- Title: Five arrested at World War Two protest march in Riga
- Date: 16th March 2017
- Summary: RIGA, LATVIA (MARCH 16, 2017) (REUTERS) POLICE AT HEAD OF MARCH POLICE MAN HOLDING FLOWERS WAITING FOR MARCH TO BEGIN POLICEMAN ESCORTING GERMAN PROTESTER AGAINST MARCH POLICEMAN CARRYING PROTESTER'S POSTER AND ESCORTING HIM AWAY FROM MARCH POSTER READING: (Latvian and English) "CONSIDERING HOLOCAUST: NO GLORIFICATION OF WAFFEN SS COLLABORATION" (SOUNDBITE) (English) GERMAN PROTESTER, MARKUS TERVOOEN SAYING: "Police said there is manifestation and we should not disturb it. We don't want to disturb the manifestation, we want to protest. Protest against it." VARIOUS OF MARCH WALKING THROUGH OLD RIGA MAN IN WHEELCHAIR MAKING NAZI SALUTE TO CAMERA WOMAN CARRYING FLOWERS MARCH IN PROGRESS MAN SHOUTING (BEHIND FENCE) (Russian): "SHAME ON LATVIA! SHAME! FASCISM WILL NOT SUCCEED! WHAT, WHAT AM I DOING?" MEDIA FILMING, POLICEMEN TAKING MAN AWAY WHILE SHOUTING (Russian): "SHAME ON LATVIA! FASCISTS! FASCISM WILL NOT SUCCEED! FASCISTS, FASCISTS! SHAME ON LATVIA! SHAME, SHAME, SHAME" VARIOUS OF MAN BEING TAKEN AWAY POLICE PUTTING MAN INTO POLICE VAN STATE POLICE PUBLIC ORDER CHIEF ARTIS VELSS TALKING ATTENDING MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Latvian) STATE POLICE PUBLIC ORDER CHIEF, ARTIS VELSS, SAYING: "This year we did not have information about especially planned or carefully planned incitements. It was more about individual transgressions." MARCH IN PROGRESS BANNER SEEN OVER THE HEADS OF MARCH PARTICIPANTS: "WE SAY NO TO NAZISM AND COMMUNISM" VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LAYING FLOWERS AT FREEDOM MONUMENT MEN HOLDING BANNER READING (German): "AGAINST NAZIS" PROTESTERS HOLDING POSTERS
- Embargoed: 30th March 2017 16:08
- Keywords: Latvia SS veterans World War Two
- Location: RIGA, LATVIA
- City: RIGA, LATVIA
- Country: Latvia
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001687M1IX
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Five people were arrested on Thursday (March 16, 2017) as they protested against the annual parade that Latvians who fought in the local unit of Nazi Germany's Waffen SS held in central Riga.
Three people were detained for placing posters in places that had not been agreed with police in advance.
Two other people were arrested as participants of the march approached the Freedom Monument for calling them "fascists".
Latvians who joined the armed wing of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party say they were fighting for Latvian freedom at the end of the war and against the return of the Soviet Red Army.
They say they were front-line troops and did not belong to the part of the SS responsible for killing Jews in the Holocaust and see their march as an expression of patriotism.
Russia, proud of its World War Two role and seeing the Soviet Union as having liberated Latvia and the other Baltic states from Nazi Germany, has reacted angrily to such events in the past. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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