Integration monitor is a daily Latvian press digest on ethnic minority and society integration issues. The Monitor reviews the biggest Latvian dailies: Diena, Latvijas Avize, Neatkariga (in Latvian language), Vesti Segodnya (in Russian language). In specific cases other information sources are used. Latvian Centre for Human Rights is not responsible for information published by the media.

• Men dressed in Waffen SS legionnaires’ uniform visited a kindergarten on 16 March
• MEP from Latvia Inese Vaidere: Russians live like in paradise in Latvia
• Concord Centre demands the Minister of Justice Gaidis Berzins for explanation regarding his call to the notaries not to verify residents’ signatures under the draft law on granting citizenship to non-citizens

Chas and Vesti Segodnya report about a visit of representatives of an organisation “Latvian Soldier” to a kindergarten in Riga on 16 March (unofficial commemoration day of Latvian Waffen SS legionnaires.) The men were dressed in Waffen SS legionnaires’ uniform and showed the children military weapons. At the web site of the kindergarten the description to the event says: “. Soldiers, commemorated today, until the war were just men –fathers and sons (..) Until the enemy approached the Fatherland. So they became soldiers to save the life of their beloved (..) The soldiers fought so we could live in the most beautiful land Latvia and to speak the most beautiful Latvian language”

The MEP from Latvia Inese Vaidere believes that ethnic Russian residents live in privileged condition on Latvia. According to Mrs Vaidere: “Russians live like in paradise in Latvia. Where else could they live in democratic EU state and to speak their native language?” Chas

The Saeima faction of the Concord Centre (CC) demands the Minister of Justice Gaidis Berzins for explanation regarding his call to the notaries not to verify residents’ signatures under the draft law on granting citizenship to all Latvian non-citizens. The CC states that the Law on Notary does not grant the notaries rights to evaluate whether the draft laws corresponds to the Constitution of Latvia. The Minister of Justice, in his turn, calls the notaries to violate the law limiting the political rights of citizens and initiation of draft laws. The CC also considers that the Minister himself violates that law which prohibits the state officials to interfere in the professional activities of the notaries. Chas