http://en.rian.ru/world/20080226/100090914.html
Latvia bans Waffen SS veterans march
21:22 | 26/ 02/ 2008
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RIGA, February 26 (RIA Novosti) -Latvian authorities have banned a
street march planned by a nationalist organization for March 16 to
commemorate Latvians who fought for Nazi forces in WWII, Riga parliament
said on Tuesday.
The National Power Unity (NPU) applied to the city parliament in the
capital, Riga, for permission to hold a street march honoring former
Latvian members of the Waffen SS on Monday but was refused on the
grounds that it was not a registered political party.
An 'anti-fascist' organization was asked to alter the time and place of
their opposing anti-Nazi street march.
A Latvian SS Legion march in 2005 through Riga resulted in dozens of
arrests after protests by Russian activists. The march involved WWII SS
veterans and young nationalists.
Latvia celebrated a March 1944 battle between Latvian SS units and
Soviet forces as a national holiday on March 16 from 1998 to 2000.
Although the holiday did not mention the Latvian SS Legion by name,
claiming to be in honor of all those who had fought in the war,
international pressure subsequently led to the holiday being cancelled.
Relations between Russia and Latvia and Estonia have been marred in the
past few years by what Moscow calls the unequal treatment of ethnic
Russians, the alleged persecution of Soviet WWII veterans, and the
apparent revival of nationalism and fascism in the Baltic states.
