LATVIA: LATVIAN VETERANS HAVE COMMEMORATED THEIR FIGHT AGAINST THE SOVIET RED ARMY AND THE NAZI SIDE DURING WORLD WAR TWO

Record ID: 376171

  • Title: LATVIA: LATVIAN VETERANS HAVE COMMEMORATED THEIR FIGHT AGAINST THE SOVIET RED ARMY AND THE NAZI SIDE DURING WORLD WAR TWO
  • Date: 16th March 2004
  • Summary: (W6) RIGA, LATVIA (MARCH 16, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV DIVINE SERVICE IN THE DOME CATHEDRAL 0.03 2. MCU/SLV VETERANS DURING THE DIVINE SERVICE (2 SHOTS) 0.11 3. SLV VETERANS GOING TO THE MONUMENT OF FREEDOM 0.14 4. LV MEMORIAL SERVICE AT THE MONUMENT OF FREEDOM 0.19 5. LV/SLV/SV VETERANS AND OTHERS LAYING FLOWERS AT
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RIGA,LATVIA
  • Country: Latvia
  • Reuters ID: LVA4XV3NX27F17RYQH9SB2ULH6
  • Story Text: Latvian veterans have commemorated their fight
    against the Soviet Red Army on the Nazi side during World
    War Two.



    Latvian veterans held the annual commemoration of
    their fight against the Soviet Red Army on the Nazi side
    during World War Two on Tuesday (March 16).

    About 500 people gathered at the Freedom Monument in
    the centre of Riga, singing patriotic songs and waving
    Latvian flags as flowers were laid.

    "Doing this is important for me. Latvian legionnaires,
    although dressed in foreign uniforms, fought against the
    USSR's annexation of Latvia and mass deportations to
    Siberia", Henrihs Rasnacs said.

    Adrians Cibulskis said he was attending the ceremony to
    show "respect to all the men who fought for Latvia".

    Sympathisers of the old Latvian Legionnaires say they
    fought for independence against the advancing Red Army.

    "They didn't fight for Germany or other force, they
    tried to regain the independence of the state of Latvia"
    Cibulskis said.

    Opponents say there is no excuse for fighting with the
    Nazi Waffen SS which links them with the horrors of Nazism
    and the Holocaust.

    The head of the Former Latvian Soldiers' Association,
    Nikolajs Romanovskis made the point that Communists should
    be punished for their crimes, just as National Socialists
    were punished at the Nuremburg Trials after World War Two
    had ended.

    "We'll try to achieve the understanding from Western
    Europe and other countries. National Socialists have been punished in
    N
    uremberg. It must not happen that the crimes
    of Communism will go unpunished. The crimes of Communism
    must be accounted for", Romanovskis said.

    The ex-Soviet republic of Latvia, due to join NATO in
    April and the EU in May, was occupied by the Soviet Union
    in 1940 and the harsh Stalin regime started mass killings
    and deportations.

    When the army of Nazi Germany drove the Red Army out a
    year later, many Latvians greeted them in the hope that
    Latvia would regain independence. A Latvian Legion of about
    140,000 soldiers was formed in 1943 when fortunes turned
    for the Germans.

    On Tuesday, many veterans attended a church ceremony
    before going to the Freedom Monument to mark the only time
    the two Latvian Waffen SS divisions fought side by side on
    March 16, 1944.

    A memorial service was also held in the cemetery of
    Lestene.

    Latvia has a Russian minority making up almost one
    third of the population of 2.3 million. Moscow has earlier
    used the commemorations to warn about a rebirth of Baltic
    fascism.

    Most Latvians and ethnic Russians live in harmony and
    there have been no major episodes of ethnic violence since
    the country broke with Moscow in 1991. But lately tensions
    have risen.

    An education reform aiming to reduce the use of Russian
    in schools sparked mass rallies last month with some
    warning about more to come in the run-up to EU entry.


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