RIGA - During a high-profile visit to Kazakhstan, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga was handed a large amount of KGB files and information about Latvians that were deported to the Central Asian country during Stalin's purges.
"Now I hand over to you, the Latvian president, one of the bags that contain documents bearing testimony to the years of the great injustice," President of Kazakh-stan Nursultan Nazarbayev said during Vike-Freiberga's visit to Astana.
The files contain information on 227 Latvians and other nationalities from the Baltic state who were deported to Kazakhstan.
"My obligation is to tell the world about the sufferings of the Latvian people, and I believe it is important to document this and gather historically objective testimony. The main thing is that the injustices of history should never again repeat in the future. Therefore, we should jointly exert all efforts so that it never happens again," said Vike-Freiberga.
Kazakhstan previously had handed over information about 130 Latvians who had been deported and 276 who had faced various forms of repression.
According to Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan became home to around 1 million people who were classified as enemies of the state and either deported or killed in the Central Asian republic.
Agreements were also signed on terrorism, trafficking, and trade during President Vike-Freiberga's two-day visit.
