Estonia, April 28: 100 people were detained and 10 injured, as police clashed with protesters for a second night over the removal of a Red Army Soviet soldier statue.
Estonian police clashed with large groups of youths
for a second night on Friday after the removal
of the statue of a Red Army Soviet soldier, and the death
of one man in previous riots.
The authorities took the monument away early on Friday,
saying it was a public order problem as it attracted
Estonian and Russian nationalists.
Russia reacted furiously to the removal and its upper house of Parliament voted to ask President
Vladimir Putin to sever relations with the Baltic state.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would "take serious steps".
In the capital city, Tallinn, gangs of Estonian and
Russian youths and teenagers shadowed each other around the
streets on Friday evening, shouting "Russia, Russia" or
"Estonia, Estonia".
In one central square, near the site where the statue
had stood, around 200 to 300 police dressed in riot gear
sprayed fire extinguishers at the crowd, set off blank
explosives and used a water cannon.
A police spokesman said around 100 people had been
detained and 10 people injured. Police attempted to keep people from gathering in large numbers and away from the monument site.
Youths smashed the windows of dozens of shops.
The 2-metre (6-1/2 ft) high bronze statue of a World
War Two Red Army soldier was moved after the worst violence
in years in Estonia, including vandalism and looting by
mainly Russian-speaking protesters on Thursday night.
Removing the statue angered some Russian-speakers, who
number about 300,000 in a country of 1.3 million. Estonians
tend to view it as a reminder of 50 years of Soviet occupation.
Estonia said one man died in the disturbances, which
began after more than 1,000 people gathered to protest
against the plan to remove the statue on Thursday.
Police arrested 300 people, while 44 protesters and 13
police were hurt. Looters set fires and damaged cars.
Russia, which has had troubled ties with Estonia since
the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, had protested
against moving the monument as an insult to those who
fought against fascism.
Russia's Foreign Ministry did not specify what measures it was considering against Estonia. Lavrov, at a NATO meeting in Oslo, said the issue was of interest to Estonia,
Russia and to Europe as it touched on European values.
Bureau Report