The Joint Baltic American National Committee (JBANC) has presented its Baltic Democracy Award to the two leaders of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which is also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

JBANC presented the award April 15 to Chairman Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) and Co-Chairman Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), according to a press release from the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying organization.

The CSCE was established in 1976 as an independent branch of U.S. government. It is charged with monitoring compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords on peace and security in Europe.

Smith was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980, and is a senior member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Smith is also one of the longest-serving members of the House Baltic Caucus. Smith has been instrumental in furthering the CSCE’s cause of promoting human rights and democracy, authorizing three of America’s most influential anti-human trafficking laws and serving on Congressional caucuses focusing on refugees, combating anti-Semitism, and human trafficking.

Smith also has experience in Central and Eastern European affairs, and was present in the Baltics with a U.S. Congressional delegation following the Soviet crackdown in early 1991. He recently introduced the Belarus Democracy and Human Rights Act of 2011, legislation that supports Belarus’ democratic opposition and calls for American sanctions against that country’s current authoritarian regime.

“Congressman Smith has been a tremendous ally to JBANC,” said Markus Videnieks, a member of JBANC’s board of directors. “He has demonstrated tireless support and wise leadership on issues that are critical to Estonian-, Latvian- and Lithuanian-Americans, and we are proud to be able to recognize him and Senator Cardin for their achievements.”

Cardin was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. He serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, Judiciary Committee, Environment and Public Works Committee, Budget Committee and Small Business Committee. From 1987-2006, Cardin served in the House of Representatives, representing Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District.

Cardin has served on the CSCE since 1993 and currently is vice president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Previous JBANC Baltic Democracy Award honorees include Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) in 2007; Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), and Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-Neb.) in 2003; Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) in 2001; and Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) in 1999. Before 1999, the award was called the Baltic Freedom Award.

JBANC represents the American Latvian Association, Estonian American National Council and the Lithuanian American Council.

The Latvian government should financially support former members of the Latvian Legion the same way it helps others who were repressed during the country’s half-century of occupation, says the head of the World Federation of Free Latvians (Pasaules brīvo latviešu apvienība, or PBLA).

In an April 19 letter to Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, PBLA Chairman Mārtiņš Sausīņš wrote that about 2,000 former Legionnaires are still alive in Latvia. Of those, about 200 receive compensation from the German government, but the rest do not.

“Latvian Legionnaires also were victims of foreign occupation, because almost all of them were illegally mobilized and did not voluntarily sign up to fight under a foreign power,” Sausiņš said, according to a translaton of the letter.

After the German army in 1941 drove the occupying Soviet forces from Latvia, two divisions of ethnic Latvian soldiers—the 15th and 19th—were formed in 1943 under the command of the Waffen SS. Historians figure that only about 15 percent to 20 percent were actual volunteers, while the rest were drafted.

Estimates vary about how many soldiers served in the two divisions. Sausiņš in his letter cites “more than 115,000.”

For those surviving Legionnaires who have not already received compensation from Germany, the PBLA also urged the Latvian government to help them by contacting the German government.

On another matter, the PBLA urged the Latvian government to activate an agreement with Russia about finding the remains of Latvian soldiers and reburying them in Latvia.

In addition, the PBLA letter asks the Latvian government to work on preventing attacks on the honor of Latvian soldiers in Latvia and abroad. In the days before and after the March 16 parade and memorial ceremony in Rīga honoring veterans of the Latvian Legion, a number of foreign press reports referred to the soldiers and their supporters as Nazis. Protesters at the Freedom Monument in downtown Rīga expressed their displeasure with the march by displaying signs noting the number of people murdered by the Nazis in several locations in Latvia during World War II.

No immediate response from Dombrovskis to the letter has been announced. Jānis Andersons, head of the PBLA’s representative office in Rīga, told Latvians Online in an email that within the past year the organization has had no discussions with the Latvian government about the issue.