"Yesterday's events in Riga cannot be viewed as anything else but a challenge to the basic norms of humanity, to the UN Human Rights Commission. Yesterday Waffen SS legionaries marched in the center of the Latvian capital and the police used force against antifascists", Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said on Thursday at the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
Nobody can remain indifferent to the on-going persecutions of antifascist veterans in these countries, which is "not conducive to the attainment of accord in society", he said.
"Trials of veterans, extolling of Waffen SS legionaries, attempts to re-write the history of the Second World War - such are the practices beefing up the present forms of racism and neo-Nazism", the high-ranking Russian diplomat said.
"Discrimination of ethnic minorities, infringement on their rights, non-observance of the fundamental principles of judicature and other abuses - all this is nothing else but the nutrient soil and source of new conflict situations. If such practices are not ended, their effects can be most serious", Mr. Fedotov warned.
The human rights situation taking shape in Latvia and Estonia is "absolutely out of place", he added.
