RIGA, March 16 (RIA Novosti) - Former Waffen SS
veterans and their supporters held a demonstration in the
Latvian capital on Monday despite a ban by the Riga Duma, a RIA
Novosti correspondent reported.
About 100 people, including representatives from a radical
Latvian party, took part in the parade as part of Legionnaire's
Day that commemorates Latvians, who fought on the side of the
Germans during WWII.
Several dozen representatives from Latvia's anti-fascist
committee met them chanting "Hitler Kaput," but police
prevented any clashes between the WWII veterans and
anti-fascist demonstrators.
Despite the ban on Legionnaire's Day parades, police
promised not to prevent veterans and participants from laying
flowers at the Freedom Monument.
In the past, parades in honor of the Waffen-SS
legionnaires, involving veterans from the Latvian Legion and
the 20th Estonian SS Division and their supporters, have been
an annual event in Latvia and Estonia.
The dismantling in Tallinn, capital of Estonia, of the
Soviet war memorial, the Bronze Soldier, just before the May 9,
2007 Victory Day celebrations in Russia led to street protests
in which over 1,000 people were arrested and one Russian
national was killed.
Relations between Russia and Latvia and Estonia have also
been strained over what Moscow calls the two states' unequal
treatment of ethnic Russians, the alleged persecution of Soviet
WWII veterans, and the apparent revival of nationalism and
fascism.
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