Protests over the removal of a World War II statue from central Tallinn have continued in the Estonian capital into early Saturday. Protests against the removal of the Soviet Bronze Soldier statue have turned into clashes between protesters and police, as well as Estonian nationalists, which left one dead and 60 injured, including three seriously wounded police officers. About 500 people were arrested.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets after new clashes erupted over the removal of a Soviet war memorial. Police were confronted by mainly ethnic Russian demonstrators, some of whom threw petrol bombs and were involved in looting.
Windows in residential buildings and shops near the central square have been shattered, and bus stops and cars heavily damaged. Clashes were also reported in other towns in northeastern Estonia, where 42 people were arrested.
Estonia has said the Bronze Statue and other Soviet monuments - rallying points for ethnic Russians - "divide society" spurring clashes with Estonian nationalists. Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has said the central square is not a proper burial place.
The move is a breaking point in a long-standing dispute with Russia over monuments to Soviet soldiers, whom many in ex-Soviet Estonia, a nation of 1.3 million, consider to have been occupiers.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov mentioned the scandal at a NATO forum in Oslo Friday, saying he was outraged by "such desecration and the methods used to disperse the protestors who tried to protect the shrine and memory of Europe's liberators from Nazism."
More than a quarter of Estonia's 1.3m people are ethnically Russian, and speak the language. Estonia's government would not reveal where it took the six-foot (1.83m) statue, but spokesman Martin Jasko said it would ultimately be placed at the military cemetery in Tallinn.
Agencies
Our button
print version
