■ Riga Gay Pride march 2007: All was peaceful for the stroll through a fenced-off park.  But, below, on the other side of the fence, police had to fend off  'No Pride' extremists ... photos: UK Gay News

RIGA, April 25, 2008  –  The office of Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis and Integration Minister Oskars Kastens have both said that next month’s Riga Pride and March for Equality should take place in an enclosed park as last year at Vermanes Park in central Riga.

And following the reported comments, Ilze Brands-Kehre, the director of the Latvian Human Rights Centre, criticised the senior politicians.

On Wednesday, Mr. Kastens told reporters that the best solution was for the Gay Pride March for Equality, planned for Saturday May 31, to be held within the fenced-off Vermanes Park where any counter demonstration could be contained.

Then yesterday, Edgars Vaikulis, a press secretary for the Prime Minister jumped into the fray.

“Last year the prime minister was an interior minister.  [He] managed to avoid any verbal or physical conflicts during the march and thinks that the optimal solution for this year would be to organise the march at the same place as last year – in Vermanes Park,” he said

The statement by the Integration Minister was heavily criticised by Ms. Brands-Kehre of the Latvian Human Rights Centre.

She said that it is “not within the competence of the Integration Minister to evaluate risk factors and security situation and therefore the minister draws unfound conclusions before even the police came out with their own conclusions on the security situation for this year’s Pride March”.

Ms. Brands-Kehre also said that Mr. Kastens was “interfering and limiting the freedom of assembly”.

Aiga Grisane, a lawyer who represented Mozaika in the courts when successfully challenging a ban on the 2006 Gay Pride March, said that the court decision “clearly states that even if the security risks are real and significant, the City Council has to do all within their powers to find a solution for the march which satisfies both the organisers and the police”.

Earlier this week Mozaika sent an open letter to various Latvian and European authorities, including Latvian President Valdis Zatlers, raising serious concerns regarding the current Integration Minister who, the organisation believes, is incompatible with the post and his duty to promote and facilitate tolerance and integration.

“Events in recent weeks … no longer allow us to keep quiet about the hypocritical nature of Latvia’s public integration policies” Mozaika wrote.

“One specific group – homosexual and bisexual people – are consistently excluded from this process.  If that was a process which took place in secret until recent times, then now Minister Kastens has been expressing his open and scornful attitude both in words and in deeds.

“We believe that this is purposeful policy on the part of the First Party of Latvia/Latvia’s Way (LPP/LC), which the minister represents, and that this policy has been pursued ever since the 2006 parliamentary election campaign,” the letter continues.

“It is very ironic that the government has entrusted the issue of promoting tolerance in society to a minister who represents Latvia’s most intolerant political party.  We believe that this strategy is dangerous, because it splits society, promotes various manifestations of hatred and, at the end of the day, creates even greater public distrust in the country’s political and governing structures.”

The full text of the letter is available at Mozaika’s website

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Posted: 25 April 2008 at 00:00 (UK time)