For Russia, he’s a hero.
For Estoinia, he’s a genocide suspect.
There’s also a Canadian connection.
Arnold Meri, 88, has been charged with the 1949 deportation of 251 Estonians from the island of Hiiumaa to the Novosibirsk oblast. The deported ranged in age from 13 to 75 and according to prosecutors most were women. Sixteen were under 18 years of age. Eleven of them died en route. They were deemded to be opposed to Soviet authority, specifically to the forced collectivization of farms. (City families did not escape this 1949 mass deportation.) At he time Meri was the official representative of the Estonian Communist (bolshevik) Party Central Committee and the Council of Ministers in Hiiumaa.
Meri was awared a Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union for organizing the defence of his Corps headquarters. It has been revealed that the defence was in effect commanded by Captain Loog, not duly recognized nor decorated because he wasn’t a member of the Communist Party. From 1945 to 1949 Meri served as secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol in Estonia. In 1948 he was awarded the highest Soviet order, the Order of Lenin.
Meri, has ackonwledged taking part in the deportations but denies responsibility to the court in Hiiumaa. His defence lawyer Sven Sillar (son of the last KGB chief in Estonia) said Meri is innocent of all charges filed and said that Meri’s role was to ensure that the human rights of the deported were to be ensured.. (This would be laughable if the deportations were not so tragic.) Some 70 of the deported are still alive.
The case attracted the interest of the Russian media, who arrived in large numbers to report the event. It was also inevitable that “Young Guard” demonstrators denouncing Estonia for accusing Meri would make an appearance at the Estonian Consulate General in St. Petersburg.
On Wednesday, the Russian foreign ministry stated that it was another attempt for Estonia to discredit Soiviet veterans of the Second World War, that the court case was a “pseudo-proceeding” unrelated to reality.
At a 2004 Kremlin reception hosted by Vladimir Putin celebrating the May 9 anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Arnold Meri is seen in a news broadcast seated at the head table beside Putin.In addition a Russian recently has proposed naming a street in honour of Meri.
Meri’s role in the 1949 harrasment and intimidation of has been public knowledge for years, since many personal accounts have detailed his activies. But with the presumption of innocence until proven guitly, investigators have been thorough in preparing a prosecutorial case that would withstand Moscow’s harrangues as well as clever defence manoeuverings. Very few prosecutions have been launched against Soviet crimes gainst humanity in Estonia. Ironically Meri’s case has also been delayed pending a medical evaluation of his health.
In the mid-eighties, Meri, as head of the Committee on Developing Cultural Relations with Foregn Countries (a KGB front) visited Canada with a Soviet cultural delegation. At an unnoficial, privately organized reception at a Vancouver church hall, Meri posed for a photograph under pictures of Estonia’s first president Konstantin Päts and comnmander of the defence forces Juhan Laindoner. Participants took it as an offensive gesture of disrespect towards Estonia’s historic figures.
Meri’s is the fifteenth case connected to the 1949 deportations. Punishment for those convicted earlier has been suspended sentences.
Estonian central Council in Canada - LL
For Russia, he’s a hero. (10)
Archived Articles | 28 May 2008 | EWR
Viimased kommentaarid
Kommentaarid on kirjutatud EWR lugejate poolt. Nende sisu ei pruugi ühtida EWR toimetuse seisukohtadega.
Victimhood is an outdated mode to get attention for an unjust cause. To get rid on me, and to hang on to the last straw blowing in the wind-that Maxim is causing me to be the subject of victimhood-is simply not good enough. You need to be more intellectually vigorous in your approach to dealing with problems, and tackle the subject right on the head, instead of attacking the people who come forward with such opinions. I never cry wolf when you spit the dummy thousands of times a year, but your so soft a guey all over, that you don't have any intellectual punch left in your anymore. Get off with it and get on with riding some good heady arguments like we all want to see from you more often. Better...
Maxim has something wrong with him. He just can't leave us alone. To get our goat, he'll say anything and when his idiotic or insane comments provoke well-deserved ridicule, he calls it "character assassination" even though it looks more like "character suicide".
It's a shame you cast judgement where no judgement has been made on my part. Yet to you there is no difference slurring and making character assassinations or not. It's all a level playing field to you, so long as you have the right to cast judgement on whoever you like. Most people call that kind of behaviour autocratic, but you'll never see it that way because your character assassination isn't even obvious to you anymore, having practiced the art for so long.
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