From: goykhman@apollo.hp.com (Red Herring)
Subject: Re: CSCE minority commissioner on LATVIA
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 23:27:48 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Chelmsford, MA

In article <gunars.727993015@spssig> gunars@spss.com (Gunars V Lucans) writes:
>goykhman@apollo.hp.com (Red Herring) writes:
>
>>In article <1993Jan23.145409.1@cc.helsinki.fi> thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi (Tapani Hietaniemi) writes:
>>>Instead of arguing about the minority situation on the Baltic
>>>states with unsufficient information, it might be more fruitful
>>>to read some evaluations on the situation that are made by some
>>>third party or respected international organisations.
>>>
>>>Here a briefing of the standpoint of the minority rights commissioner 
>>>of the Conference of Security and Co-operation in Europe:
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>CSCE COMMISSIONER ON MINORITY RIGHTS IN LATVIA. CSCE High
>>>Commissioner on Minorities Max van der Stoel told Latvian Supreme
>>>Council Chairman Anatolijs Gorbunovs and Foreign Minister Georgs
>>>Andrejevs that he had not observed any abuses of ethnic minority
>>>rights of non-Latvians who are citizens of the republic,
>
>>    Of course, because there no such a thing as a non-Latvian 
>>    citizen of Latvia.  Even half-Latvians can't become 
>>    a citizen.
>
>That's sheer nonsense.  There is no such legislation nor is
>citizenship in any way restricted to ethnic Latvians.

    I would be much surprised if the Latvian goverment had such
    a law on the books, nor do they need one to discriminate.
    In fact, they are better of having no citizenship laws at
    all.  This way no matter what they do, no law gets broken.
>
>>    A couple of weeks ago I received a letter from somebody whose late 
>>    mother was an ethnic Latvian and a citizen of Latvia (born there
>>    before 1940, lived there all her life, and buried in Riga). 
>>    That person is being denied citizenship because of non-Latvian
>>    father.
>
>Is this the same person you've mentioned in the past?  There are
>several possiblities:

    Yes, it is the same person.

>
>1) There are other reasons that you or your friend have not mentioned
>why citizenship was denied.  Simply having a non-Latvian father is
>not the reason.

    I believe the official reason was "inadequate language skills",
    or something like that - this friend of mine speaks fluent
    Latvian, but with - the ultimate speechcrime! - an accent.

    Aside from the citizenship requirements, Latvian residents
    must now all take a language test to get a job.  Those who
    receive the lowest of three grades can only apply for menial
    low-paying jobs, regardless of their educational and/or 
    professional background.

    The highest grade is reserved exclusively for native Latvian
    speakers.  Naturally, they get the best jobs too (goverment,
    managerial, academy, etc.).

>
>2) Some public official is doing something illegal.  Although this is
>certainly possible, it would be a relatively isolated case.
>Otherwise, most of the non-Latvians who had citizenship in 1940 (25%)
>and their descendents would have certainly mentioned something to one
>of the human rights inspection teams (US, CSCE, CE, UN, etc) that have
>been visiting the country every few weeks.

    No, this is a rule, not exception.  At to the human rights
    inspection teams not finding any violations, during WWII 
    Red Cross teams inspecting German concentration camps
    reported no atrocities either.
>
>3) You or your friend are lying.

    You, as a Latvian-American, might be more interested in 
    promoting Latvia's image abroad, yet nobody accuses you
    of lying.

    I am going to find one of those letters - I get them on 
    a regular basis - translate it, and post it to this 
    newsgroup.  It is going to be fun to read, I promise.

-- 
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"Follow the money" Deep Throat
Disclaimer: Other opinions are mine only
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