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.

• Members of the Association of Russian Culture, Education and Science ARKONA have sent an open letter to the Latvian and Russian Ministers of Foreign Affairs Maris Riekstins and Sergey Lavrov regarding education reform in minority schools
• General Director of the Employers Confederation of Latvia Elina Egle: Latvia should attract foreign specialists urgently
• Vesti Segodnya prints an interview with one of the eldest lawyers in Latvia Alebrts Paze about a book Scaffold

Members of the Association of Russian Culture, Education and Science “ARKONA” have sent an open letter to the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maris Riekstins and the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov (who is planning an official visit to Latvia next week) with an appeal to hold highly professional international monitoring on results of education reform in minority schools (launched in 2004). The members of “ARKONA” also consider that Latvian legal acts should stipulate that teaching mathematics in schools with Russian as language of instruction should take place only in Russian.

Members of the Association of Russian Culture, Education and Science ARKONA have sent an open letter to the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maris Riekstins and the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov (who is planning an official visit to Latvia next week) with an appeal to hold highly professional international monitoring on results of education reform in minority schools (launched in 2004). The members of ARKONA also consider that Latvian legal acts should stipulate that teaching mathematics in schools with Russian as language of instruction should take place only in Russian. Chas

At a session of the Saeima’s Citizenship Law Implementation Committee, the General Director of the Employer’s Confederation of Latvia Elina Egle stated that 4,000 guest workers have arrived in Latvia which is 27, 5 times less than persons who have emigrated from Latvia to other countries. Mrs. Egle believes that Latvia should urgently attract foreign specialists because to wait that Latvians will return back to Latvia is an illusion.

At a session of the Saeimas Citizenship Law Implementation Committee, the General Director of the Employers Confederation of Latvia Elina Egle stated that 4,000 guest workers have arrived in Latvia which is 27, 5 times less than persons who have emigrated from Latvia to other countries. Mrs. Egle believes that Latvia should urgently attract foreign specialists because to wait that Latvians will return back to Latvia is an illusion. Vesti Segodnya

Vesti Segodnya prints an interview with one of the eldest lawyers in Latvia Alberts Paze about the book Scaffold written by a well-known Latvian lawyer Andris Grutups. The book narrates about court proceedings against five ex-Nazi generals charged with war crimes in Latvia in 1946. The author criticizes the court proceedings and justifies the defendants. Alberts Paze believes that the book is anti-Semitic because it reflects hatred towards people of Jewish background and towards Russians. Mr. Paze also considers that the book is written with prejudice and cannot be considered documentary work.