Latvia
Latvia, a parliamentary democracy, regained its independence in 1991
after forced annexation and more than fifty years of occupation by the Soviet
Union. Following the inconclusive autumn 1995 parliamentary elections, President
Guntis Ulmanis appointed a non-party businessman, Andris Skele, to head
a coalition of seven of the nine successful parties, which includes Saimnieks
(In Charge), Latvia's Way and the Latvian National Conservative Party (LNNK).
In June 1996, Ulmanis was re-elected president for a second three-year term.
As the transition from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economic
system continues, private enterprise in trade and services is thriving.
About 80 per cent of agricultural land is farmed privately, and 60 per cent
of all land is now in private hands. In the industrial sector, progress
towards privatization is much slower. In 1996, unemployment was more than
8 per cent and annual inflation was under 15 per cent, down from 25 per
cent in 1995. Per capita gross domestic product, slightly over $1,000, began
to rise slightly in 1996 as the economy recovered from the 1995 collapse
of several commercial banks as well as from a severe governmental budget
crisis.
Jews have lived in the territory of Latvia since the mid-seventeenth
century. They arrived mostly from the areas of western Ukraine and Byelorussia
(now Belarus), which were controlled by Poland. According to the population
census of 1897, there were over 142,000 Jews in Latvia at that time.
On the eve of the Second World War, Latvian Jewry totalled over 90,000 persons.
Some 85 per cent of the community was massacred by the Nazis and their accomplices
among the native population. By the end of the war only 320 Jews survived
in the territory of Latvia. Most of the current Jewish community consists
of Jews from various regions of the former Soviet Union who settled in Latvia.
Since the collapse of the Soviet regime, Jewish communities have been re-established
in all major population centres of Latvia.
During a visit to Israel in 1994 Latvia's prime minister, Vladis Birkavs,
formally acknowledged the fact that Latvian accomplices of the Nazis had
carried out anti-Jewish atrocities.
According to a report in the newspaper Vakara Zina on 18 January
1996, the Riga Jewish community claimed that antisemitism did not exist
on a national level in Latvia.
Of Latvia's 2.5 million registered residents, there are more than 765,000
ethnic Russians, 100,000 ethnic Belarusians, almost 70,000 ethnic Ukrainians
and over 60,000 ethnic Poles. Nearly 400,000 persons belonging to national
or ethnic minorities are citizens of Latvia. Because the majority of persons
who are members of national and ethnic minorities are not citizens they
have difficulty participating fully in civic life. Non-citizens who are
temporary residents have particular difficulty, but the size of this group
has greatly diminished since the adoption and implementation of the 1995
Law on the Status of Former Soviet Citizens (i.e. those who do not hold
Latvian or any other citizenship). This law reiterates guarantees of basic
human rights and provides non-citizens who have been permanent residents
continuously since 1 July 1992 with the rights to change residence, leave
and return, and invite close relatives to join them for the purpose of family
reunification.
Latvia is not a signatory to the International Convention on Refugees and
has no internal legislation on the acceptance of political refugees. Most
of those who seek refugee status enter Latvia illegally via Russia, Belarus
or Lithuania en route to Scandinavian countries. In 1996 more than 100 Kurdish
persons who had gained illegal entry into Latvia, having spent more than
a year in a camp specifically arranged for them, were finally accepted by
Scandinavian countries.
Tevzemei un Brivibai (TUV, For the Fatherland and Freedom) is a marginal
ultra-nationalist party given to xenophobic rhetoric. On 7 June the mainstream
daily newspaper Diena quoted Oskars Grigs, TUV candidate in the 1995
presidential election, as having said that "The most dangerous thing
in each nation are bastards . . . But not all national hybrids are dangerous
. . . There is a nation that becomes dangerous when mixed with another .
. . The core of the evil lies in the evil of that nation . . . " Diena
emphasized that this was a reference to Jews.
On 28 October the Russian-language newspaper SM Segodnya reported
that the organization National Reconnaissance had been operating underground
in Latvia for three years and was publishing and distributing leaflets of
nationalist and antisemitic content. The leaflets contained the names of
persons who had allegedly co-operated the most closely with Soviet and communist
bodies.
Between January and March there was much discussion in the Latvian press
of the arrest of Aleksandrs Lavents, the former head of Baltija Bank, which
had gone bankrupt. Lavents was said to have been arrested on account of
his Jewish origins.
According to a report in the evening newspaper Vakara Zinas of 26
September, students protesting at a rally in Riga's main square against
student conscription displayed a swastika bearing the colours of the Latvian
national flag.
During the year the xenophobic papers Jaunais Laiks and Tevzemei un
Brivibai , both published by the ultra-nationalist TUV party (see PARTIES,
ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS), were closed down by a government order.
The LNNK's weekly newspaper Pavalstnieks of 6-12 January contained
the statement "We Latvians allow the Pole Jurkans and the Yid Vulfsons
to shit on our heads". Pavalstnieks subsequently ceased publication
for financial reasons.
On 16 March, Diena reporter Anita Lase said that anyone who wished to do
so could obtain a copy of Mein Kampf at the Latvian national library;
other antisemitic books available there, she said, were "The Truth
about the Yids" and "How to Fight the Yids".
During March and April, Peteris Lauva, the publisher of a Latvian-language
version of Hitler's Mein Kampf , of which about 8,000 copies were
confiscated by the police in 1995, wrote to schools offering the book for
sale.
On 22 June, Vakara Zinas published an article by Guna Kujbanska entitled
"The City of Liepaja was Defended for a Week. Some Defended it Against
Fascists, Others Against Communists". Kujbanska wrote that "communist-minded
yids" had been throwing explosives at people hiding in cellars during
raids on the city by fascist air forces.
On 18 August an advertisement for a Russian-language edition of Hitler's
Mein Kampf appeared in the Riga evening paper Rigas Balls.
On 22 October, Diena reported that antisemitic anecdotes had been
broadcast on Latvian television two days earlier. The paper stated: "If
Latvians were telling similar jokes about Latvians, Latvians would consider
it an offence."
On 20 January, Nils Mulznieks, director of the Human Rights and Ethnic
Research Centre of Latvia, told Diena that he believed "closet"
antisemitism was widespread in Latvia and that Latvians often made tactless
remarks about the Holocaust. He added: "[A]ny manifestation of antisemitism
in modern Latvia rightfully deserves the attention of the international
public."
The newspaper SM Segodnya repeatedly condemned antisemitism during
the course of the year.
As in previous years, antisemitism remains a fringe phenomenon in Latvia
and does not pose a major risk to the Jewish minority. Relations between
the small Jewish population and the authorities continue to be good. A particularly
positive development in 1996 was the closing down of the two papers put
out by the ultra-nationalist TUV (see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA).
© JPR 1997