The U.S. Senate has unanimously agreed to a resolution honoring Latvia on the 90th anniversary of its declaration of independence and calling on the president to ask Russia to acknowledge that the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states was illegal.

The resolution, introduced June 9 by Republican Sen. Gordon H. Smith of Oregon and Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, was discharged by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Sept. 16 and adopted the same day by the full Senate. The committee’s action came a day before it was scheduled to hear testimony about Russia’s aggression against Georgia.

The resolution specifically calls on the U.S. president and the secretary of state “to urge the government of the Russian Federation to acknowledge that the Soviet occupation of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and for the succeeding 51 years was illegal.”

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed in August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, included a secret protocol that allowed the Soviet Union to extend its sphere of influence over the Baltic states.

The resolution also “commends the government of Latvia for its success in implementing political and economic reforms, for establishing political, religious and economic freedom, and for its strong commitment to human and civil rights.”

A similar resolution introduced July 31 in the House of Representatives does not ask the president or the secretary of state to seek Russian anknowledgement of the illegality of the Soviet Occupation. That resolution, H. Res. 1405, remains under review by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Latvia’s Edgars Bergs earned himself an early birthday present Sept. 14, winning a silver medal in the shot put during the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

Bergs, who turned 24 on Sept. 15, placed second in the F35/36 classification, which is for diplegic athletes. The best throw for the Saldus, Latvia, resident was his last, traveling 15.54 meters and earning 1,075 points, according to the official Web site of the Beijing Paralympic Games.

Wei Guo of China set a world record in the F35 class with a distance of 16.22 meters, earning 1,122 points and the gold medal. The bronze went to Pawel Piotrowski of Poland, who set a world record in the F36 class.

The competition took place in National Stadium in the Chinese capital.

Bergs’ medal is the third for Latvian athletes in the Beijing Paralympic Games. Aigars Apinis won a gold in the discus throw on Sept. 8 and took silver in his class in the shot put on Sept. 12.

Apinis and Bergs also were medal winners in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.

The Beijing Paralympic Games continue through Sept. 17.

Even a computer crash two days before the start of the West Coast Latvian Song Festival could not stop the regional American event from being a success, says the chairman of the festival’s organizing committee.

The festival, which ran from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1 in Ventura, Calif., drew its expected 1,000 to 1,200 participants and audience members, Chairman Pauls Berkolds told Latvians Online. And when the books are closed on the festival, he said he believes the event will have money left over.

“Basically, everything went well,” Berkolds said. He has heard good reviews about the festival program, including the play “Hotel Paradiso,” the musical “Vēstule no Losas” and the choir and dance concerts.

Room quotas demanded by the two festival hotels also were reached, meaning organizers saved on the expense of renting space for events at those venues.

A few anxious moments were experienced when the treasurer’s computer crashed, but few troubles resulted because many tickets had already been mailed to attendees and because organizers had back-up information in paper form.

For Berkolds and others involved in the festival, the event was doubly challenging because they not only organized events, but also participated in them. Berkolds, for example, had the lead role in the one-act comedy play, “Hotel Paradiso,” written by his wife, Andra St. Ivanyi Berkolda. Although he is a professional singer and often appears before audiences, he said this was the first time he has had such a large speaking role.

The play was recorded on videotape, as was the musical and the concerts, Berkolds said. However, there is no word yet if edited versions will be made available for sale to the public.

Besides the play, Berkolds said some of his favorite memories of the festival include a children’s festival that included a performance by Dzegūzīte, a well-known children’s singing group from Latvia. The event took place on the 11th floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in a brightly decorated room with round windows that provided a view to the Pacific Ocean.

Also memorable was the joint choir concert, with 200 singers assembled on the stage of Ventura High School, Berkolds said. For organizers like Berkolds, the concert was a fitting culmination to the festival because they could experience “stress release,” knowing that all that was left was the final ball.

Berkolds said he expects the organizing committee has about another six months of work before it can retire. Bills have to be paid, including a startup loan from the West Coast Song Festival Council (Rietumkrasta Dziesmu svētku padome). Some of the proceeds of the Ventura festival will support a youth fund overseen by the council. From each ticket sold to festival events, 25 cents will go to the fund, which supports West Coast Latvian youth in activities such as attending the Kursa or Gaŗezers summer high schools in the United States.

The festival garnered a certain amount of media attention, including a couple of stories in the Ventura County Star, an half-hour program on Los Angeles public radio station KPFK and coverage on Latvian State Television’s “100 gramu kultūras”, as well as from Latvian diaspora media.

What is not known is whether another West Coast festival is in the cards. No announcement was made during the Ventura festival, Berkolds said. The year 2012 would be a fitting time for an anniversary festival, marking 50 years since the first festival in 1962. However, that’s the same year the next U.S. Latvian Song and Dance Festival is being planned for Milwaukee.