Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08RIGA130
2008-03-13 07:12:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Riga
Cable title:  

DAS KRILLA STRESSES TOLERANCE AND INCLUSION IN

Tags:  PHUM PGOV PREL LG 
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VZCZCXRO3482
RR RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHRA #0130/01 0730712
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 130712Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY RIGA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4785
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RIGA 000130 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/13/2018
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL LG
SUBJECT: DAS KRILLA STRESSES TOLERANCE AND INCLUSION IN
LATVIA

Classified By: Ambassador Charles W. Larson for Reason 1.4(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RIGA 000130

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/13/2018
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL LG
SUBJECT: DAS KRILLA STRESSES TOLERANCE AND INCLUSION IN
LATVIA

Classified By: Ambassador Charles W. Larson for Reason 1.4(d).


1. (C) Summary: DAS for DRL Jeffrey Krilla visited Riga March
5 and 6 for roundtable discussions with ethnic Russian and
other minority groups in Latvia. He also met with the
Latvian Minister of Integration, MFA officials, and an ethnic
Russian member of parliament. While the Integration Minister
and representatives at the MFA described a government
reaching out to minority communities and striving for
integration, NGO representatives painted a different picture.
They roundly criticized the GOL for what they considered
lackluster efforts to integrate minorities--asserting that
the GOL pays lip service to issues of tolerance and
integration out of political necessity. Throughout the
visit, DAS Krilla urged the GOL to embrace minority
communities--and counseled minority groups to engage fully in
the democratic process. He concluded the visit with media
interviews with Russian and Latvian dailies, where is
stressed the importance of inclusion for all members of
Latvian society. End Summary.

Roundtable Discussions
--------------


2. (U) DAS Krilla and Ambassador Larson met ethnic Russians
from NGOs, the media, and business to learn the challenges
and opportunities faced by the ethnic Russian community in
Latvia. The participants sketched a complex picture in
which older ethnic Russians nurse a sense of grievance
towards Latvian society, while the younger members are
somewhat more pragmatic and forward-looking. The 400,000 non
citizens living in Latvia came up repeatedly, with several
participants expressing real annoyance that they must
naturalize to become a citizen in the land in which they were
born.


3. (U) DAS Krilla and Ambassador Larson next met NGO leaders
representing a broad array of minorities in Latvia: a leader
in the Roma community, a member of a gay rights organization,
a women's issues advocate, and a leader of a group
representing those of African descent living in Latvia. The
entire group roundly criticized the GOL as feebly paying lip
service to tolerance and inclusion--perhaps because the

government feels it must use such rhetoric as an EU member
state. George Steele, an African-American who has been
living in Latvia since the mid 1990s stated that tolerance
towards people of color has deteriorated since the mid-1990s.
Evita Gosa said her gay rights organization, Mozaika, feels
totally shut out of discussions with the government; she
added that Mozaika is only acknowledged by the GOL at all
when the government is worried it may get some heat from EU
institutions if it totally ignores the group.

GOL Officials
--------------


4. (C) Latvian Integration Minister Oskars Kastens stressed
the GOL's efforts to integrate minority communities. He
provided a detailed rundown of different programs and
initiatives that his ministry pursues--to teach the Latvian
language, to encourage naturalization, etc. However, Kastens
evinced no real passion or sense of urgency regarding
integration or the promotion of tolerance. In a separate
meeting with MFA Under Secretaries, Ilgvars Klava and Edgars
Skuja, DAS Krilla again stressed the need for the Latvian
political elite to lead the society on integration
issues--and to publicly condemn anti-Semitism, racism, and
other manifestations of intolerance.


5. (C) Ethnic Russian and Jewish Member of Parliament, Boriss
Cilevics (Harmony Center party),provided perhaps the most
balanced picture of challenges to integration in modern
Latvia. Cilevics spoke with compassion about the ethnic
Latvian community's historical trauma under Soviet
occupation. He spoke of the ethnic Latvians themselves as
thinking and acting as a minority group striving to preserve
its own culture. On the other hand, he emphasized that the
GOL's specific policies in the decade and a half since Latvia
regained independence may be creating yet another historical
dynamic in which the ethnic Russians in modern Latvia feel
marginalized and excluded from the democratic process.
Cilevics concluded that the Russian community in Latvia has
not yet given up on full civic participation, but stressed
that GOL policies and more inclusive rhetoric from the
Latvian elite will be crucial in the years ahead.

Press
--------------


6. (U) DAS Krilla gave interviews to two Russian and one
Latvian language newspapers. In each, he urged the GOL to
engage its minority communities and ensure they are

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integrated into the mainstream of society. To the Russian
readers in particular he stressed that participation within
the democratic system is the most practical way to improve
conditions within any specific community. He also emphasized
that the USG is interested in the concerns and challenges
faced by all people living in Latvia, not simply ethnic
Latvians.

Comment
--------------


7. (C) During the visit, the picture that NGOs painted of a
government going through the motions on matters of
integration and tolerance has some truth: Latvian officials
are still unsure about just how fully and how best to engage
and embrace the ethnic Russian community and minorities more
broadly. Given the historical trauma of Soviet occupation
and Latvians' very limited exposure to minorities in recent
years, this is perhaps not surprising. However,
globalization is bringing more and more people with different
backgrounds to Latvia. This reality, along with the fact
that well over one third of the population of the country is
not ethnic Latvian, makes it imperative that Latvia embrace a
more open social model. Within this context, DAS Krilla's
visit helped emphasize the importance of tolerance and
integration in a society that is struggling to find an
identity that includes all those living within its borders.
End Comment.


8. (U) This cable was cleared by DAS Krilla.
LARSON