Events banned for March 16

RIGA - In what may be a re-play of last year’s efforts to muzzle the commemoration of the sacrifices of Latvia’s WWII veterans, the Riga City Executive has again banned all assemblies registered for March 16. Municipal and security police forces have warned of a supposed threat to public order, and the City Executives have jumped on this to use as an excuse to ban all assemblies registered for that day.
In 2010, under similar circumstances, the court made a last-minute decision overturning a ban, allowing the Latvian Legion Day proceedings to go on. With this year’s decision, six pro and anti-Legion Day events will be disallowed, reports news agency LETA.

March 16, Latvian Legion Day and May 9, Victory Day, do not contribute to the unity of society, and neither should be commemorated or celebrated in Latvia, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (Unity) said in an interview with the daily Latvijas Avize on March 8. According to Dombrovskis, March 16 has become a day when various extremist groups try to express their opinions and confront each other. “We must prevent them from doing so. I do not think that March 16 should be publicly observed. We already have November 11 Lacplesis Day, when we honor our fallen soldiers,” said Dombrovskis.
In Europe and Latvia, the end of World War II is celebrated on May 8. “I do not know why some political forces want to popularize the celebration of May 9, when V-E Day is celebrated in Russia,” pointed out Dombrovskis. Regardless of when the end of WWII is celebrated, the end of the war didn’t bring peace to the Baltics; rather, it marked the start of the Soviet Red Army occupation.

Latvian Legion Day commemorates Latvian soldiers’ struggle to rid Latvia of Soviet Red Army forces. On March 16, 1944, two divisions of the Latvian SS Legion - young Latvian men in forced conscription into the German occupation army - engaged in a battle against the Red Army at the Velikaya River in U.S.S.R. territory.

Many Latvians saw the German army as the lesser of two evils, between Nazism and Communism. For many of these soldiers, the choice to join the Latvian SS Legion was a result of the brutal Soviet occupation between 1940 and 1941, during which tens of thousands of Latvians were executed or deported to Siberia. Many soldiers naively believed that, if they helped Germany win the war, Latvia might be rewarded with independence or autonomy. They were not fighting “for Hitler,” but for a free and independent Latvia, free of both German and Russian occupiers.

Riga City Council has so far received six applications for public assemblies on WWII Latvian Legion Day, an unofficial holiday. The veterans’ welfare organization Daugavas Vanagi has planned its traditional procession to the Freedom Monument. Daugavas Vanagi Limbazi branch has also submitted its application to the Riga City Council.
The Latvian Anti-Fascist Committee wants to hold ‘A Meeting against Glorification of Fascism in Latvia.’ The organization Union of Citizens and Non-citizens also wants a meeting with the same name, at the same time.
Pjotrs Gruca wants to “Protest against Extolling Hitler’s Army - Latvian Legion of the Waffen SS.” A senior citizens’ group called the Simtgadnieku kustiba wants to gather at the Laima Clock for an event unrelated to Legion Day.