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| Europe |
| Estonia arrests 600 over riots |
| 2007-04-28 |
| A SECOND night of clashes in Estonia's capital after the removal of a disputed World War Two Red Army monument led to 600 arrests and injured 96 people. Estonia has said it had become a public order menace as a focus for Estonian and Russian nationalists, and protests have mainly been by young Russian-speaking people. Police charged protesters, fired tear gas and rubber bullets and used water cannon last night to break up gangs of youths, many in their early teens, marauding through the city. “The situation calmed down at 2am (2300 GMT) on Saturday morning after police dispersed the crowds, and has been peaceful from that time,” police spokesman Taavi Kullerkupp said. Some 50 premises, mostly shops, were vandalised, compared with about 100 the day before. Baltic news agency BNS said some disturbances involving youths had broken out yesterday in the town of Johvi, in the northeast, where many Russian-speakers live. The removal of the two-metre-high bronze statue of a World War Two Red Army soldier angered some Russian-speakers, who number about 300,000 in a country of 1.3 million. It was taken away at dawn yesterday after riots on Thursday led to the death of one man in a stabbing. The man who died in the Thursday disturbances was stabbed by another demonstrator. Estonians tend to view the monument as a reminder of 50 years of Soviet occupation. The Government also says it shows greater respect to the soldiers buried in the city centre spot to move them to a military cemetery. Estonia said official websites had come under cyber attack and restricted access to them from outside the country. Radio said hackers had attacked the website of the Reform Party of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, putting out a bogus apology from the head of government. Russia, which has had troubled ties with Estonia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, had said moving the monument was an insult to those who fought against fascism. |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #1 Estonia switched to a flat tax and their economy boomed. That cannot be tolerated. Let's riot! |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-04-28 08:31 |