bloc
country to have U.S. aid officially cut, also by consent of the Estonian government, because Washington said it was too well developed and no longer needed it.
       (Also see, from four years ago, Uncle Same Turns Off the Taps, about the American aid cut to Estonia in 1996.)

Prosecutors have charged three Russian citizens with terrorism for recently threatening to blow up a Riga church. It is the first time since Latvia regained independence that anyone has been indicted under the country's terrorism laws. 
       The three young men, Sergey Solovyev, Maxim Zhurkin, Dmitry Gafarov belong to a far-left Russian nationalist group, called the National Bolsheviks. If convicted, they could face a maximum penalty of life in prison, though few expect such an extreme sentence to ever be imposed. 
       On November 17, the three barricaded themselves in St. Peter's Church in downtown Riga and threatened to detonate what later turned out to be a mock grenade.
       Authorities said the men wanted to protest Latvia's bid to join the U.S.-led NATO alliance. They also called for the release of several members of their organization arrested earlier in Latvia. The men surrendered after several hours when police agreed they could speak by telephone to officials at Russia's Embassy in Riga. 
       The National Bolsheviks group is made up mostly of young Russians from Russia and from Latvia's ethnic Russian minority. They say they oppose Latvian independence and advocate the restoration of the Soviet Union.
       Some observers, while agreeing the assailants should be punished, argue that the terrorism charges out of proportion to the actual crime, in which no one was injured. 

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on November 28 imposed bans on German beef, saying they had no choice but to take precautions against the spread of mad cow disease to their countries.
       Germany has confirmed that several cows born in Germany tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, for the first time. Germany had long claimed to be free of the disease.
       Health officials in Estonia and Lithuania banned beef imports from anywhere in Germany, while Latvia's ban only applies to beef from the Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony-Anhalt provinces where the infected cows originated.
       All three bans take effect immediately. Laws in the Baltic states dictate that they remain in place until BSE-infected regions are free of the disease for five straight years.
       "It's a question of playing it safe to ensure the disease can't spread here," said Estonian government spokesman Priit Poiklik, adding that Estonia's import-ban laws are based on the European Union's, which Estonia wants to join.
       Some Latvian and Lithuanian officials suggested they could lift or modify their bans sooner than the five-year period if it turns out BSE is not as widely spread in Germany as some feared.
       Earlier, the Baltic states banned beef imports, also over concerns about BSE, from Spain, Britain, France, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium and several other European countries. All those bans are still in place. 
        The Baltics produce most of their own beef, and Germany isn't among the region's top foreign beef suppliers. 
       German businesses in the Baltics, however, said they were worried about the implications of the bans, including whether the Baltic bans could encourage other countries to follow suit.
       "This will certainly be of concern for our business community," said Roland Grosse, of the Tallinn-based German Chamber of Commerce. "And there are some Germans who these Baltic bans will directly affect." 
       Contaminated meat and bone meal in animal feed is suspected as the source of BSE in cows. Some scientists believe humans can contract the similar fatal brain-wasting disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, by eating infected beef.

The Curonian Spit, a sliver of a peninsula that runs parallel to Lithuania's coast, has been included on the World Heritage List of objects with an international importance. 
       The sand-dune, windswept spit, which is also known as Neringa, has been celebrated for centuries by poets and writers, including Germany's Thomas Mann, who had a summer cottage on the narrow slice of land that pokes into the Baltic Sea. Part of the Curonian Spit is Russian territory. 
       The prestigious designation was made by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee on November 31 during a meeting in Australia. 
       The old towns in all three Baltic capitals have also been placed on the World Heritage List, which obliges the countries to maintain the uniqueness of the areas for posterity.
       Being included on the list can help a country raise the interest of tourist. But Lithuanian environmentalists have urged the government to ensure that the pristine Curonian Spit remains unspoiled by development. 
       (For an article about the region, entitled The Curonian Spit, see No. 47 July-August, 2000.)

News Highlights from November 20-27, 2000

Latvia has long harbored hopes of becoming the so called Baltic Hong Kong, a regional financial and banking powerhouse. It now appears to be vying to become the Baltic Saudi Arabia after an announcement on November 22 that the government will soon sell off-shore oil drilling licenses. 
       The licenses, to be auctioned next year, would allow companies to explore and develop a 2,675-sqaure-kilometer area off the country's Baltic Sea coast that is thought to contain some 250 million barrels of oil.
       The amounts are considered tiny compared to reserves in oil-rich regions like the Persian Gulf or North Sea. But Latvia hopes that supplies could be sufficient enough to inspire the growth a modest oil production industry. 
       Latvian ports currently serve as main transit points for Russian oil bound for Western markets, but the Baltic state does not produce any oil of its own. 
       Soviet-era geologists discovered oil reserves off the Latvian and Lithuanian coasts in the 1980s, though the extent of that find and the economic viability of pumping out the crude has still not been fully determined. 
       Some of the off-shore territory where there is thought to be oil is disputed between Latvia and Lithuania. A Swedish company, OPAB was granted rights by Latvia four years ago to drill in the area, but it pulled out of the deal because the two Baltic states couldn't agree where their sea borders were. 

Lithuania's state AIDS Center said on November 22 that it has Europe's lowest HIV infection rate, which it argued was largely due to early and effective prevention programs. 
       The Center's director, Saulius Caplinskas, said that there are currently just 6.5 cases of HIV virus infection per 100,000 people, or less than .01 percent of the 3.7 million population.
       He said rates in Latvia and Estonia were higher, around 33 and 26 cases per 100,000. While the Latvian and Estonian numbers are higher than Lithuania's, they also fall well below European averages. 
       Regional health officials say that rises of HIV infection in the Baltics parallels rising intravenous drug use, particularly in more economically depressed areas, like Daugavpils in Latvia and Narva in Estonia. 
       The U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS recently reported Ukraine had Europe's highest HIV rate with a full 1.0 percent of its 50 million population infected. With a .7 percent rate, Portugal had the highest figure in Western Europe. 
       The U.N report said Lithuania's percentage was .02 percent,
just slightly higher than the figure given by Lithuanian officials
themselves; it said .04 percent of Estonia's population was infected and .11 percent of Latvia's. 
       Over 35 million people worldwide either have AIDS or carry the AIDS-causing HIV virus, the U.N. body reported. In several sub-Saharan African nations, over 20 percent of the population carry the virus. 
      World health officials recently warned that, despite Lithuanian claims of success, the former Soviet bloc faced an AIDS epidemic. Russia, for instance, now has 300,000 HIV carries, double 1999 figures. 
      "The situation on AIDS in eastern Europe is really exploding," said Peter Piot, of the director of the U.N's. AIDS body. He said growing drug use and prostitution were the primary factors.
       But Lithuanian officials explained that they wasted little time after the country regained independence in 1991 in setting up condom distribution programs and supplying free needles to drug addicts.
       The deadly HIV virus, which attacks the body's immune system once it develops into to full-blown AIDS, is usually spread by sexual intercourse and by intravenous drug users sharing contaminated needles. 
       Ten years ago, the Vilnius-based AIDS Center began organizing Condom Days, festive events held in public parks where bands performed and free condoms were handed out to the mostly teenage participants. 
       The Center also promoted AIDS awareness with a contest to find a Lithuanian-language word for condom; the winning word was sargis, which means "one that protects." It's since become a commonly used word in Lithuania.
       Lithuanians say another factor reining in the spread of HIV is the fact that Lithuania is a predominantly Catholic nation where there are still strong moral convictions against sexual promiscuity. 
       Other observers, while praising Lithuania's prevention programs, cautioned that national HIV figures don't always reflect the full scale of the problem since some virus carriers are never tested. 

Russia has said that it could help solve its worsening demographic situation by encouraging Russians living outside the country, including in the Baltic states, to return to their ancestral homeland. 
       Russia's population has decreased by 6 million people since the Soviet collapse and is expected to drop by another 7 million in the next 15 years; it could soon fall from being the seventh largest nation in the world to being the 14th largest, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty recently reported. 
       The Prague-based American broadcaster said Russia was facing a severe labor shortage and would also soon find it difficult to staff its still-sizable military with new recruits.
       Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the prospect of encouraging immigration to Russia during a recent trip to Siberia, which has been particularly hard hit by labor shortages.
       While the invitation for Russians to return home may attract some Russians living in poorer former Soviet republics, like Tajikistan, Russians living in the increasingly affluent Baltics aren't likely to heed the Kremlin's call.
       General living standards in the Baltics far outpace those in Russia. The Baltics also have an added attraction for Russians: the three countries are set to join the European Union within several the next several years. Given the choice between living and working in the elite EU or in desolate Siberia, most Russians aren't liable to give the latter option any consideration at all. 
       The Baltic states, with their ever-more vibrant economies and demographic problems of their own, also badly need the Russian workers they have. Russian laborers dominate the energy and industrial sectors in Estonia and Latvia, and on the off chance they should decide to emigrate en mass, that could deliver a major blow to all three Baltic economies. 

News Highlights from November 13-November 20, 2000

Three Russian youths from a shadowy, far-left organization locked themselves in Riga's St. Peter's Church on November 17 and threatened to blow it up, though police managed to quickly persuade them to give themselves up.
       In the slightly surreal midday incident, the members of the radical communist National Bolsheviks barricaded themselves in the old town church, went to an observation deck in the steeple that towers over the capital's Medieval quarter and unfurled a red communist banner over the ledge.
       Witnesses said the three carried grenades, which they threatened to set off. According to reports, they demanded the release of National Bolsheviks jailed earlier in the week and they also declared their opposition to bids by the Baltic states to join the U.S.-led NATO alliance.
       The three, reportedly Russian citizens who had entered Latvia illegally by jumping off a train in transit to Kaliningrad, surrendered after just two hours when the church was surrounded by police. Latvian officials praised Russian intelligence services, which had tipped Latvia off weeks before about possible actions by the National Bolsheviks.
       Earlier in the week, Latvian police had detained nine members of the same group, including five Latvian-based Russians, under suspicion they planned to disrupt Independence Day festivities on November 18. On the day, however, there were no other disturbances reported.
       The National Bolsheviks, a fringe Russian nationalist group made up mostly of university-age ethnic Russians from Russia and Latvia's Russian minority community, advocate the restoration of the Soviet Union and have called on Russia to restore its dominance in the region.
       The group is thought to have, at most, just a few hundred members in Latvia and has very little popular support.
       The National Bolsheviks have held small protest rallies in Riga before, but have never before taken over a building. Still, many observers say its members should be seen as quirky if PR-savvy thrill seekers and should not be regarded as genuine terrorists.

Religious leaders rained on Latvia's Independence Day parade on November 18, choosing the celebratory occasion to denounce what they called the questionable moral values of the modern-day state.
       The country's Lutheran, Catholic, Russian Orthodox and Old Believer archbishops all refused to take part in religious ceremonies marking the 82nd year since Latvia declared independence in 1918, decrying abortion laws, corruption and what they said was scant attention by authorities to the sexual abuse of children.
       "This year year I feel deeply sad and ashamed of our country and it would be extremely difficult for me to head the official services as if everything was for the better," Lutheran Archbishop Janis Vangas said in a letter addressed to Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
       The president later criticized the archbishops, saying it was inappropriate for them to stage their protest on Independence Day. 
       Church leaders have generally stayed out of politics in the country, and some observers said their Independence Day stand could mark the dawn of a new religious activism.

Businessmen have taken Estonian Foreign Minister Toomas Ilves to task for what they said are his frequent inflammatory public statements about the futility of Baltic cooperation.
       The Eesti Ekpress weekly reported on November 16 that a group of influential businessmen met recently with Prime Minister Mart Laar to complain about repeated comments by Ilves downplaying the importance of pan-Baltic economic and political cooperation. Ilves has suggested that Estonia should put more emphasis on links with the Nordic region.
       But many Estonian businesses, including leading banks, see the Latvian and Lithuanian markets as critical to their future business success. They say the Nordic nations aren't viable options for expansion for most Baltic firms given the cost and competition obstacles of setting up shop in those more developed countries.
       According to Eesti Ekpress, those in attendance in the meeting with Laar, including the heads of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Small Business Association, told the prime minister that they had vital economic interests in Latvia and Lithuania and that Ilves was unnecessarily making their jobs harder. "They told the government to understand that Minister Ilves could keep his mouth shout and think first before he says something."
       Most recently, in a speech to parliament on October 12, Ilves questioned the usefulness of pan-Baltic cooperation, telling Estonian parliamentarians that its benefits were limited. He said that some forms of Baltic military cooperation had worked, but that in other areas, especially in the drive towards European Union membership, Baltic cooperation was sometimes counterproductive.
       "I'm tired of all the noise about so called Baltic cooperation," he said, speaking on the floor of the Estonian legislature.
       At a CITY PAPER and American Chamber of Commerce forum two years ago, Ilves said, "I don't see any advantage in the so called Baltic states. I don't think Estonia is a Baltic state. I think the idea of a Baltic state is a construction made up elsewhere...as foreign minister, my goal was to separate Estonia from being a Baltic state."
       But businessmen argue that Ilves's sometimes biting, dismissive comments on Baltic issues haven't served any useful purpose and only undermined their relations with Latvian and Lithuanian businessmen. Some Estonian companies, like the country's main bank, Hansapank, are currently involved in complex negotiations to buy large firms in the other two Baltic states.
       (A full transcript of the CITY PAPER/ACCE forum in which Ilves criticized the notion of Baltic cooperation and identity is available on this site, here.) 

News Highlights from November 6-November 13, 2000

Four Latvians who organized a 1999 car rally that resulted in the death of eight people were convicted of negligence on November 6 and given prison sentences of up to three years. 
       The tragedy, the worst of in Latvian sports history, occurred when two cars collided and spun off the track. One of the vehicles catapulted end over end into a crowd, killing eight spectators and injuring 25. 
       The organizers were accused of not taking adequate safety precautions, including by allowing rally fans to stand at the very edged of the pretzel-shaped dirt track. 
       Authorities said the drivers were not at fault, despite claims by organizers that they were driving recklessly at the time of the accident, which occurred outside the western Latvian town of Ladzone. 
       The two drivers were never charged, but both shortly after announced they were retiring from rally racing, explaining that they were too traumatized to continue. 

Hollywood reportedly plans a major movie based on the sinking of the MS Estonia and staring Martin Sheen, though the film is expected to play fairly fast and loose with the known facts about the catastrophe.
       The Estonia sank in stormy seas en route from Tallinn to Stockholm in 1994. Over 800 of 1000 passengers perished in the accident, considered Europe's worst maritime disaster after World War II. 
       While investigators blamed the tragedy on poorly built bow door locks which gave way under the strain of powerful waves, the American producers intend to suggest that mob sabotage was the root cause. 
       Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that organized crime gangs may have purposely sunk the Estonia in order to conceal contraband smuggling across the Baltic Sea. 
       Other theories include one that the Estonia hit a Russian submarine or that secret Swedish military weapons exploded on board. Some have suggested a massive conspiracy by the U.S. and Swedish governments to cover up the true cause of the shipwreck.
       Investigators, however, have scoffed at the alternative accident theories. 
       "The only theory left is that it was sunk by a UFO," said Uno Laur, an Estonian investigator 
       (Also look here for a detailed chronology of the dramatic sinking of the MS Estonia.) 

European Union officials say the Baltic states are on the right track to win full EU membership, though they may have to wait longer they expected to actually be let in to the elite European bloc. 
       In a report released on November 9, the executive branch of the EU, the European Commission, said that the three country had made significant economic and political progress towards entry.
       While it mentioned that the first new members could theoretically be accepted at the end of 2002, observers say that 2005, given the need for current EU states to first adopt complicated internal reforms, was a far more realistic date. 
       Commission President Romano Prodi said that the EU summit in Nice in December would be key to the entire enlargement process. The 15 EU member states are slated to approve far-reaching internal reforms.
       "The whole momentum of enlargement will be lost without success at Nice," he said.
       The frontrunners for early entry are thought to be Hungary, Slovenia and also Estonia, which has already met the main EU economic criteria. According to The Scotsman newspaper, these three countries are in better economic condition than Greece and Portugal were when they joined the EU. 
       The EU report, however, said that corruption as well as ineffective courts and civil services continued to be obstacles to the membership of most former Soviet bloc countries, in the Baltic countries. 
       In some countries, especially Poland, unreformed agricultural sectors pose serious problems. Poland has more farmers than the entire EU combined. Paying out agricultural subsidies to Poland under the EU's existing scheme would quickly bankrupt the entire system. 
       The Baltic states, like other Eastern European countries, have expressed fears that the expansion process is moving too slowly, risking popular support for the EU. 
       There has also been some friction between Estonia and the other two Baltic states over calls for all three to be admitted simultaneously. Estonia has expressed deep annoyance at the idea, arguing that it should not be held back in the EU line if its Baltic neighbors are lagging behind. 
       Sweden, a strong backer of Baltic EU aspirations, takes over the 6-month rotating EU presidency in January. Baltic official hope the Swedish presidency will focus more attention on the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian membership bids. 

The trial in absentia of 93-year-old alleged Nazi Kazys Gimzauskas began on November 13, more than a year after regular proceedings against him were stopped for health reasons. 
       Kazys Gimzauskas, who suffers Alzheimer's, is accused of sending scores of Jews to their deaths when he served in the Vilnius security police during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation. 
       Lithuania's in-absentia law, adopted this year, allows lawyers to represent mentally incapacitated war crimes suspects at trial. If convicted, Gimzauskas wouldn't have to serve any sentence.
       A ruling in his case could be handed down before the end of this year. 
       His in-absentia trial begins two months after another alleged Nazi, Aleksandras Lileikis, died of a heart attack in Vilnius before a court could pass judgment. He also was 93.
       Gimzauskas has denied charges he took part in the Holocaust. He emigrated to the United States in 1956 and lived in St. Petersburg, Fla.
       He returned to Lithuania in 1994 after a U.S. court moved to strip him of his citizenship. Lithuanian prosecutors charged him several years later.

Analysis: The Baltic states, like much of the rest of the world, have followed the unresolved U.S presidential race with a mixture of bemusement—and bewilderment. But as the U.S. sorts out who won, many people here are still trying desperately to figure out which of the two would be better for the Baltic states: a President George W. Bush or a President Al Gore. 
       The majority of analysts say they'd prefer a President Gore. 
       The biggest mark against Bush is his demonstrable lack of knowledge about international affairs, which makes many Balts uneasy. Reports that he has traveled abroad just three times in his entire life seem to suggest to many here that Bush isn't only ignorant about the world outside the United States—he doesn't appear even mildly curious. 
       Al Gore, as commentators point out, has traveled widely, including to Estonia several years ago (he reportedly struck up a friendship with current Estonian President Lennart Meri and promised to return to the country again.) Gore's apparent expertise on subjects ranging from Iraqi Kurds to Moscow mayoral politics seems, rightly or wrongly, to give many people here confidence. 
       Bush does seem to appreciate his own ignorance of world affairs and would, it's understood, surround himself with well-schooled, experienced foreign advisors. But many Baltic officials worry about some of those advisors, particularly Condoleezza Rice. Rice, Bush's closest foreign advisor, is seen here as being cool to the idea of Baltic NATO membership and her name is inevitably brought up by Bushophobes. Gore, at least during the campaign, was explicit about supporting Baltic NATO membership. 
       But others note that Gore and other Democrats have always seemed more willing to accept Kremlin claims that Russia is now a gentle giant with no ill-will towards its neighbors. In any future disputes between Estonia and Russia , there's concern that the Democrats might be more willing than Republicans to side with Moscow. More Republicans than Democrats still seem to harbor Cold War-era suspicions of Russia; that, from the perspective of most Balts anyway, is a healthy, respectable attitude. 
      All that said, most analysts also seem to appreciate that the discussion about whom is more Baltic friendly, Bush or Gore, is largely academic. Most conclude that foreign policy differences under a President Gore or a President Bush, especially vis-à-vis the Baltics, will probably be slight—if noticeable at all.

Highlights from October 30-November 6, 2000

A leading U.S. beer maker has poked fun at Latvia in a Canadian TV commercial directed at fans of American football, prompting complaints from some Latvians.
       The Budweiser ad features an actor playing a Latvian athlete at the Olympics, with Latvia's maroon and white flag flying nearby and the Latvian national anthem playing in the background.
       Suddenly three American football players appear and dump a bucket of ice water on the athlete's head as the announcer says, "Let the real games begin!" 
       The AFP news agency quoted some Latvian politicians in Riga as criticizing the commercial.
       "It's of questionable taste," parliamentarian Inese Birzniece was quoted as saying. "I could understand if they were trying to popularize Budweiser in Latvia by saying, 'congratulations on your medal,' but this is not good." 
       Latvia won three Olympic medals at Sydney, including its first gold since regaining independence in 1991. Per capita, Latvia won more medals than most other countries participating in the Games, including Canada. 

Estonia could end up having to honor 70-year-old government bonds now valued at around 15 million dollars, if Florida resident William T. Hardison's legal challenges are successful. 
       Estonia's Aripaev business newspaper reported on November 6 that the American holder of pre-war Estonian bonds has sought payment and threatened legal action if the current government refuses.  
       Estonia has stuck firmly to the policy that it is the legal successor to pre-war independent Estonia and that the 50 years of Soviet rule was strictly an illegal occupation. 
       This principle of legal continuity played a major role in justifying Estonian independence claims to the outside world in the late 1980s and early '90s. 
       But Estonians have now found that the knife can cut both ways. 
      Hardison is leading the drive to have the bonds, emitted by the 1927 Estonian government, redeemed. He is one of dozens of bond holders who could start knocking on the Estonian treasury's door. 
       Hardison said he was assured by exiled Estonian officials during the Soviet occupation that Estonia would met its bond obligations once it regained freedom. But he complained that he has broached the issue with Estonian authorities, but hadn't yet received a reply. 
       Contacted by Aripaev, Estonian Finance Ministry officials appeared non-committal. The daily quoted one as saying that Estonia had to wait and see how the legal proceedings played out. 

A Latvian judge on November 3 upheld a lower court's decision a week before to issue an arrest warrant for alleged Nazi Konrads Kalejs, allowing extradition proceedings against him to proceed.
       The court rejected defense lawyers’ claims that Kalejs was too physically and mentally unfit to be arrested and then deported from his adopted Australian home. The court's decision should be the last word on the arrest order question, which had been addressed by several appellate courts.
       The 87-year-old, who now lives in Melbourne, Australia, was charged by Latvian prosecutors in September with genocide for allegedly participating in the murder of Jews during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation. 
       An arrest order is required to launch extradition proceedings
Now that the order has been submitted, Latvian authorities said they will resume the process. 
       Jewish groups say the Latvian-born Kalejs was an officer in the Arajs Kommando, a Nazi-sponsored death squad believed to be responsible for the murder of some 30,000 Latvian Jews. 

American businessman Gregg Bemis, who led a diving mission to the shipwrecked Estonia recently, has said he has further proof to back up his claim that an explosion may have sunk the ship. 
       The 71-year-old said in a letter addressed to Swedish, Finnish and Estonian leaders this past week that a piece of metal taken from the ship and tested showed traces of an explosion. 
       "The test results showed quite conclusively that there had been an explosion," the letter said. "We are arranging for additional tests to further confirm these findings and to seek additional definition of the characteristics of the explosion."
       He said the findings should lead to a new investigation of the accident. After his August dive, Bemis also controversial claimed that his team had taken film footage of a hole possibly caused by an explosion.
       But the original investigators of the Estonia ferry accident, which killed 852 people in 1994, said after studying the film 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 badly built locks on the 50-ton bow door for the shipwreck, though conspiracy theories, including that a bomb exploded on board, have been rife. 
       Four other investigators who also screened a half-hour excerpt of the film all agreed that nothing new was revealed, according to Finnish investigator, Tuomo Karppinen. 
       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. 
       Skeptics of the Bemis expedition say there are vested interests, especially the German shipyard that built the Estonia and is facing legal action, who want to cloud the issue of how the ferry sank. They say the allegation that there was an explosion of some sort is playing into the hands of those vested interests. 

Orthodox leader Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople left Estonia on November 1 with signs that his six-day visit only deepened divisions between pro-Constantinople and pro-Moscow Orthodox factions. 
       After Estonia regained independence, the sides argued over church property. Tensions rose when the Constantinople Patriarchate took the pro-Constantinople wing under its jurisdiction. 
       The Turkey-based Constantinople Patriarchate said it was merely restoring the rightful pre-war status of Estonia's Orthodox church, whose leaders were purged by Stalin and replaced by pro-Kremlin clergy in the 1940s. 
       But the Moscow Patriarchate, which had jurisdiction during the Soviet occupation, reacted angrily, accusing Constantinople of
encroaching on its territory and of risking a full schism in the
Orthodox Christian world.
       During Patriarch Bartholomew's visit, his first to Estonia, he met with pro-Constantinople clergy. But he told a news conference that pro-Moscow church leaders steadfastly refused to meet him.
       Bartholomew singled out pro-Moscow Archbishop Cornelius for strong criticism, complaining that he "questioned our status here as if we were heretics."
       "Without wanting to interfere in the internal affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, I think they should replace Archbishop Cornelius," he said. "He is doing damage to the Moscow Patriarchate with his tactics." 
       The head of the pro-Constantinople church in Estonia, Metropolitan Stephanos, accused his pro-Moscow counterparts of threatening to disrupt the Patriarch's visit. 
       "There was pressure and, sadly, even threats," he said, sitting by Bartholomew at the news conference. "We've underlined our brotherly love for Russian Orthodox. But we can't be called heretics and schismatic." 
       Moscow's Patriarchate Wednesday echoed criticism of its loyalists in Estonia that Bartholomew's visit only exacerbated the rift. 
       Russia's Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source at the Moscow Patriarchate as warning that Constantinople planned to take parts of the Orthodox church in Ukraine under its control. 
       "If no urgent measures are taken...Russia will lose the Orthodox churches in Estonia and Ukraine, which will be a colossal defeat for the Russian Church and Russia itself," Interfax quoted the source as saying. 
       Estonian courts have ruled that the pro-Constantinople factions are the rightful heirs to church property, including land and many churches, nationalized after the Red Army invaded in 1940.
       They haven't been threatened with eviction, but the pro-Moscow side complained the ruling stripped them of legal rights to churches they have used for decades.
       In this nation of 1.4 million, the majority is Lutheran. There are up to 50,000 ethnic-Estonian Orthodox and some 100,000 ethnic-Russian Orthodox. 
       Most of the pro-Moscow believers are ethnic Russian and most of those siding with Constantinople are ethnic Estonian.

News Highlights from October 23-October 30, 2000

Vladimir Lenin is on the run—wanted in Estonia for tax fraud. 
       The inclusion of Lenin's name on a police wanted list on October 24 raised eyebrows in Estonia. The fugitive, however, isn't the famed Communist revolutionary, but a namesake 34-year-old.
       Estonia's Lenin, an ethnic-Russian Estonian citizen, even shares the same middle initial as the founder of the Soviet Union, "I," according to Estonian police spokesman Hannes Kont.
       The living Vladimir I. Lenin is accused of participating in a scam with nine other suspects to set up a phony oil firm to fraudulently claim some 800,000 dollars in tax rebates from the government.
       Many Estonians do advocate putting the better-known Lenin on trial posthumously for setting up the Soviet secret police system blamed for the murder and deportation of millions of people last century.
       Police spokesman Kont said he couldn't say if Lenin, the Communist revolutionary, might qualify for prosecution under Estonia's tough crimes against humanity laws used to convict several living ex-Soviet secret police.

The concept of Big Brother was stood on its head in Latvia as one minister installed a 24-hour webcam in his office so that the masses could keep an eye on him.
       The People's Party, which said it wanted to demonstrate that its ministers were hard at work and weren't engaged in corruption, came up with the idea of placing an Internet camera in the office of Finance Minister Gundars Berzins. 
       Three coalition parties, the People's Party, Latvia's Way and Fatherland and Freedom, make up the government. The other two coalition partners aren't participating in the webcam scheme. 
       The webcasts of the minister don't include sound. When he's out, an on-screen notice says where he is. The webcam will later be moved to the offices of other People's Party ministers. 
       (You can see the Finance Minister in action, at www.tautaspartija.lv/ministry/.)

Estonian Carmen Kass, 22, won the coveted Model of the Year title at the recent VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards. 
       After she won the highly coveted prize, the Tallinn-based Paevaleht newspaper said Kass—possibly along with composer Arvo Part—was now the most famous Estonian in the world. 
       Kass has appeared on Vogue a number of times and has strode down the catwalk for the likes of Calvin Klein and Christian Dior. 
      ''She's got this wonderful combination of tomboy and glamour,'' Vogue spokesman Patrick O'Connell was quoted as telling USA today. 
       As proof of her newfound jet-set status, actor Leonardo DiCaprio last year dropped by her 21st birthday party.  
       (Also see Model City on this site about Cass and other top Estonian models who have made it big. You can see more more details about Cass, plus photos, at www.carmen-kass.net.)

Prime minister-designate Rolandas Paksas told parliament on October 24 that he wanted to lower taxes and cut bureaucratic red tape as a way to kickstart the Lithuanian economy.
       "Lithuania has reached a critical point. The situation can't get any worse," he told parliamentarians a day after President Valdas Adamkus nominated him. "We can't imitate economic reforms any longer." 
       On October 25 parliament approved his nomination in a secret ballot by a 79-to-51 vote. Paksas, a former stunt pilot who served briefly as prime minister last year, has 15 days to put together a Cabinet and have its government program approved. 
       The nomination of the 44-year-old Liberal Union leader came two weeks after Oct. 8 elections that swept the ruling Conservatives, widely blamed for record-high 12 percent unemployment, from power. 
       The economy shrank by 4 percent last year thanks to financial turmoil in neighboring Russia, a major trading partner. The economy has improved since then, but is expected to grow by just 1-2 percent this year.
       Paksas said the best way to encourage growth was for the government to stop obstructing free enterprise. 
       "We will start removing bureaucratic obstacles from the business sector and reform the tax system by decreasing taxes gradually and attracting investments," he said.
       But he warned his government would have to make unpopular decisions, which will likely include whether or not to restore farm subsidies that the Conservatives slashed in an effort to balance the national budget.
       "Most of our reforms will be a bitter, but necessary pill," he said. 
       The center-right Liberal Union, the center-left New Party and the smaller Center Union and Modern Christian Democratic Union agreed to form a government following the election. 
       The four coalition partners fell just short of a majority in the 141-seat Seimas legislature, but promised support from several independents gives Paksas more than enough support in parliament. 
       It will be Lithuania's first multiparty coalition government since it regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It is likely to face internal differences over policy.
       The Liberal Union's main coalition partner, the New Party, has shown less enthusiasm for tax cuts and, during campaigning, advocated government intervention to boost the economy.
       President Adamkus, also speaking to parliament on October 24, urged the coalition parties to commit themselves to working for the good of the country. 
       He also wished Paksas luck.
       "I wish you toughness and patience in looking for common solutions with your coalition partners and in dealing with the opposition," he said. 

Orthodox spiritual leader Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople arrived on October 26 in Estonia, where pro-Constantinople and pro-Moscow Orthodox factions remain divided.
       It's his first visit to Estonia since a dispute erupted nine years ago between two competing wings of Estonia's Orthodox church, with one part pledging loyalty to Constantinople and the other to Moscow. 
       During his six-day stay, Patriarch Bartholomew is slated to meet with clergy from the pro-Constantiople branch and also with top Estonian officials, including the prime minister and president.
       But pro-Moscow clergy said they weren't willing to meet with the Bartholomew and no talks between them were planned, according to Ringo Ringvee of the Estonian Interior Ministry's religious affairs office. 
       In the years Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the two sides clashed over which is the rightful heir to church property, including land and many churches. 
       Estonian courts have ruled that the pro-Constantinople Estonian wing, dominated by ethnic-Estonians, is the sole heir to virtually all church property nationalized after the Red Army invaded Estonia in 1940. Many Estonian church leaders were arrested and killed by the Communist authorities then, and all property was nationalized.
       While they weren't threatened with eviction, the court ruling infuriated the pro-Moscow, mostly ethnic-Russian congregations, which say it stripped them of legal rights to churches they have used for almost five decades. 
       Differences over property and legal status were further complicated in 1996, when the Turkey-based Patriarchate of Constantinople, headed by Bartholomew, officially took the Estonian branch under its jurisdiction. 
       The move angered the Patriarchate of Moscow, which had presided over Orthodox believers here for 50 years. There were fears that harsh words between Constantinople and Moscow could even lead to a full-blown schism. 
       In this multiethnic nation of 1.4 million, the majority of people are Lutheran. There are up to 50,000 ethnic-Estonian Orthodox believers, and around 100,000 ethnic-Russian Orthodox.

News Highlights from October 16-October 23, 2000

The privatization of Lithuania's largest company, Mazeikiai Oil, was thrown into confusion after judges ruled on October 18 that a key provision of its sale to Americans violated the constitution.
       Lithuania last year sold 33 percent of the concern to the U.S.-based Williams International for 150 million dollars and 650 million dollars in investment. In the biggest deal of its kind in Lithuanian history, Williams was also given rights to buy a majority stake later.
       But a high court ruled that a government promise to cover a 350-million dollar capital deficit that the ailing plant had incurred was unconstitutional. 
       The guarantee to pay that debt was a cornerstone of the deal and also the focus of fierce opposition to the sale. Critics argued that the cash-strapped Baltic state couldn't afford to take on such a liability. 
       Mazeikiai Oil, located 300 kilometers from Vilnius in the city of Mazeikiai, includes an oil terminal, a pipeline and refinery. Its turnover for 2000 is expected to be over 500 million dollars.
       Then Conservative Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas resigned in 1999 after he said he couldn't back the agreement. It was signed later in the year by a new Conservative prime minister, Andrius Kubilius. 
       Ironically, recent October 8 parliamentary elections led to a major Conservative defeat. And Paksas, now of the Liberal Union, is slated to again become prime minister in a new centrist coalition government. 
       The implications of the court decision remain unclear. 
       Some analysts said the ruling could result in parts of the deal being renegotiated. But few believe the government would attempt to go so far as to have the agreement annulled completely. 
       Williams, which has already begun some of the costly renovation work on the outdated, Soviet-built plant, declined any comment. 
       (Also see the latest CITY PAPER, November/December 2000, for an interview with the Lithuanian representative of Mazeikiai Oil.) 

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus on October 23 signed a decree nominating Liberal Union leader Rolandas Paksas to become prime minister following parliamentary elections. 
       Adamkus is expected to formally announce Paksas' candidacy before parliament in the coming few days, after which the 44-year-old will have 15 days to put together a Cabinet. Legislators would then have to approve the government. 
       Paksas' center-right Liberal Union, the center-left New Party, plus the small Center Union and Modern Christian Democratic Union, signed a coalition deal following the Oct. 8 election.
       The four coalition partners fall just short of a majority in the 141-seat Seimas legislature. But promised support from several independents should give Paksas enough seats to win parliamentary approval. 
       Paksas, a former champion aerobatics pilot, is seen as a golden boy of Lithuanian politics. He first made a name for himself as Vilnius mayor the mid-1990s, when he was credited for reviving the city center. 
       He only came to national prominence in 1999 when he took over as prime minister after a government crisis. But he soon resigned over opposition to the deal privatizing a major stake in a state oil concern, Mazeikiai Oil (see above). 
       His forthright opposition to the deeply unpopular sale pushed his own approval ratings to new highs. After resigning, Paksas left the Conservative party and joined the strongly free-market Liberal Union.
       Paksas has advocated more streamlined government and has said taxes are stifling small and medium sized businesses. He has expressed strong support for Lithuania's bids to join the European Union and NATO. 
       But his main coalition partner, the center-left New Party, has shown less enthusiasm for tax cuts and has advocated government intervention to kickstart the flagging Lithuanian economy.
       The outgoing Conservative government, headed by Andrius Kubilius, will stay in office in a caretaker role until a new administration is approved.

A Latvian judge on October 23 issued an arrest warrant for alleged Nazi Konrads Kalejs, allowing extradition proceedings against him to begin.
       The 87-year-old, who now lives in Melbourne, Australia, was charged in September with genocide for allegedly participating in the murder of Latvian Jews during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation. 
       An arrest order is required to launch extradition proceedings
       Another court earlier this month refused to issue the warrant, throwing the extradition of Kalejs from Australia to Latvia into doubt. But now that the order has been submitted, Latvian authorities said they will start the process. 
       The defense attorney for Kalejs said he was too ill to be deported. Others have said Kalejs is in relatively good mental and physical condition for a man of his age. 
       Jewish groups say the Latvian-born Kalejs was an officer in the Arajs Kommando, a Nazi-sponsored death squad believed to be responsible for the murder of some 30,000 Latvian Jews. 

Reader Commentary—from Andrew Zimkauskas. 
Lithuania came out of its October 8 election a lot better off than many people expected. There were fears raised in some quarters that the country was destined for a sharp turn to the left. Some even raised the specter of a "return of the Reds." What Lithuania is going to get instead, it seems, is a rather odd and somewhat more benign creature—a government with the head of a free-market capitalist (Rolandas Paksas and his Liberal Union) and the body of a center-left neo-socialist (Arturas Paulauskas and his New Party.) The question is: Will this beast be able to function effectively? It's not clear to me that it can. One end talks of drastically lowering taxes, while the other talks about increased spending. Paulauskas also has the reputation anyway of being soft on Moscow and of straddling the fence on NATO membership. Lithuania has also never demonstrated that it can make coalitions work. Until now, Lithuania has never had such a patch-work of political parties forming a single government. I'm guessing the coalition will fall apart within a year. Two, if they're lucky. 

News highlights from October 9-October 16, 2000

Four centrist parties on October 12 signed an agreement to form a coalition government after the ruling Conservatives were crushed in parliamentary elections several days before.
       The center-right Liberal Union and center-left New Union will share the top posts; the small Center Union and Modern Christian Democratic Union will also take part.
       Their choice for prime minister is Rolandas Paksas, a former Conservative prime minister and current head of the Liberal Union. New Union leader Arturas Paulauskas would become parliamentary speaker.
       The laissez faire Liberal Union was also expected to secure the key ministries of economics, finance and defense. The New Union was lobbying for the ministries of foreign affairs, interior and health.
       Paulauskas, of the New Union, said the coalition partners were still putting the final touches on the composition of the administration. 
       All the would-be government parties strongly back Lithuania's bid for European Union and NATO membership. But there are differences on some key economic issues, with the center-right advocating deeper tax cuts than other parties. The question of how to bring down record-high 12 percent unemployment could also cause friction. 
       The far-left Social Democrats, which includes some ex-communists, won the largest parliamentary bloc in Sunday's polls for the 141-seat Seimas legislature. But their 51 seats weren't enough to form a government.
       The Liberal Union has 34 seats and New Union, 29. The three seats of the Center Union, two from the Modern Christian Democratic Union and the promised support of several independents should give the coalition a slim 71-seat majority.
       The rightwing Conservatives, blamed for widespread economic
hardships, won just eight seats. They weren't asked to join a new
government, but they could be expected to back many of its pro-reform, pro-West policies. 
       Lithuanian President Valdas Adamuks is expected to name Liberal Union leader Paksas as the official candidate for prime minister next week. He and his Cabinet should win legislative approval by the end of the month.

Final results of the October 8 Lithuanian Election
Seventy seats for the 141-seat parliament were distributed to parties according to the percentage of the popular vote that they won; 71 other seats were allotted according to which candidate won the most votes in a district. Some parties, like the Liberal Union, did especially well in winning individual mandates. 

By Party, Percentage of Popular Vote and Seats Won
Social Democrats - 31 percent, 51 seats
New Union - 20 percent, 29 seats
Liberal Union - 17 percent, 34 seats
Conservatives - 9 percent, 9 seats
Christian Democratic Union - 4 percent, 1 seat
Center Union - 3 percent, 2 seats
Lithuanian Polish Action - 2 percent, 2 seats
Modern Conservatives - 2 percent, 1 seat
Young Lithuania - 1 percent, 1 seat 
Freedom League - 1 percent, 1 seat
Modern Christian Democrats - 1 seat
Independents - 3 seats 


A judge ruled on October 13 that the trial of alleged Nazi Kazys Gimzauskas should proceed in absentia even though he suffers from Alzheimer's and other diseases. 
       The 93-year-old is charged with genocide for allegedly sending scores of Jews to their deaths when he was an officer in the Vilnius security police during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation. 
       The ruling comes a month after indicted Nazi war criminal Aleksandras Lileikis, Gimzauskas' boss in the security police, died of a heart attack in Vilnius before a court could ever pass final judgment in his case. He was 93.
       In absentia laws allow a lawyer to represent a mentally incapacitated war crimes suspects at trial. 
       If convicted, however, Gimzauskas wouldn't have to serve any
sentences handed down. Genocide carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
       The trial is slated to begin on November 13. 
       A trial in absentia was also launched against Lileikis, but was halted when his health deteriorated. But because he was deemed mentally fit, judges said they had to wait until his physical health improved.
       Ironically, the fact that Gimzauskas is both mentally and physically unfit means the court doesn't have to stop the proceedings and should be able to reach a verdict as long as he is alive. 
       Gimzauskas, who earlier denied charges he took part in the Holocaust, emigrated to the United States in 1956 and lived in St.
Petersburg, Florida. 
       He returned to Lithuania in 1994 after a U.S. court moved to strip him of his citizenship for lying about his Nazi past. Lithuanian prosecutors charged him several years later. 
       His regular trial began in 1998, but was repeatedly delayed and then suspended on health grounds. 
       The in absentia law was only adopted in February of this year, opening the way for Nazi war crimes trials without defendants present in court. 

Estonian Foreign Minister Toomas Ilves on October 12 questioned the usefulness of pan-Baltic cooperation, telling Estonian parliamentarians that its benefits were limited. 
       Ilves said that some forms of Baltic military cooperation had worked, but that in other areas, especially in the drive towards European Union membership, Baltic cooperation was sometimes counterproductive.
       "I'm tired of all the noise about so called Baltic cooperation," he said, speaking on the floor of the Estonian legislature.
       Ilves has made similar points before, to the chagrin of many businessmen operating in all three Baltic states. Many Latvians and Lithuanians have also criticized the minister's apparent coolness towards pan-Baltic cooperation. 
       At at forum organized by the American Chamber of Commerce and City Paper a year and a half ago, Ilves said Estonia should sell itself as a Nordic country and avoid the 'Baltic' label. 
       "I don't see any advantage in the so called Baltic states. I don't think Estonia is a Baltic state. I think the idea of a Baltic state is a construction made up elsewhere...as foreign minister, my goal was to separate Estonia from being a Baltic state." 
       The comments, widely reported in the Estonian media, provoked sharp criticism from several leading politicians, who argued that Baltic cooperation had played an important role in Estonia's development since 1991. 
       Other panelists at the CITY PAPER/ACCE forum also strongly disagreed with Ilves, saying Estonia would be foolish to play down Baltic unity and to write off the potential of a pan-Baltic economic market. 
       (A full transcript of the CITY PAPER/ACCE forum in which Ilves criticized the notion of Baltic cooperation and identity is available on this site, here.) 

News Highlights from October 2-October 9, 2000

Two major parties shunned the biggest vote-getter in the weekend's parliamentary election, saying on October 9 that they would be able to form the next Lithuanian government.
   The two parties, the center-left New Union and the center-right Liberal Union, told Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus they could secure a majority in the 141-seat Seimas parliament, the president's office said.
    President Adamkus, charged with brokering coalition talks and later nominating the prime minister, reacted favorably to their bid to take the reins of power, said presidential spokeswoman Violetta Gaizaukaite.
   "The president took the proposal very positively," she said.
   But the leftist Social Democratic coalition that won the largest bloc of seats in the election reacted angrily, saying it was inappropriate to sweep aside the most successful political grouping in the country. 
   "This looks very strange when we, the group that grabs the biggest share of the vote, is forced into opposition," said Algirdas Brazauskas, Lithuania's ex-Communist Party boss who heads the Social Democrats.
   The Social Democrats won 31 percent of the proportional vote with ballots from all 2,027 polling stations counted and won 51 seats. 
   Adamkus, who spent most of his adult life in the United States before returning to his homeland to become president in 1998, isn't affiliated with any party but is thought to favor center-right, pro-market groups.
   Some fear Brazauskas, who is otherwise regarded as affable and honest, could send the wrong signal to investors if he took power: that Lithuania wanted to peel back market reforms implemented after it regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
   "What scares me most about some of these left-wingers is their attitude that businesses are hoarding money, and we need to steal from the rich to give to the poor," said Rita Dapkus, a Liberal Union supporter and a leading restauranteur in Vilnius.
   The New Union, which is led by populist former Soviet prosecutor Arturas Paulauskas, came in second in the popular vote with 19 percent and it won 29seats.
   The center-right Liberal Union, a pro-market party headed by popular Vilnius mayor and former Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas, won just 17 percent of the votes cast, but took 34 legislative seats.
   Some parliamentary seats were distributed according to party and other by individual totals. The Liberals, who had several popular figures on their list, did especially well with individual mandates. 
   The centrist Center Union, which holds 3 seats, said prior to the election that it would enter an alliance with the New and Liberal Unions.
   With 69 seats between them, the New Union, Liberal Union and Center Union are just two shy of a parliamentary majority, but are expected to tag up with several independent legislators to put them over the top. 
   To form a government, a party or group of parties must control 71 seats.
   The ruling Conservatives, blamed for economic hardships, won a mere 8 percent of the vote for eight seats. In the last election in 1996, they won more than 40 percent of the vote.
   The Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, will stay in power in a caretaker role until a new prime minister and Cabinet are approved. The process could take several weeks or more.
   Many observers saw the New Union and the Social Democratic coalition as natural bedfellows, since they agree on many issues. But the New Union kept the Social Democrats at arm's length, saying they were too left-wing.
   The New Union, for instance, opposed the Social Democrats' proposed progressive income tax, which would raise taxes on wealthier Lithuanians in this Baltic nation of 3.7 million people.
   All the parliamentary parties say they back Lithuania's long-cherished goals of membership in the 15-nation European Union and NATO. 
   The Conservatives saw their approval ratings plummet due to a recession brought on by 1998 financial turmoil in Russia. The jobless rate also soared to a record high of 12 percent this year.
   The election press center reported a slightly better than usual turnout among the 2.6 million eligible voters during Sunday's election, with about 55 percent casting ballots.

The Lithuanian government said on October 6 that Moscow should pay Lithuania 20 billion dollars in damage compensation for five decades of harsh Soviet occupation that only ended in 1991.
   Lithuania's parliament adopted a controversial bill in June demanding the government seek compensation from Moscow, but it called on officials to come up with the exact figure to ask from Russia's government.
   The figure, released Friday, included 500 million dollars for property expropriated by Communist rulers and 1.8 billion  dollars to compensate over 100,000 Lithuanians deported during the Stalinist era.
   The sum also includes environmental damage caused by hundreds of Red Army bases established across Lithuania as well as compensation for the destruction of dozens of churches in this predominantly Catholic nation. 
   The opposition said the announcement, made two days before the October 8 parliamentary election, was an attempt by ruling Conservatives to score political points before an election that polls indicate they will lose.
   But government spokesman Audrius Baciulis insisted the timing was coincidental. He also denied the 20-billion figure, eight times the government's annual national budget, was exaggerated.
   "We didn't pull this figure out of thin air. It took weeks of hard work to come up with," he said.
   The Red Army occupied the then-independent Baltics, including Latvia and Estonia, in 1940. It retook them after a 1941-44 Nazi occupation. They only regained independence after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
   Russia's government has long argued it isn't responsible for Soviet actions. The Kremlin also hasn't acknowledged that the 1940 annexation of the Baltics was illegal, arguing they joined the Soviet Union voluntarily.
   By law, the government is supposed to try and initiate negotiations with Moscow now that they have a precise compensation sum.
   But few observers expect Russia to agree.
   After the June law was adopted, Russia reacted angrily, saying that bilateral relations could be harmed if Lithuania pushed ahead with claims.
   Yegor Stoyev, chairman of the Russian Federation Council, said at the time that Lithuania should be thankful for all the infrastructure projects, including ports and roads, that were built during Soviet rule.
   "It is a shame and a sin to raise such issues after all that has been done for the Baltic region by the Soviet Union," he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
   The Lithuanian spokesman conceded Moscow isn't likely to agree to discuss the issue any time soon. But he held out hope that one day it would.
   "Ten years ago, people were saying Moscow would never let Lithuania be independent, and that happened," Baciulis said. "It will be a long hard process to get them to discuss this, but I think it's possible."

Governments must do more to help track down Jewish art stolen by Nazis and return it to its rightful heirs, an appeal adopted on October 5 at a high-level forum in Vilnius said.
   "The Vilnius Forum asks all governments to undertake every reasonable effort to achieve the restitution of cultural assets looted during the Holocaust era," said the resolution, adopted by more than 300 delegates.
   It said officials needed to throw open any records that might relate to some 600,000 pieces of art plundered from Holocaust victims and make that information publicly available, including via the Internet.
   During the conference, delegates also discussed establishing a worldwide database that heirs could use to track specific works and which galleries could check to see if they possess stolen objects.
   Participants also debated whether art taken from museums in Nazi-occupied Europe should be returned to the nations of origin or to Israel. But the highly contentious issue wasn't mentioned in the final resolution.
   During the conference, a top U.S. official also announced that the United States and Russia had agreed on a major deal to open key Russian archives in the search for Jewish artwork stolen by the Nazis.
   U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat, Washington's point man on Holocaust issues, said in a keynote address that a nonprofit U.S. group would begin sifting through the Russian archives.
   Jewish groups have complained that Russia has not been sufficiently cooperative in opening its Nazi records, which experts say could be key in tracking down and returning plundered artworks.
   "This is a major breakthrough," Eizenstat said. "I'm confident that in this way Russia will demonstrate its commitment to the international effort to bring justice, long sought, for Holocaust victims."
   He also said Washington would declassify millions of pages of wartime records over the next two years to try to shed light on looted Jewish property. He said 2.5 million pages of files have already been released.
   The conference, attended by art experts and officials from Europe, the United States and Israel, follows similar conferences devoted to lost Jewish assets, including one in Washington in 1998 and in London in 1997.

News Highlights from September 25-October 2, 2000

Alleged Nazi Aleksandras Lileikis, indicted for sending scores of Jews to their deaths during World War II, died on September 26 of a heart attack before a court ever could pass final judgment on whether or not he was guilty as charged. He was 93. 
       Nazi hunters sought for years to bring Lileikis to justice. Lithuanian prosecutors charged him, but his on-again, off-again trial never got beyond preliminary stages. The one-time U.S. citizen maintained his innocence, claiming he had backed the anti-Nazi resistance and even tried to foil massacres of Jews. Jewish groups balked at the claims, and they urged Lileikis to admit his guilt before he died. 
       Efraim Zuroff, of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, said that, in death, Lileikis had successfully evaded justice. "His guilt was unquestionable. He should have died in jail, where murderers are supposed to die," he said. 
       Lileikis was charged with genocide for allegedly turning Jews over to be executed during the 1941-44 Nazi occupation, when he headed the Vilnius security police. His alleged victims were shot in sand pits near Vilnius. 
       Fitness questions repeatedly delayed the Lileikis trial. It restarted in June under a new law allowing trials in absentia, but was halted after judges said he was too ill to even follow proceedings via closed-curcuit television. 
       Lileikis appeared in court only once, in 1998. In a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace, he briefly declared his innocence, then began trembling and gasping. He was rushed away in an ambulance and never again appeared in court. 
       His lawyers said his death was the ultimate rebuke to those who said Lileikis was feigning illness to avoid trial. Lileikis was buried in Vilnius.
       The U.S Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, which investigated Lileikis when he was in the United States, said it feared he would die before legal proceedings could ever be completed. 
       "There is a biological solution to these cases, and that day will come," the unit's director, Eli Rosenbaum, said, speaking in 1996. "I lament it in advance."
       In a related story, Latvian prosecutors formally charged alleged Nazi Konrads Kalejs with war crimes on September 28. The 87-year-old Latvian-born man currently lives in Australia and he could now be extradited to face trial in Latvia. 

All three Baltic states had a wildly successful Olympic Games, with each country bringing home at least one gold and a handful of other medals. Per capita, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia won more medals than most of the other participating countries-including the United States and Russia. 
       Lithuania rounded out the Baltic medal winnings, with its Cinderella-story basketball team taking the bronze on the final day of the Games. In another outstanding Baltic performance, Estonia's Erki Nool came from behind to capture the gold in the decathlon, winning the coveted title as the world's finest all-round athlete
       One of the most breathtaking performances of the entire Olympics was by Lithuania's basketball team-not in victory but in a memorable defeat. 
       The Lithuanians came within inches of one of the biggest upsets in sports history, losing in the final seconds of a semifinal match against the U.S. Dream Team by just two points. Millions of TV viewers worldwide cheered on the underdog Lithuanians as they took the lead with 40 seconds. After the Americans scored, a three-pointer by the Lithuanians as the buzzer sounded just missed. 
       The 85-83 final score was the closest by far that any team had ever come to beating the Americans since they starting fielding Olympic teams made up of NBA superstars. Said one American newspaper headline the next day: "Lithuania Nearly Turns Dream into a Nightmare."
       The feat was all the more amazing because the Lithuanians were without its two best players, Portland Trailblazer Arvydas Sabonis and Cleveland Cavalier Zydrunas Ilgauskas-both centers who missed the Olympics because of injury. No one who was on the young Lithuanian squad plays in the NBA. 
       The American side also expressed new-found respect for the Lithuanians, who early in the second half manhandled the Dream Team, going on a 20-4 scoring run to turn an 11 point deficit into a two point lead.
       "That was unbelievable," Antonio McDyless told reporters after the game. "My heart is pumping. Lithuania showed big heart. I would have never expected them to play so hard and with such courage."
       Lithuania brought home two gold medals, in the discus and shooting, and also added three bronze to their collection. Latvian Igors Vihrovs took gold in gymnastics, while Latvia also won a silver in walk racing and a bronze in judo. In addition to Nool's gold, Estonia also brought home two bronze medals in judo.
       Nool's victory, in which he snatched the gold only in the final of ten events, the 1,500-meter run, was seen in Estonia's as one of the nation's greatest sports triumphs ever. Even Estonian President Lennart Meri reportedly stayed up throughout the night to watch the nail-biting final day of the decathlon live on television. Newspaper's widely hailed Nool as a national hero.
       One black mark for Latvia in an otherwise impressive Games was the sending home of rower Andris Reinholds after he tested positive for the steroid nandrolone. Reinholds was considered a bright hope for future Olympic medals. He now faces a lifetime ban from the sport.
       Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia won more medals than many countries ten, twenty or even 100 times larger. Separately, all three Baltic states won more medals than the likes of Brazil, South Africa and India—which, with its 1 billion population, captured just one medal, a bronze. 
       Estonia (pop. 1.4 million) ranked 8th in per capita medals won, securing roughly one medal for every 500,000 residents. Lithuania (pop. 3.7 million) was in 14th place and Latvia in 17th place, winning one medal per 700,000 and 800,000 inhabitants, respectively. The first seven nations in per capital medals won were the Bahamas, Barbados, Iceland, Australia, Jamaica, Cuba and Norway. The United States, with its 97 medals, won the most medals numerically; but in medals won per population, it was in 46th place. 
       Baltic medals received more than just glory for their efforts, with Baltic government and Olympic officials paying out cash bonuses to victorious athletes. Before the Games started, Latvia said it was paying 165,000 dollars, 83,000 dollars and 50,000 dollars for gold, silver and bronze, while Lithuania said it will pay 100,000, 50,000 and 37,500 dollars. Estonia's prize money was put up by its national Olympic committee, which said it would hand over 65,000 dollars for gold, 45,000 for silver and 30,000 for bronze.
       The medal winners, especially those who won gold, are also likely land lucrative endorsement contracts. Barely after he been awarded his gold medal, Erki Nool was already appearing in full-page ads and on TV spots for Coca-Cola. 

News Highlights from September 18-September 25, 2000

The Baltic states have won more medals per capita than virtually any other nations taking part in the Olympics, leading Australia's Bureau of Statistics to rank them as among the most successful Olympic participants. 
       Lithuania (pop. 3.7 million) has been particularly successful, winning two gold medals and a bronze by September 25, with a week left to go in the Sydney Games. 
       Lithuania was 24th in the medal standings as of Monday. All the other countries above it had larger populations, many of them by ten or twenty fold.  Among much larger nations that came after Lithuania in the standings were Canada, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, South Africa and India. 
       Discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna won Lithuania's latest gold. A Lithuanian also won gold in a shooting competition and the country secured a bronze in rowing. 
       Latvia (pop. 2.5 million) and Estonia (1.4 million) also fared well. Gymnast Igors Vihrovs won Latvia's first gold since the country regained independence in 1991, while Latvia's other medal came in judo. Estonia's two bronze medals were also in judo.
       Several Baltic athletes and teams were in the running for more medals, including Lithuania's basketball team. The Lithuanians already made history this week by becoming the only team to lead an American Dream Team, made up of NBA stars, at half-time in an Olympics match-up. Lithuania eventually lost 85-76. 

Leading geneticists met in Estonia on September 21 to discuss the nation's plans to set up the world's largest national gene bank, which advocates say could dramatically improve understanding of diseases and potential cures. 
       The Baltic state's government recently okayed the 200-million-dollar prop