Baltics in Brief

ANOTHER FAILED ATTEMPT AT FOREIGN AFFAIRS: A Japanese diplomat was attacked in Vilnius' old city late on Feb. 3, according to police. Three assailants stole the purse of the Attache of the embassy, 25-year-old Michiko Asanamo, by hitting her in the head. The purse contained Asanamo's documents, cell phone and 1,600 litas ($400). It was the second attack on a Japanese diplomat in Vilnius in the less than three years. In 1997, two young men assaulted the Second Secretary of the embassy, Hidetoshi Kamijima, and his wife in the old city. Police have no suspects in the attack on Asanamo.

OUSTED MP SEEKS REVENGE: Latvian MP Aivars Markots, who was booted from the New Party during its board meeting on Feb. 2, has asked the Ministry of Justice to evaluate the legitimacy of the New Party's 3rd congress. According to Latvian daily Diena, Markots believes the congress was illegitimate and its decisions were unlawful. He said the actions of New Party chair Ainars Slesers and his "cohorts" and their biographies echo the "methods and technology of the KGB." New Party chairman Raimonds Pauls told Diena that Markots was upset over the fact that "he will never become a party chief." Markots was dismissed because the New Party board felt he was "damaging the party's image." Markots was a foreign affairs advisor to former Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis.

ESTONIANS SPEND LESS ON FOOD: A survey by the Estonian Market Research Institute indicated the average Estonian spends about 38 per cent of their monthly income on food. That number fell by more than 6 per cent in the last three years. In monetary terms, Estonians spend 747 kroons ($46.69) per month, said Liina Ernits, an expert with the institute. In the European Union, people spend 20 per cent on food per month, while that number is 12 per cent in the U.S., said Ernits. The importance of food in the total expenses shows the standard of living in any given country; if the number is smaller, the country is more developed. Lithuanians spent 48 per cent on food in 1998; Latvians spent 42 per cent.

BAD COPS MEANS BIG MONEY: Estonia's Tax Board warned the efficiency of the economic police in prosecuting tax frauds may lead to an unexpected gap in the budget as the state must pay sales tax refunds and interest to crooked businessmen, the dailyEeesti Paevaleht reported. Tax fraud cases committed in the middle of the 1990s are nearing their statute of limitations and the state will have to make the payment in the absence of convictions. Enriko Aav, Tax Board supervisory department head, said the sum involved may reach hundreds of millions of kroons. An advisor to the Finance Ministry disagreed, saying there is a proposal to increase the statute of limitation from five to seven years. The Tax Board has opened 600 cases in the last five years, but only several dozen have reached the courts.

EX-PM: I'M NOT SLEAZY: Lithuania's former Prime Minister Aldofas Slezevicius has sent an open letter to Prosecutor General Kazys Pednyica, in which he called his trial a "case of century in the clutches of politicized prosecutors" and Pednyica a "pocket prosecutor." The ex-PM was accused by the prosecutor general's office of repeated power abuse in 1994-1995 in pursuit of economic benefit and of discrediting the national government. The prosecutors claim that Slezevicius siezed from the already bankrupt commercial Innovation Bank and Vilniaus Bankas almost 32,000 litas ($8,000). Slezevicius said in the four years since the prosecutor's office opened its investigation, there have been three brigades of prosecutors, the wording of the indictment has changed five times, and there have been repeated probes into his actions.

"BOMBED" IN VILNIUS: A man was arrested in Vilnius on Feb. 3 as he tried to sell a 3-kilogram time bomb, according to police. A search of the suspect's apartment uncovered a big quantity of explosives and an underground chemical laboratory in the cellar. Police believe that explosives and drugs were manufactured in the apartment. The owner of the apartment was also arrested. Both men were remanded into custody and await court action.

ALLEGED SEX OFFENDER KEPT IN JAIL: The Riga Northern District Court extended Ingus Tuns's detention to April 3 as a measure of precaution. Tuns has been implicated in a pedophilia, pornography and prostitution affair. He was charged on Oct. 15, 1999 with the sexual molestation of a minor and coerced or forced engagement of a minor in prostitution. Those charges were recently changed by the prosecutor's office as Tuns is alleged to have committed his crime when the Criminal Code was in effect and not Criminal Law. Tuns in now charged with forcing or threatening minors to perform sexual intercourse. The former director of the Mrs. Latvia organization, Ainars Eisaks, faces a similar charge. The prosecutor's office will not say how many counts Tuns is now facing.

LETA