Off the wire

NO DEAL: Eight environment organizations in Estonia issued a joint statement June 27 demanding that the sale of Narva power plants to the U.S. company NRG be halted and that all details of the deal be published. The groups said the sell-off of the country's main power stations to NRG would provide electric energy, produced from oil shale, with a market advantage for the next 15 years over alternative sources of energy. The statement demands that the actual value and selling price of the Narva power plants and the oil shale mining company AS Eesti Polevkivi be made public, an assessment be conducted of the environmental impact of the deal, a comparison of the true price of electricity produced from oil shale with alternative sources of energy, and participation of the public, experts, scientists and non-governmental organizations in drawing up a new Estonian energy-sector development plan.

CORRUPTION: Officials from the Lithuanian office of the non-governmental organization Transparency International say that the country's new administration should introduce controls to fight corruption. Results of the international organization's "Corruption Perceptions Index 2001" released June 27 show Lithuania has risen to 38th place from a previous ranking of 43 among 91 countries. Jurgis Jurgelis of the organization's Vilnius office believes special measures are necessary for corruption levels to actually start dropping in the country. The corruption index polls residents and business people in each country about the corruption level among state officials and politicians. According to the survey, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Ireland, Singapore and Sweden have the lowest level of corruption, while Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Cameroon, Kenya, Indonesia, Uganda, Nigeria and Bangladesh are facing major corruption problems. Latvia is ranked 59th, while Estonia is 28th.

TRIAL PENDING: A Latvian teacher charged with more than 33 counts of beating and torturing students at a boarding school for mentally handicapped children will stand trial, according to BNS. Olegs Lisjonoks' is the first of what may be a series of trials of teachers and employees at the Aleksandroba School, located in the eastern Latvian district of Kraslava. Authorities say one girl was raped and several others were beaten and that the school had misappropriated funds since 1997. The children are reportedly between the ages of 8 and 15. Lisjonoks resigned when the allegations were made public earlier this year. A trial date has not yet been set.

HOLOCAUST SOURCE: A new fundamental source of information about the Holocaust has been published in Lithuania. The 800-page book by at-large Ambassador Alfonsas Eidintas, "The Case of the Massacre of Lithuanian Jews," was presented at a news conference in Vilnius on June 28. "The main topic of the book is Lithuanian collaborators of the Holocaust," said Eidintas, who was Lithuania's ambassador to the United States for several years. According to Eidintas, the book is comprised of the points of view of Lithuanian and Jewish historians and positions of the perpetrators and witnesses. Eidintas told reporters that today's debates about painful events of the past often contain biased evaluations, stereotypes and reluctance to admit the fact that the victims were Lithuanian citizens murdered only because they were Jews. About 95 percent of Lithuania's prewar Jewish population of over 200,000 perished during World War II.

HAIL HELL: The Estonian island of Saaremaa was hit by what was probably the worst hailstorm of the past 100 years, which destroyed dozens of hectares of grain and potato crops as well as strawberry and vegetable plantations in the Valjala commune, costing farmers millions of kroons. The hailstorm lasted for about 20 minutes June 28, with hail stones as large as chicken eggs. Cows were running for shelter into the woods from open pastures, the daily Postimees reported. "I heard a strange roaring sound and thought it was the rain coming, but who could have thought chicken eggs would be falling from the sky," Ingel Maimann from Kooli Farm of Veeriku said. Surveying the damaged areas on June 29, Vilma Rauniste, an agricultural specialist with the Saare county government, assessed the damages at up to 5 million kroons ($270,000). What makes the situation particularly tragic is that Estonia has no law for the compensation of damages caused by natural disasters. "It was a picture one can see only once in a generation," Rauniste said. "Cabbage plants crushed, only stumps left of potato plants, grain stalks beaten down, fruit trees broken, the ground pitted."

PREZ AND PM?: The majority of Lithuanian people would like to see the new prime minister, Social Democrats leader Algirdas Brazauskas, as the country's next president, according to a poll conducted by a joint Lithuanian-British polling company, Baltijos Tyrimai (Baltic Surveys). In the poll, carried out on June 14-20 just before the collapse of the New Policy coalition and resignation of Liberal Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas, respondents were asked to name a person they would like to see as the next president. Some 21.3 percent of those polled named ex-President Brazauskas, 8.7 percent suggested the New Union leader, Parliamentary Speaker Arturas Paulauskas, another 7.5 percent referred to President Valdas Adamkus and 7.1 percent named chairman of the parliamentary economic committee, Viktor Uspaskich. According to the results, other politicians named were Lithuanian Christian Democrats' leader MP Kazys Bobelis (7 percent), the Liberals' leader, ex-PM Rolandas Paksas (5.6 percent), acting Liberal Prime Minister Eugenijus Gentvilas (2.7 percent), and New Democracy party head MP Kazimiera Prunskiene (2.3 percent). The next presidential elections are slated for late 2002.

BIG BUST: Latvian police on June 30 seized the largest drug haul in Latvian history at a private home in Riga, according to BNS. Police confiscated three kilos of concentrated amphetamine, a kilo of cocaine and 100 grams of marihuana, according to a police spokesman. Though small in comparison to many countries, the bust is by far the largest ever in Latvia. Police also detained a 49-year-old man in connection with the seizure. Police also found a hand gun and a large quantity of ammunition.