TALLINN. July 26 (Interfax) - Veterans of an Estonian unit of Nazi Germany's
armed forces had a traditional annual meeting on Saturday.
In speaking at the event, held in Sinimae, near the Russian
border, Estonian parliament deputy Trivimi Velliste said Estonians
who had served in the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of elite
Nazi military organization SS fought to liberate Estonia from
Bolsheviks and should therefore be considered "liberators."
"Parliament should officially grant them the status of liberation fighters and
make them equal in status to participants in
the Liberation War of 1918-1920," Velliste said.
The same point
was made by veterans who spoke at the meeting
about fierce battles against advancing Soviet
forces in 1944.
Veikko Luhalaid,
governor of Vaivara municipality, where Sinimae
is located, was present at the meeting.
Those present
also included skinheads, many young people with
Nazi symbols on their clothes, and SS veterans
from Norway and Denmark.
Simultaneously,
about ten members of Night Watch, a group that
has campaigned against last year's removal of
a Soviet war memorial from the center of Tallinn
to a military cemetery outside the city, gathered
near the site of the SS veteran's meeting. They
laid flowers at a nearby monument to fallen Soviet
soldiers.
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