Compensation agreed for Nazi slave labor victims

RIGA - Latvia and Germany reached an agreement on Jan. 23 on compensation payments to people used as slave labor by Germany's National Socialist regime, a spokeswoman said.

Latvian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Liga Bergmane said the first applications for compensation will be accepted from Latvia's residents in mid-February, while the first payments could take place during the second half of 2001.

The final stage in negotiations about the main provisions for a special compensation payment mechanism was completed as the agreed arrangements were initialed in the German Foreign Ministry.

The talks have resulted in an agreement ensuring a fair and speedy process for applying for the compensation and receiving it in Latvia, the Foreign Ministry said.

Under the agreement, the applications will be accepted by the National Social Insurance Agency in cooperation with the Commission for Assessment of Totalitarian Regime Crimes. Applications for compensation will also be accepted in the regional branches of the agency.

The agency will then forward the applications for review and decision making by the specified partner organization, the Reconciliation and Understanding Fund based in Moscow. Individuals may also submit their applications to the fund directly.

The deadline for submitting the applications will be extended to Aug. 11, 2001.

The payments will be made directly from the fund Memory, Responsibility, Future through a correspondent bank in Latvia or banking institutions in Russia. Details concerning the processing of applications and the payment process will be elaborated on in a separate agreement between the Latvian central institution accepting the applications and Reconciliation and Understanding. A meeting will be held in Berlin in early February.

The historical agreement on the payment of compensation to Nazi victims was signed last summer. Due to the uncertainties about the payment of compensation and the distribution process, the population was inquiring actively about the possibility of receiving compensation directly. Unofficial sources say that some 6,000 people from Latvia could claim compensation for being the victims of slave labor.