Baltics in Brief

MAYBE ONE SHOULD ASK JANIS ADAMSONS: "There are obvious criminal offenses being committed in both the privatization process and other sectors in Latvia, but no criminal proceedings are opened," President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said in an interview on Latvian State Radio on March 27. The president said that she does not understand why no criminal proceedings have been opened, for instance, in connection with the so-called "government Jacuzzi" case, where one official was dismissed, even though other persons were signing the documents and heading the construction of the complex.The president also mentioned the case of the Municipal Police's "Navigator" motor vehicle and the shady purchase of the "Neoplan" bus for the Ministry of Culture, where no one has been charged.

GANG ACCUSED OF MURDER STANDS TRIAL: On March 27, a Vilnius-area court started a trial against a gang of gunmen, on serial murder charges. The gang is to be tried on 66 counts, indicting the defendants for 13 murders, 5 murder attempts, 6 cases of money extortion, 2 robberies and other crimes. The investigators put on trial 21 persons, the majority of whom have a previous criminal record. According to the preliminary schedule, the case of the gang is to be investigated until May 26. Among the victims is mobster Yury Kriukov, also on trial, whom the gang attempted to assassinate several times.

QUESTIONING THE CENSUS: The number of questions in Estonia's census which was launched on March 27 is too small as compared to other countries, said Estonia's leading sociologist Andrus Saar, head of the Saar Poll market research company. Saar said that the census carried out simultaneously in the United States. is much more thorough. Initially the census was supposed to contain 70 questions but this would not have achieved proper results and the number was cut to 43, said a representative of the Statistical Office.

CRAZY ABOUT CARS: A total of 53,600 people visited the ninth international car fair Motorex 2000 in Tallinn bringing the organizers, Eesti Nãitused, profits, Aripãev Online service reported. Raul Sepp, project manager of Eesti Nãitused, said that although less than half of the visitors had to buy a full ticket for the fair that lasted until March 26, Motorex ended firmly in black. The number of visitors was still below the 1996 and 1998 levels, when more than 60,000 people visited the fair that takes place every second year.

IN MINSK, THE MEDIA ISN'T THE MESSAGE: The Lithuanian journalists union has mailed a letter to the board of its Belarussian counterpart body to denounce the use of force against media representatives and arrests of reporters in Minsk during a recent rally to mark the 82nd anniversary of the proclaimation of the Republic of Belarus in 1918. "It is in particular sad that this happened when people recalled the year 1918 which witnessed the shaking off of the Czarist yoke by both Belarussian and Lithuanian nations," the union wrote. "We could see how boldly the leader of the Russian Federation intervened to defend the Russian reporters. But who is going to stand up for the honest Belarussian reporters?"

ESTONIA TOPS IN TB: Estonia has one of the highest tuberculosis rates in the world with 52 cases per 100,000 people, the World Health Organization warned on March 24. WHO may sue Estonia as a scapegoat in Europe to pressure other European countries to spend more money on preventing TB. The WHO European region registers around 350,000 new TB cases a year, most of these in Central and Eastern European countries and former Soviet republics. Eastern Europe sees the explosive of the growth of TB due to economic downturn, poverty, undernourishment, unemployment, overpopulated prisons and homes. In 1999, 609 new cases of TB were registered in Estonia, as compared to 649 in 1998. In Western Europe the average TB rate is 5 people per 100,000 employees, as compared to Estonia's 52.

RAT-INFESTED FISH PLANT TEMPORARILY SHUTS DOWN: Seven leptospirosis cases were registered at Juras licis, a fish-processing plant that produces canned fish, halting its operations for the time being, but consumer safety is not endangered, according to the head of the State Veterinary Service Food Products Supervision Department, Ernests Zavadskis. He noted that the State Veterinary Service has conducted a probe into the enterprise and a decision was made to suspend operations at the processing division where workers contracted the disease. A series of measures will be carried out at the division to provide for protection of employee health. The premises will be purified, fumigated, rodents will be eliminated, among other measures. After this, the department will continue operating. One woman died from the outbreak of leptospirosis.