It still ensues
Posted: April 27th, 2007 | Author: Kari | Filed under: politics, thoughts |This is crazy. I hope that the authorities move swiftly and quell the looters. There is a difference between looting and pillaging and having a demonstration in support of your cause (even if this is caused by misinformation). Estonia is so small and our police is quite inexperienced (and underpaid for what they do) so I am amazed at their ability to provide order in this situation. The Centre Party and Russia of course are not helping the situation by essentially siding with the rioters (or by blaming the government).
Listen: THE STATUE OF THE BRONZE SOLDIER IS NOT BEING DESTROYED, it is being REMOVED TO A CEMETERY WHERE IT BELONGS. This is being done in accordance with international laws and best practices. Dead bodies belong to a cemetery and not in the centre of the city, where people are walking and gathering in front of it. It is the right of the Estonian people to decide to do this, and people have decided this by electing the Riigikogu which put Mr Ansip to power. If something, then this has shown that the statute was and is a significant public order problem.
Estonians are not fascists for making decisions on how their cities should be planned and where war graves should be located.
not destroyed but removed. i see your point but still i think monuments should stay and they shouldn’t be removed after they are put to place. no matter of politics. i understand the estonian perspective but also it is very sad to see that estonians are building monuments to nazi forces and removing the ones which are supposed to celebrate victory over nazism.
1. Could you state where are these monuments for Nazi forces that the estonians are building? I have not seen or heard about any, besides the one which was in Lihula several years ago, but which was removed by the Estonian government after it was unveiled by one ultra-nationalistic rural town authorities.
2. I agree that monuments should be left alone in general, but in this case this monument was used to incite violence and tensions between nationalities. So the government decided that in the interests of keeping the public order it should be moved to a cemetery. I do not see anything wrong with that line of thought.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5917/eesti0uk3.jpg
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/7290/eesti1yr7.jpg
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/3601/eesti2gb2.jpg
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/4617/eesti3wi5.jpg
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1124/eesti4oi4.jpg
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8588/eesti5bd7.jpg
although not officially supported by estonian governement, these events were covered by european media and stated that even some of the ministers (don’t remember the names) attended opening of such monuments. i admit, my knowledge of estonia and other baltic countries is limited but i see the similarities between estonia and croatia (the country where i live). we also had such erected nazi monuments and street names and judging from that experience i know it is a big mistake to flirt with nazi solders. of course, every person deserves a grave, including nazi solders. still, there shouldn’t be monuments which praise them.
i see the bronze soldier as a monument to fallen anti-fascist solders. red army was a part of anti-fascist movement, right? to me, and actually to whole democratic europe, anti-fascism is the basics of modern europe and european union. after all, fascism was based on racist laws while anti-fascism (partisan movement) was based on freedom and solidarity. it is absolutely true that communism brought misery to many people (even grater number of victims than the fascism) but still noone should mix anti-fascism with communism. and since this monument is not the monument of lenin, stalin or any other communist leader i don’t see the reason why it had to be moved to other place.
once again, i understand and support estonian oposition to soviet union and communist regime. my country was in the same situation inside yugoslavia. of course i can’t even compare estonian suffering to croatian because we were not oppressed in the way you did. still, it is time to look in the future and make russians as friends, not as enemies. all it needs is a first step. russians should do that too.