City braces for mass protests

  • 2004-09-02
  • By The Baltic Times
RIGA - Anti-educational reform forces promised on Sept. 1 to stage a mass march through the city on the first day of the school year despite a court order not to do so.

An administrative court on Wednesday turned down a complaint by Eduards Goncarovs against the City Council, which forbade the unregistered Headquarters for the Defense of Russian Schools, a group set up to campaign for a moratorium of the education reform.
Goncarovs was undeterred by the decision, telling the Baltic News Service that reform opponents would hold their procession as an "incidental walk" through town.
Though many said it was unlikely, violence was not ruled out, since police officials said they intended to block many of the main entrances to the old part of the city, where a government-sponsored concert was due to take place.
Prime Minister Indulis Emsis said on Tuesday that Interior Minister Eriks Jekabsons would personally be coordinating the security measures in Riga, since thousands of school-age pupils were expected to join in the protests.
Emsis said that protest organizers were aiming to sow tension between Latvia's ethnic groups.
The prime minister stressed that children and their parents should remain alert and evade any form of provocations during the celebrations and/or protests on the first day of school.
Pursuant to the reform program, minority high schools will have to increase the amount of Latvian language classes to 60 percent.