Latvija in brief - 2004-04-01

Elevated water levels on the Daugava River led to the flooding of about 350 gardens and summerhouses in Daugavpils.

Thousands of hectares of Daugavpils' surrounding areas and neighboring city Jekabpils have also been covered by the rising waters. Meteorologists expect the water level to continue to go up.

British police arrested 38 illegal workers from Latvia and Ukraine in Norfolk on the southeast coast of the United Kingdom. Twenty-eight of those arrested were women. Local police said that the operation was meant to protect immigrants often abused by so-called gang masters who force them to work long hours for low wages.

Thousands of people remembered the deportations of March 25, 1949, when 43,000 Latvians were deported to remote areas of the Soviet Union. A procession from the Occupation Museum to the Latvian Freedom Monument honored the victims.

A crack in an underground pipeline in Riga spilled nearly a ton of diesel fuel onto suburban streets on March 26. Firefighters and rescue workers successfully stopped the spill and cleaned up the remains.

Agriculture Minister Martins Roze will ask the Foreign Ministry to petition the European Commission to allow the use of drifting nets in coastal waters. The EC had banned the use of these nets to protect harbor porpoises. Latvian fishermen complain that this particular ban will dramatically reduce salmon catches.

Former Prime Minister Einars Repse called Andrejs Radzevics a "traitor and a pig" because the former member of the New Era Party would not give up his seat in Parliament. Radzevics left New Era to work in the new government as minister for regional development and local governments.

Latvia's proposed European commissioner, Sandra Kalniete, equated the crimes of the Soviet Union with those of Nazi Germany in a speech at the Leipzig Book Fair. Her words angered Solomon Korn, the vice president of the German Jewish community, who subsequently left the fair in protest. Kalniete later said the incident revealed that most people know little of East European history and the crimes perpetuated under Stalin.

Farmers from EU accession states might see their incomes increase by 35 percent due to subsidies, a European Commission study revealed. The union's Common Agricultural Policy and the benefits of an expanded market were the main reasons cited for the increase in income. Poultry and grain producers were expected to benefit the most as a result of expansion.

Foreign Minister Rihards Piks denied that Latvia had changed its previous position calling for a European commissioner with voting rights for all EU member states. The denial came a week after Prime Minister Indulis Emsis said while in Brussels that Latvia might be willing to drop its demands for a voting commissioner.