Saturday, July 26, 2008 8:53 PM istockanalyst.com
 
  Estonian Veterans of Nazi Forces Meet  
 

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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