Eesti in brief - 2011-06-16

Estonian alcohol producers, importers and retailers confirmed at a round table meeting with Interior Minister Ken-Marti Vaher and ministry officials on June 10 their readiness to contribute to prevention campaigns in the water and traffic safety spheres, reports National Broadcasting. Company managers promised to contribute to the Rescue Board’s water safety campaign “When you drink, don’t swim” this summer to reduce the number of drownings. They promised to place campaign messages on beverage packages, bottles, on refrigerators in stores and place distribution leaflets with advice on how to keep a drunken friend from going into the water. In 2010, 97 people drowned in Estonia, of whom 53 were presumably intoxicated when they drowned. Thirty percent of those who died in fires had been drinking. Drunk drivers were in accidents in 146 cases last year; 11 people were killed and 222 injured in these accidents. A full 90 percent of murders were committed while under the influence of alcohol.

June 14 marks the 70th anniversary of the day when Soviet authorities deported over 10,000 people from Estonia to Siberia; Estonia marked it by hoisting mourning flags and with many events, reports National Broadcasting. These victims of the red terror were remembered in Tallinn with the laying of wreaths at the War of Independence Victory Column and new exhibitions on Freedom Square and at the Museum of Occupation. An exhibition dedicated to the deportation was open to the general public from early morning until late in the evening on Vabaduse Square. On display was a cattle car used on the narrow-gauge railways of the time, similar to those in which the deportees were moved to trans-shipment stations. On the square was also a Soviet GAZ-AAA lorry manufactured in 1938 and used to remove people designated for deportation from their homes in June 1941. An electronic version of the exhibition is available on the government Web site.

Estonia’s governing party, the Reform Party, elected a new board and re-elected Andrus Ansip as its chairman for the next two years at the general assembly of the party on June 12, reports National Broadcasting. The board includes, besides the chairman, 14 members: Arto Aas, Urmas Klaas, Urmas Kruuse, Tonis Koiv, Rein Lang, Jurgen Ligi, Kalev Lillo, Urmas Paet, Keit Pentus, Hanno Pevkur, Laine Randjarv, Valdo Randpere, Taavi Roivas and Jaanus Tamkivi. Estonia’s prime minister, chairman Andrus Ansip, said in his speech at the general assembly that although the tough economic years are hopefully behind us now, it does not mean that the state’s spending should be increased. “We should not forget – the state budget does not yet have a stable surplus,” said Ansip. “Thus the motto of activities of the current government coalition is state finances being in order. We have set an aim of balancing the budget by the year after next,” he said.