Latvia’s military attaché in Sweden, Major Normunds Bērzkalns, has been recalled and relieved of his duties, apparently over an incident in Stockholm involving a woman and the police, the newspaper Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze reported July 25.

The Ministry of Defense, Bērzkalns’ employer, has described the incident as a “personal matter” between the attaché and the woman, a Latvian citizen living and working in Stockholm, the newspaper reported.

Swedish police are pursuing charges against Bērzkalns, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Atis Lots told Latvians Online by telephone from Rīga.

The Bērzkalns affair is the latest scandal involving Latvian diplomats in recent months.

In June, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs investigated a complaint about the alleged bad behavior of Māris Klišāns, Latvia’s ambassador to Norway. The Saeima’s Foreign Affairs Commission had recommended Klišāns’ removal after it received a letter from a representative of the Latvian Society in Norway, who complained about the ambassador’s use of alcohol and other unbecoming behavior during official events, according to news reports.

But after an inspection visit to Norway, the ministry concluded that the matter involved a personal dispute between the ambassador and the author of the letter.

“We had no basis to recall the ambassador,” Lots said.

Meanwhile, the ministry has taken no action in the case of Mark Anthony Sammut, Latvia’s honorary consul in Malta, who was arrested in April after airport security personnel found a loaded gun in his hand luggage as he was attempting to board a flight from Malta to Great Britain.

Lots said Maltese authorities still are investigating the incident. Until they reach a conclusion, the foreign ministry is taking no action.

A resolution calling on Russia to acknowledge and condemn the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states has been adopted by the U.S. House of Represenatives.

The House adopted the resolution on July 22, more than three months after it was introduced April 12 by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.). The U.S. Senate adopted a similar resolution in May.

“It is important that the United States join with our allies in the Baltics and stand for democracy and rights of individuals to be protected everywhere,” Shimkus told his colleagues from the floor of the House before the resolution was adopted. “Democracy and freedom cannot exist without truth and transparency; I would hope Russia would take a step forward as a nation by acknowledging the past.”

Shimkus, who has Lithuanian heritage and is co-chair of the House Baltic Caucus, noted that representatives were considering the resolution during Captive Nations Week. The week was first proclaimed in 1959 during the Eisenhower Administration to draw attention to countries struggling for freedom from Communist rule.

The Russian government, meanwhile, in recent statements has said resolutions such as this one are “attempts to rewrite history.” It has argued that no occupation of the Baltic states occurred in 1940, because the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania allowed Soviet troops to enter their countries and because they asked to be annexed into the Soviet Union.

“The term ‘occupation’ cannot be used for a legal assessment of the situation in the Baltics in the late 1930s because there was no state of war between the U.S.S.R. and the Baltic states and no military actions were being conducted, and the troops were introduced on the basis of an agreement and with the express consent of the authorities that existed in these republics at the time—whatever one may think of them,” the Russian Foreign Ministry Information and Press Department said in an April statement.

A gay and lesbian “pride” parade planned July 23 in the Old City district of Rīga is on again after a court decision overturned the city manager’s decision to cancel a permit for the event.

The Rīga District Administrative Court ruled July 22 that the city must re-issue a permit for the parade, but a city attorney said that may not be possible because of time contraints, according to the LETA news agency. Instead, City Attorney Ivars Mauriņš said, based on the court’s decision the earlier permit will be valid.

The parade is planned as part of Rīga Pride 2005, the first-ever gay and lesbian event of its kind in Latvia.

“We salute the decision of the court and consider it a victory for democracy and reason over prejudice and hate,” the Gay and Lesbian Youth Support Group (Geju un lesbiešu jauniešu atbalsta grupa, or GLJAG), said in an announcement posted on its Web site.

But the conservative and religious Latvijas Pirmā partija (First Party of Latvia, or LPP) announced its disappointment over the court’s decision and called on the public to participate in an ecumenical service in the Dome Church on July 23. The service is to start at the same time as the parade, which itself concludes with a service at St. Saviour’s Anglican Church.

LPP issued a statement in which it apologized to the public, saying that even though the party is in the ruling coalition in the Rīga City Council it was unable to stop the parade.

Citing concerns about potential unrest involving extremist groups, Rīga City Manager Ēriks Škapars on July 20 cancelled the parade permit.

Ironically, one of the groups pointed to as a potential troublemaker, the nationalist youth organization Klubs 415, now finds itself without a permit for its planned counterdemonstration, an event titled “Mēs par ģimeni!” (We’re for Family!) in the Esplanāde park in downtown Rīga. While Klubs 415 on July 20 commended the “courageous decision” by the city to pull the permit for the gay and lesbian parade, on July 22 it slammed the city for refusing to issue a permit for the group’s own event.

Klubs 415, in a statement to the press, said its event will take place even without a permit.