Kanerva in Estonia: Events in Moscow serious
Minister falls short of calling for postponement of EU-Russian summit
On Wednesday, Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Ilkka Kanerva (National Coalition Party) sharply condemned recent events at the Estonian Embassy in Moscow, which has been besieged by demonstrators opposed to the Estonian government’s decision to move a Soviet war memorial in the capital Tallinn.
“We roundly condemn these kinds of violations; it is very important that all states should respect the Vienna Convention [on diplomatic relations]”, Kanerva said during a visit to Tallinn.
Commenting on the fact that Sweden’s Ambassador in Moscow had visited the Estonian Embassy in the city, Kanerva emphasised that it is important for all EU member states to act in the same way. “Finland is ready for such a visit. It is not a problem.”
According to unofficial information, member states of the EU have agreed that some will pay such visits to the Estonian Embassy in Moscow, and some will invite Ambassador Marina Kaljurand for a visit.
Finland’s Ambassador in Moscow, Harry Helenius, said that he had not heard of any such agreement. He only returned to Moscow from a visit to Kiev by train on Wednesday morning.
Kaljurand was to have come to a meeting at the Finnish Embassy in Moscow on Wednesday afternoon. Helenius said that Kaljurand had cancelled the planned meeting because of the disruption of a press conference that she had attended earlier in the day. The meeting was broken up by demonstrators protesting the monument issue.
On Tuesday, a number of diplomats from the Swedish and Latvian diplomatic missions, and that from the European Commission, visited the Estonian Embassy in Moscow.
The Estonian Embassy says that the aim of the visit was to let the various diplomats see with their own eyes what the situation is like in front of the besieged embassy compund.
Diplomatic vehicles were able to get through unharmed, as police guarded the street.
In Tallinn, Finnish Foreign Minister Kanerva came out against proposals to postpone a planned summit meeting of the European Union and Russia. Such a move would be a protest against the encirclement of the Estonian Embassy.
“The summit is a good opportunity to continue discussions between Russia and the EU. What is significant is to continue dialogue with Russia”, Kanerva said.
Finnish Ambassador Helenius in Moscow says that it is good to keep the two events separate - events in Tallinn, and the actions keeping diplomats from doing their work.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urbas Paet thanked Foreign Minister Kanerva and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen for their support.
Also commenting on the dispute between Estonia and Russia was Finnish President Tarja Halonen. During a visit to Berlin, Halonen said that she hopes that the Russian leadership shows its capacity to cooperate in the statue dispute.
“Everyone should respect diplomatic rights”, Halonen said, adding that she felt that the events in Moscow have been serious and worrying. Halonen stressed that the ongoing spat is a matter for the entire European Union, and she noted that the task of mediating should fall immediately on the current holder of the rotating EU Presidency, Germany.
In some quarters there has been shock that the EU has remained as passive as it has over the travails of one of its small members. Some foreign affairs experts have characterised the current state of affairs as a Russian test of European solidarity.
Police Clash With Protesters as Estonia Removes Soviet-Era War Memorial
Police clashed with protesters at a Soviet war memorial in Tallinn on Thursday as authorities prepared to remove the bodies, The Associated Press reported.
After largely peaceful rallies throughout the day, a group of protesters tried to break through a line of police officers guarding the grave and the Bronze Soldier statue next to it.
Some protesters said police fired tear gas, but police spokeswoman Tuuli Harson said they used a type of foam for crowd control. “People tried to break through line and attacked police officers,’’ she said.
Dozens of police had formed lines to keep some 600 protesters away from the monument after workers erected a tent over the memorial to shield the excavations from public view.
Estonia’s government intends to relocate the Soviet grave, believed to contain the remains of 14 soldiers, and the statue next to it.
The Baltic state’s ethnic Russians — about a third of the population — see the memorial as a tribute to Red Army soldiers who died fighting Nazi Germany and have vowed to protect it. Many ethnic Estonians, however, say the memorial is a bitter reminder of five decades of Soviet occupation.
Eleven people were detained, Harson said. Some protesters shouted, “Estonia is a disgrace,’’ and one was detained after trying to jump the police barrier. Three others were detained after locking themselves in a car and refusing to obey police orders. Officers smashed the windows of the car.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The dispute over the monument has aggravated tensions between Estonia and Russia, which has repeatedly called on its small neighbor to halt the plans to move the grave.
“We express deep anxiety in connection with the plans of the Estonian government for transferring the buried soldiers of various nationalities who gave their lives for the liberation of Europe from fascism and for tearing down the Soldier-Liberator Memorial in Tallinn,’’ Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov called for economic sanctions against Estonia and rerouting the transit of Russian exports to other countries.
Soviet troops invaded the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — in 1940, but were pushed out by the Nazis a year later. The Red Army retook them in 1944 and occupied them until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Anticipating unrest, Estonia’s border guards this week stepped up security checks on the frontier with Russia and Tallinn’s police force was beefed up with reinforcements from across the country.
The government has said it wants to identify the remains in the war grave and then relocate the entire monument to an undecided location. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said the excavations would last up to two weeks.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Well.. I guess theres nothing you can really do about it but to accept that it’s their right to do whatever they want in their territory. Obviously this has a political impact, which they were pretty aware off before taking action.
I just hope problems like these will be solved without violence… it’s not worth it!