Legislation that would forbid persons with dual citizenship from holding high Latvian government posts has been sent for review by four parliamentary committees.

On a 61-29 vote, the Saeima on June 2 sent Bill 832 (titled “Par ierobežojumiem personām ar dubulto pilsonību ieņemt augstākos valsts amatus”) to the Legal Affairs Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee, and the Public Administration and Local Government Committee, according to the parliament’s Web site.

The proposed law offers 23 categories of high government posts in which dual citizens could not serve, including such posts as the president, members of parliament, the prime minister and other ministers, the president’s chief of staff, the head of the Bank of Latvia and members of its board of directors, the director of the state anti-corruption bureau, members of the National Radio and Television Council and Latvia’s ambassadors. Under the Latvian constitution, only the president is not allowed to be a dual citizen. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga had to renounce her Canadian citizenship in order to become president in 1999.

The bill does not prohibit dual citizens from being candidates for high government positions, but stipulates that if elected or appointed to such a position, he or she would have one month to renounce their non-Latvian citizenship.

After the renewal of independence in 1991, Latvia until 1995 allowed persons to reclaim citizenship based on pre-World War II documentation. As a result, thousands of Latvian exiles and their descendents became dual citizens, including many who had not been born in Latvia.

If approved, the law would go into effect July 1, 2005. Approval of the bill could affect several current officials, according to the LETA news agency, including Latvian and U.S. citizen Nils Muižnieks, who is minister for special assignments for society integration affairs; members of parliament Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš and Uldis Mārtiņš Klauss, both of the Jaunais laiks (New Era) party and both holding Latvian and U.S. citizenship; MP Liene Liepiņa of Jaunais laiks, who holds Latvian and German citizenship; and Jānis Kažociņš, head of the Constitutional Defense Bureau, who holds Latvian and British citizenship.

The legislation was proposed May 28 by members of Tautas partija (People’s Party). Members of Jaunais laiks, led by former Prime Minister Einars Repše, have suggested the proposed legislation is an effort by Tautas partija to replace Kažociņš as head of the Constitutional Defense Bureau or to throw a wrench in the effort to have Kariņš become prime minister.

To become law, the legislation would need to be approved through three readings in parliament and be promulgated by the president.

How Latvia is struggling to break with its Russian-dominated past is the subject of an episode of “Up Close,” a Canadian television documentary program, airing this week on the Newsworld International channel. The program should be available to cable and satellite television subscribers across North America.

Hosted by Helen Mann, the episode features interviews with Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and Nīls Muižnieks, an American-born Latvian who now serves in the government as minister for special assignments for society integration affairs.

“Memories of the Soviet occupation are seared into the soul of every Latvian,” say the program notes posted on Newsworld International’s Web site. “To Latvians they are what the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the expulsion of the Acadians have been to generations of French Canadians. Here, though, these are not remembrances of a distant past. They’re the painful experiences of this generation of Latvians.”

According to the program schedule, “Up Close” is to air June 2 at 3:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST; June 3 at 12:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. EST; June 4 at 3:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. EST; June 5 at 10 p.m. EST; June 6 at 1 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST, and June 7 at 2:30 a.m. EST.

Further information is available from the program’s Web site.

The bass player for Latvia’s top pop group, Prāta Vētra, has been killed in an automobile accident, Latvian media report. Gundars Mauševics was killed May 24 about 10 kilometers from Rīga on the Rīga-Jelgava highway, the newspaper Diena reported.

The news agency LETA said it had confirmed the musician’s death. His body was found near an Audi 80 automobile that had run off the road into a peat bog. Police suspect the accident happened up to two days earlier, the news agency said.

Mauševics, known by the nickname Mumiņš, was one of five members of the band, whose lineup has not changed since the group formed in 1989. The band is known outside Latvia as BrainStorm.

Other members of the band are lead vocalist Renārs Kaupers, drummer Kaspars Roga, keyboardist Māris Mihelsons and guitarist Jānis Jubalts.

Road accidents have claimed or seriously injured a number of popular Latvian artists in recent years. Dainis Virga, drummer for the Liepāja rock band Līvi, was killed last July 27 along with sound operator Juris Jakovļevs when the vehicle they were riding in was involved in an accident near Daugavpils. The group’s guitarist Ainars Virga, who was driving, and bass player Jānis Grodums, were injured in the accident. Singer Igo (Rodrigo Fomins) was seriously injured in an automobile accident in May 2000 and spent several months recuperating. Singer Māra Kalniņa of the popular post-folk group Iļģi was killed in 1999 in an accident near Rīga.

Latvia has one of the worst traffic death records in Europe, according to several international organizations that monitor road safety. In the first quarter of this year, a total of 114 people died on Latvian roads, according to the national Road Traffic Safety Directorate.