Infamous right-winger plans memorial park

RIGA - Far-right politician Joachim Siegerist, the former leader of the People's Movement for Latvia party, which performed well in the 1995 parliamentary elections, has announced plans to build a World War II memorial park on property he owns in the village of Jaunsvirlauka, near the southern Latvian town of Jelgava.

Jewish leaders were indifferent to the latest proposals, which were faxed to the Latvian media on June 6 using the letterhead of the Hamburg-based German Conservative movement, which Siegerist heads.

In the statement Siegerist said he had already built a church in honor of Latvian, German and Russian soldiers and that it had been consecrated by Lutheran, Catholic and Russian Orthodox priests.

Projects now planned include planting 1,000 roses and 600 fruit trees, the excavation of a Bronze Age cemetery, also on the site, and the building of two museums.

Responding by fax to The Baltic Times' questions, Siegerist said one museum would house finds from the excavation and the other would commemorate "the horrifying events of the Kurzeme Cauldron" - a reference to the struggle in Kurzeme in 1944-45, in which members of the Latvian Waffen SS (also known as the Latvian Legion) fought along side German troops against Soviet forces, which were re-occupying Latvia.

Fruit from the 600 trees would be given to the socially disadvantaged, he said.

Gregory Krupnikov, the leader of Latvia's Jewish Community, said he did not regard Siegerist's intentions as threatening, despite his checkered past.

"This is a sad joke more than a real political threat," he said.

In 1994, Siegerist, who holds German and Latvian citizenship, was convicted by a German court for inciting racial hatred and inflaming ethnic tension after publishing anti-Gypsy propaganda, according to media reports.

In the 1995 general election his People's Movement for Latvia party won the third largest share of the votes, taking 16 seats in Parliament, but Siegerist was excluded from Parliament after inspectors found his Latvian language ability to be insufficient.

Prior to the 1993 general election his National Independence Party took out a half-page advertisement in Diena, Latvia's largest national paper, proclaiming "Russia for Russians, Latvia for Latvians." On election day the party gave free bananas to voters, whom party workers transported to polling stations by bus.

Siegerist still enjoys support among people in the Jelgava area, according to Ligita Timme, editor of local newspaper Zemgales Zinas.

"We were surprised to hear he has such ambitious plans. Local people have a very positive attitude toward Siegerist, although they don't pay much attention to him now."