OSCE starts Latvian tour

By Mike Collier

Photo: FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS TO PARTIES: Vollebekk’s visit will address voting and educational rights / (c) OSCE

RIGA – The latest in the never-ending round of inspections of Latvia’s citizenship rules and minority rights provisions has kicked off with the arrival of Organization for Security and Co-operationn in Europe (OSCE) high commissioner Knut Vollebekk on a two-day working visit which will include a trip to Latvia’s second city, Daugavpils.

Depsite an initial show of solidarity between Vollebekk and Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins at a press conference to launch the visit, significant differences of opinion quickly emerged on the subject of Latvia’s remaining ‘non-citizens’, the vast majority of whom are ethnic Russians.

“I would particularly like to follow up the work on education reform and the naturalisation process. Speaking of education it should be noted that Latvia has to deal with an extremely complex legacy of the Soviet Union’s assimilation policies and therefore I support the right and
indeed the duty of the state to promote national integration,” Vollebekk said.

“However, I would also like to mention that this shiould be done with due respect for minority rights and their cultural identity.

“The number of non-citizens still is high – about 372,000 I am told – and I intend to discuss with the Latvian government ways that I can help speed up the naturalization process. It is my firm position that the Latvian government should devote more attention to identify the causes of this
and I am very happy to learn that there is a survey that is presently being taken on why there is still such a large number of non-citizens.

Defending the governmental position, Riekstins responded saying: “People who want to participate in local or national elections are advised to take the very simple process of naturalization because both the language test and the history test are not very complicated. They should take these tests, become citizens and gain full participation.”

However, Vollebekk identified this as not in line with the
OSCE position. “I beg to disagree with the minister on this issue because I
believe the right to vote in local elections, instead of taking away some of
the incentive for gaining citizenship, might work the other way and work
towards integration,” he said Asked by The Baltic Times if he had read a report covering similar areas as his own brief, produced recently by UN Special Rapporteur Doudou Diene, Vollebekk said “If I recall correctly the report is around 150 or 160 pages and I must admit I haven’t read it but I have read some of the commentaries about it.”