OFF THE WIRE

LIFETIME SECRET: Hearings in the case of two former agents of the NKVD, the predecessor of the KGB, charged with the killing in 1953-1954 of three Estonian underground resistance fighters, are set to open in the Valga regional court Feb. 19. The security police have charged Rudolf Tuvi, 76, and his immediate superior Vladimir Penart, 75, with crimes against humanity. If convicted, they face jail sentences of up to 15 years. According to the indictment, Penart is responsible for the killing of the resistance fighters, and Tuvi, for killing one and complicity in the murder of another nearly 50 years ago. Men from all three Baltic countries fought a long partisan war against the Soviet occupation. They were known as the forest brothers. Police sent the case to court because there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity. In an earlier case, another former Soviet secret agent was tried for killing three resistance fighters in 1945-1946. The man, 77-year-old Karl-Leonhard Paulov, was sentenced two years ago to eight years in jail.

GENERAL CRITICISM: The chairman of the Lithuanian Parliament, Arturas Paulauskas, is asking Lithuanian military commander Jonas Kronkaitis to explain what the basis was for the criticism he made of the Lithuanian government at a recent meeting of Lithuanian Americans in Los Angeles. Specifically, he wanted Kronkaitis to explain the following statement: "I have to admit that the financial as well as political influence of the Soviet-era nomenklatura is the main obstacle to the growth of small business. Uncoordinated implementation of acts of legislation, non-transparent policies, and an entire brigade of inspectors looking for reasons to impede the activities of small businesspeople, take away the possibility to earn a living. Even medium-sized business can't bear the burden of a multitude of diverse taxes, but they are necessary for a national budget prepared by a still socialist government." Kronkaitis also said: "The Soviet-era nomenklatura's control of the press leaves the public in an information desert." The Lithuanian exile organization Lietuviu Fronto Biciuliu Samburis (Gathering of Friends of the Lithuanian Front) organized the event where Kronkaitis spoke. Kronkaitis, a member of the Lithuanian-American community, lived in America before returning to Lithuania. He fought in Vietnam.

WRONG TIME, WRONG PLACE: Three Latvian citizens were injured as Warsaw police chased a car thief in the Polish capital on the morning of Feb. 6. Gunars Everts, second secretary at the Latvian Embassy in Warsaw, said the Latvian citizens, Daugavpils residents Yevgeni K. and Olesia N., and Kraslava region resident Valeri A., were badly shaken. Polish police said traffic police became suspicious of the driver of a car in the center of the city, tried to stop the vehicle, and then called for back-up. They took pursuit as the driver sped away. One police car careered off an embankment and two officers were injured. The fleeing vehicle turned into oncoming lanes of traffic, and a second police car hit another vehicle, Polish police claim. The three Latvians were in the car struck by the police. All were taken to hospital, from where they were released after several hours. The second secretary at the Latvian Embassy didn't know where the victims went after that. Warsaw police reported they caught their suspect on foot after he tried to hide in a building. A police dog sniffed him out. He was a known car thief.

ILLEGAL EXPORTS: Police and customs officials in the north and west of Germany have uncovered the largest cigarette smuggling ring in the country's history and arrested 68 suspects in connection with the investigation, including three Lithuanians. The Stuttgarter Zeitung daily reported citizens of Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Germany and other countries were rounded up by the police, who are not releasing their names. The prosecutor for the city of Hamburg, Rudiger Bagger, said the suspects may have smuggled up to 178 million cigarettes produced in Lithuania, Poland and Russia into Germany, as well as 14,000 liters of alcohol over the last year and a half, with losses to the German state calculated at 300 million euros. The Stuttgart-based newspaper reported that the first day of the police raids resulted in 13 arrests of suspects in three German states as well as Hamburg. According to the newspaper, "Various foreign currencies worth 5.1 million euros were found on the suspects and in their luxury cars." The smuggling network was organized into two divisions, one for smuggling cigarettes into Germany and the other for sales in Western Europe.

UNDERWEAR FOUND: Lithuanian officials at the Lithuanian-Latvian border fined three Latvian residents after seizing their contraband underwear. On an unusually balmy evening Feb. 5 at the Butinge-Rucava border checkpoint on the Baltic Sea coast, the customs officials inspected a bus on a regular route from Latvia's port of Liepaja to Gariunai, a large open-air market just outside Vilnius in Lithuania, better known for its underworld connections than its undergarments. The officials thought three women on the bus were behaving oddly, and decided to size them up more thoroughly. Officials discovered that the women, aged 47, 42 and 28, were trying to smuggle women's underwear when they found that the contraband goods were wound around their waists, under their clothing. Border officials reported seizing just under 100 bras and panties from the trio, who were handed out fines and allowed to continue on their journey.