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.

Press Report

Press Report

Latvia risks NATO by ignoring OSCE recommendations. The controversial state language proficiency requirement for Saeima deputy candidates should be lifted because the President’s special expert group has delved into the Constitution, the Saeima Rules of Order and the Administrative Violations Code and come to the conclusion that status of the Latvian language as the official language in Latvia can be retained without any restrictions in the Election Law. There are problems, however, in putting the law into practice. Therefore, the experts are preparing recommendations by January 7. They also asked the State Language Center to prepare information about the real problems with using the state language and what could be changed in the legislation concerning the activities of the Centre. By January 11 all these recommendation have to be formulated so that they might be presented to the President. January 9 the President is scheduled to meet with the Minister of Education and Science K.Greiskalns to find out how the state language law is observed and how it is implemented in the education - by the means of test books and programs. HoM of the OSCE mission Latvia Peter Semneby is set to report on the situation in Latvia today during the OSCE summit in Vienna.

Latvia risks NATO by ignoring OSCE recommendations. The controversial state language proficiency requirement for Saeima deputy candidates should be lifted because the Presidents special expert group has delved into the Constitution, the Saeima Rules of Order and the Administrative Violations Code and come to the conclusion that status of the Latvian language as the official language in Latvia can be retained without any restrictions in the Election Law. There are problems, however, in putting the law into practice. Therefore, the experts are preparing recommendations by January 7. They also asked the State Language Center to prepare information about the real problems with using the state language and what could be changed in the legislation concerning the activities of the Centre. By January 11 all these recommendation have to be formulated so that they might be presented to the President. January 9 the President is scheduled to meet with the Minister of Education and Science K.Greiskalns to find out how the state language law is observed and how it is implemented in the education - by the means of test books and programs. HoM of the OSCE mission Latvia Peter Semneby is set to report on the situation in Latvia today during the OSCE summit in Vienna. Diena, (full text will follow in the nearest future)

This day might be recorded in history as not the brightest one for national minorities of Latvia. Today in Vienna most likely will be closed the OSCE Mission to Latvia. There are several indirect messages – information that the technical staff of the Mission was recommended to look for a new job and the HoM P.Semneby in his report recommended not to extend the mandate of the Mission because all the tasks in general had been fulfilled. Of course, the decision will not be unanimous, Russia is categorically against closing the Mission; she is supported by several EU countries. Also some CIS countries could vote for extending the mandate. But the majority of OSCE counties will vote for closing. Presence of the Mission here had an important psychological meaning - people knew that nearby was an important international institution that might give a suggestion concerning human rights and sent information about concrete violations to Vienna. From the other side – Latvian politicians knew that their activities have been monitored by international observers with diplomatic passports, and this cooled many hotheads. But every cloud has a silver lining – now national minorities will see how effective is EU in protecting national minority rights. It will be a good test on efficiency of this organisation in a referendum during which also citizens – non-Latvians will have to decide whether Latvia should join EU.

Vesti Segodnya

D.Araja in

Diena writes about the eight years the OSCE Mission operated in Latvia. The tasks, this international organisation charged Latvia, have improved, reaching the level of demands that at the beginning of 90ties even the most liberal minds in Latvia would not dear to think about. Starting with the issues of citizenship, Latvia in co-operation with the OSCE has come to the language, education and society integration issues. In November 2000 under the leadership of OSCE Austrian Presidency were prepared guidelines for closing the Mission but the closing itself, promised in June 2001 was postponed until the end of the year. Now Latvian authorities consider that the guidelines have been fulfilled. (Full text will follow in the nearest future)

Almost a month has passed since Estonian parliament abolished the norm of Estonian language proficiency requirements for parliament and municipality election deputy candidates. The mandatory working language of the parliament and municipalities remains the Estonian language. The first feedback has been received. The majority of the Parliament considers it to be a compliance with the demands of Western democracy, because a deputy, who does not know the state language, does not understand legislative acts and it not able to communicate with his colleagues, cannot participate in the sittings of the Parliament. The Union of Fatherland, one of the ruling parties, which proposed these amendments, considers that abolishing of language proficiency norm is not to high price if the Estonian language priority remains valid. Diena

Diena

columnist A.Ozolins writes about the ambiguous situation in the Peoples Party. While some of its leaders stand solid for preserving restriction in the election law, their representative Minister of Interior M.Seglins proposes to abolish the language law norm stipulating that all documents to be submitted to the court have to be in the Latvian language or with a translation in this language. The Ministry is short of 1.62 Million LVL to translate all the documents that have been submitted in the Russian language. The result is – while some of Peoples Party members struggle in the Saeima against the hypothetical threat that some day there will be elected deputies without the state language knowledge, a ministry lead by their party member struggles for introduction of a real billingualism at least at this ministry because many there do not know the state language but everybody knows the Russian language. columnist A.Ozolins writes about the ambiguous situation in the People’s Party. While some of its leaders stand solid for preserving restriction in the election law, their representative Minister of Interior M.Seglins proposes to abolish the language law norm stipulating that all documents to be submitted to the court have to be in the Latvian language or with a translation in this language. The Ministry is short of 1.62 Million LVL to translate all the documents that have been submitted in the Russian language. The result is – while some of People’s Party members struggle in the Saeima against the hypothetical threat that some day there will be elected deputies without the state language knowledge, a ministry lead by their party member struggles for introduction of a real billingualism at least at this ministry because many there do not know the state language but everybody knows the Russian language. DienaDiena

The Coalition Council unanimously rejected the proposal of the Minister of Interior M.Seglins to ignore the institutions of the Ministry of Interior and prosecutors offices the norm of the state language law envisaging that to translate all materials into the state language before sending them to court. The norm is valid from September last year. MI Department Director R.Eize explained Diena that the proposal was prepared due to lack of financing. To translate all these documents the police and borderguards annually would need about 1.9 million LVL because an official translation of one page costs about 2 LVL. Minister of Justice was categorically against this proposal stating that the state language law had not to be amended just because the Criminal Code allowed usage of not translated documents. The same position had the State Language Center.

The Coalition Council unanimously rejected the proposal of the Minister of Interior M.Seglins to ignore the institutions of the Ministry of Interior and prosecutors offices the norm of the state language law envisaging that to translate all materials into the state language before sending them to court. The norm is valid from September last year. MI Department Director R.Eize explained Diena that the proposal was prepared due to lack of financing. To translate all these documents the police and borderguards annually would need about 1.9 million LVL because an official translation of one page costs about 2 LVL. Minister of Justice was categorically against this proposal stating that the state language law had not to be amended just because the Criminal Code allowed usage of not translated documents. The same position had the State Language Center. Diena

Rigas Balss writes that the new computer readable passports might be introduced in Latvia in the middle of the next. Meanwhile specialists will continue to fight with forged passports, mostly citizen passports. In 90% of forged citizen passports just photo is replaced, more seldom are replaced pages with domicile registration, record on children, etc. Almost nobody forges non-citizen passports. One of the reasons for lingering to introduce new citizen passports is that the Saeima has nor adopted amendments to several laws stipulating what records have to be made in the new passports. It is planned that there will be no information on marriages, divorcing, domicile registration, blood group, etc. This information will be co-ordinated by a few certain state institutions in the Residents Register, Enterprises Register and municipalities. There will be also office passports in black colour issued to civil servants.

Rigas Balss writes that the new computer readable passports might be introduced in Latvia in the middle of the next. Meanwhile specialists will continue to fight with forged passports, mostly citizen passports. In 90% of forged citizen passports just photo is replaced, more seldom are replaced pages with domicile registration, record on children, etc. Almost nobody forges non-citizen passports. One of the reasons for lingering to introduce new citizen passports is that the Saeima has nor adopted amendments to several laws stipulating what records have to be made in the new passports. It is planned that there will be no information on marriages, divorcing, domicile registration, blood group, etc. This information will be co-ordinated by a few certain state institutions in the Residents Register, Enterprises Register and municipalities. There will be also office passports in black colour issued to civil servants.

Last week Riga City Mayor G.Bojars and his Moscow colleague J.Luzhkov signed an agreement on co-operation. S.Tocs in Neatkariga writes about Riga foreign policy, stating that this is a result of this policy, and it makes some politicians jealous. Moscow has similar agreements with Vilnius and Tallinn, and there is no wonder that Moscow residents may buy goods from these countries. And Latvian food-stuffs are well known there and of high demand. On obstacle for Latvian goods to come to the capital of Russia is a lack of normal relations between those two countries. And this agreement between the Mayors is just a pragmatic attempt to establish such normal relations disregarding discord on the foreign policy level. Inexperienced in foreign policy matters Social Democrats and the union For Human Rights in United Latvia have managed things what Latvia’s Way has not managed or did not want to do within eight years. Now this agreement could bring concrete results, but unfortunately the so-called right wingers could use this to accuse Social Democrats o pro-Russian policy.

Last week Riga City Mayor G.Bojars and his Moscow colleague J.Luzhkov signed an agreement on co-operation. S.Tocs in Neatkariga writes about Riga foreign policy, stating that this is a result of this policy, and it makes some politicians jealous. Moscow has similar agreements with Vilnius and Tallinn, and there is no wonder that Moscow residents may buy goods from these countries. And Latvian food-stuffs are well known there and of high demand. On obstacle for Latvian goods to come to the capital of Russia is a lack of normal relations between those two countries. And this agreement between the Mayors is just a pragmatic attempt to establish such normal relations disregarding discord on the foreign policy level. Inexperienced in foreign policy matters Social Democrats and the union For Human Rights in United Latvia have managed things what Latvias Way has not managed or did not want to do within eight years. Now this agreement could bring concrete results, but unfortunately the so-called right wingers could use this to accuse Social Democrats o pro-Russian policy. Neatkariga

A.Vasilyev in

A.Vasilyev in Chas comments the situation when some amendments have been done to the language law but to succeed in implementing these amendments, changes have to be done in many sub-legal acts and should be co-ordinated activities of state institutions. It would be nice if officials could receive help from employees and NGOs financed from national budget and foreign aid. For example – Society Integration Foundation. But it was already criticised in local mass media for its composition. In the Foundation there are no representatives of large NGOs representing non-Latvian part of population but there are four ministers and leaders of the five largest city municipalities. Almost all of them – Latvians.

Yesterday the Riga City Council FF/LNNK faction after examining the agreement on co-operation with Moscow came to a conclusion that articles concerning education policy contradict to the major task of Latvian education – transfer of education to tuition in the Latvian language.

Yesterday the Riga City Council FF/LNNK faction after examining the agreement on co-operation with Moscow came to a conclusion that articles concerning education policy contradict to the major task of Latvian education – transfer of education to tuition in the Latvian language. Chas

D.Gorba, lawyer of the Latvian Human Rights Committee thinks that the large number non-citizens are an obstacle for Latvia to join EU. Therefore Latvian authorities advertise naturalisation as a sells item by a large information campaign. And for the same reason was reduced the state fee for naturalisation. And he gives a proof for this formal approach to this problem. Last week he received a visitor whom DCMA deprived of his status of a resident of Latvia an annulled his residents Register record. Now the person has to face long court procedures. At the same time this candidate for deportation received a colourful booklet advertising the benefits of Latvian citizenship.

Panorama Latvii