Officials trade blame for Latvia's riot

[Joanne98]

Source: AP

RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Latvia's government and opposition politicians blamed each other Wednesday for rioting in the capital that left more than 40 people injured in the worst violence since the country split from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The violence erupted late Tuesday after a peaceful anti-government demonstration by an estimated 10,000 people in downtown Riga, where participants criticized ministers for the country's worsening recession and urged the president to dissolve Parliament.

Most demonstrators left the area after the protest, but about 100 of them turned violent and tried to storm the Parliament building. Riot police kept them away from the building, using tear gas and truncheons.

The rioters pelted officers with cobblestones and chunks of ice, and vandalized three police vehicles. They smashed windows of boutiques, the Finance Ministry and a bank, and looted a liquor store.

More than 40 people were injured in the violence, mostly protesters but also six police officers and eight military police, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sigita Pildava said. Police detained 106 people.



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By this summer there will be riots all over the world.

[dipsydoodle]

1. They've got problems with inflation

and are not in the Euro money system yet.

[Joe Chi Minh]

2. I expect they have a few niggling doubts about Anglo-US capitalism,

and the freedoms it's been a-spreading.

[FarLeftRage]

3. Instigated by the russians...

covertly, of course.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Much of the population of Riga IS Russian

thanks to Stalin's policy of "diluting" potential rebellious ethnic areas by moving Russians in and indigenous people out.