TALLINN - Throughout the week government officials continued to assess the economic, political and moral damages of the rioting that gripped Estonia in late April, while Prime Minister Andrus Ansip made the unprecedented gesture of laying flowers at the disputed Bronze Soldier statue, something no Baltic leader has ever done before. Ansip, whose battered government must now face the task of repairing a scarred society, is hoping that the gesture, made May 8 to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany, will help reconcile Estonians and ethnic Russians.
Ansip was joined by Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo, who is heading the operation to relocate the monument and war grave, and Population Minister Urve Palo. Swedish Ambassador Dag Hartelius laid a wreath at the Bronze Soldier 's which now stands in the Defense Forces cemetery some two miles from its original location on Tonismagi in downtown Tallinn 's as did a representative of the Chinese Embassy.
Although invited, Russian Ambassador Nikolai Uspensky did not attend the solemn ceremony, which drew a small crowd of onlookers. No speeches were made.
However, early May 8 Estonia's three highest ranking officials 's Ansip, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and parliamentary speaker Enn Ergma 's issued a statement calling for reconciliation and forgiveness.
"The pain and horrors of war did not care about nationality. Everyone who was thrown into the turmoil of war suffered," the three wrote. "For many, the end of World War II means victory of freedom over tyranny, and for many it means that one violent regime was replaced with another."
In another step toward reconciliation, Ansip met with a roundtable of ethnic minority representatives on May 7 to provide explanations for the government's decision to move the Bronze Soldier statue.
Some 40 people took part in the meeting, where Ansip stressed the need to observe Estonian laws.
"We all understand that in the present situation dialogue is needed above all, but the prerequisite for negotiations is that all parties must respect Estonia's constitutional order," Ansip was quoted as saying.
Population Minister Palo informed roundtable participants of plans to rectify the country's integration program in light of the unrest on April 26 - 27, which left one dead, over 150 injured 's including two dozen policemen 's and some 1,200 detained.
"Tartu and Tallinn universities have already drafted a program of proposals on subsequent steps on what changes ought to be made in the integration program," Palo said.
Estonian officials at the meeting pointed to the bias in Russian-language media both in Estonia and in Russia, and said that more objective Russian-language information was needed.
As a first step in this direction, Parliament approved new staff for the National Broadcasting Council on May 8. Andres Herkel, an MP from the right-wing IRL union, said the problem of Russian language information needed to be addressed immediately.
"It's a matter of principal 's either the field of information is shaped exclusively by television stations controlled by the Kremlin, or we are able to put in something ourselves too," Herkel told fellow MPs.
Many Russians living in eastern Estonia were particularly susceptible to Russian TV, which notoriously included many falsehoods and inaccuracies in its reporting of the Bronze Soldier's removal. Many reports claimed that the statue, for instance, had been sawed into pieces before being hauled away from Tonismagi.
The ETV television station reacted swiftly by launching a Russian language news portal 's www.etv24.ee.
On the political front, a minor witch-hunt ensued among politicians in the aftermath of the riots. The primary target has been Edgar Savisaar, mayor of Tallinn, whom many are accusing of failing to support the nation in a time of duress. Some have even slammed the Center Party leader, who is infamous for signing a cooperation pact with Russia's pro-Kremlin party, with charges of disloyalty.
Reform Party members Paet and former defense minister Jurgen Ligi said Savisaar and the Center Party's Russian members failed to appeal to the country's ethnic minorities for calm and civil order.
In a rebuttal published in the Postimees daily, Savisaar wrote, "The prime minister admonishes me for not pacifying my electors. Now that we've raised the topic, then I should ask why that night on the streets I didn't see Ansip and other coalition figures trying to calm their electors?"
Rumors have also emerged that Savisaar met with Leonid Slutsky, a member of the Russian Duma (lower house of Parliament) on April 30, though Center Party spokespeople are denying that any such meeting took place.
Savisaar was unequivocal about whom to blame for the entire Bronze Soldier debacle. "At a time when we're trying to dampen tension in society 's no matter how hard it is 's and start a new dialogue, the Reform Party leaders have stoked hostility aimed against us and are trying to extract benefit for their own party," he wrote.
"They created this mess, and now we've got to clean it up."
