EUROPE 
Clashes over Estonia statue
Saturday, 28 April, 2007
Police face demonstrators protesting against plans to move a Soviet war memorial in Tallin on Friday. (Getty Images)
Ten people have been injured and hundreds arrested in a second night of rioting in Tallinn after a controversial Sovietwar memorial was removed by the authorities.
"Vandalising and looting is taking place in central Tallinn," Raivo Kuut, Tallinn police chief, told reporters.
"Ten people have needed medical treatment for injuries," he said.
Most of the rioters were Russian-speakers in their teens, police said.
Rioting was also reported outside of the capital, in the town of Johvi, 165 kilometres northeast of Tallinn.
"A few hundred people are on the move in the town, smashing the windows of buildings and cars," police said in a statement.
Riot police used water cannon, rubber batons and sound devices to disperse crowds of vandals who smashed the windows of the Art Academy in central Tallinn and looted a liquor store nearby.
"We have detained nearly 300 young people, many of them drunk," Kuut said.
Police lines attempted to keep aggressive youth groups apart, pushing them out of the central area, according to a newswire agency AFP correspondent on the scene.
Groups of youths shouted "Rossiya! Rossiya!" (Russia in Russian) and waved Russian flags.
Rioting had first erupted Friday when police tried to prevent a small group of youths from breaking through a security cordon set up around a towering bronze figure of a Red Army soldier ahead of the statue's removal.
A 20-year-old died after being stabbed during the first night of violence, which officials have said was the worst unrest to rock Tallinn since Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The statue was moved to a secret location in the early hours of Friday, in a bid to prevent further unrest.
Concrete bollards have been set up on the road leading to the parliament building after around 60 youngsters demonstrated outside, shouting "Fascists" in Russian and calling on the prime minister to come out.
The last time the Estonian parliament was barricaded was in 1991, when Soviet tanks were advancing towards Tallinn to crush the independence drive of the Baltic state.
A monument to Estonian writer Anton Hansen Tammsaare, located in a park in central Tallinn, was daubed in white paint in Cyrillic letters, prompting anger from Estonian youths.
Police managed to keep the Estonian and Russian groups apart at the vandalised monument.
Source: AFP
"Vandalising and looting is taking place in central Tallinn," Raivo Kuut, Tallinn police chief, told reporters.
"Ten people have needed medical treatment for injuries," he said.
Most of the rioters were Russian-speakers in their teens, police said.
Rioting was also reported outside of the capital, in the town of Johvi, 165 kilometres northeast of Tallinn.
"A few hundred people are on the move in the town, smashing the windows of buildings and cars," police said in a statement.
Riot police used water cannon, rubber batons and sound devices to disperse crowds of vandals who smashed the windows of the Art Academy in central Tallinn and looted a liquor store nearby.
"We have detained nearly 300 young people, many of them drunk," Kuut said.
Police lines attempted to keep aggressive youth groups apart, pushing them out of the central area, according to a newswire agency AFP correspondent on the scene.
Groups of youths shouted "Rossiya! Rossiya!" (Russia in Russian) and waved Russian flags.
Rioting had first erupted Friday when police tried to prevent a small group of youths from breaking through a security cordon set up around a towering bronze figure of a Red Army soldier ahead of the statue's removal.
A 20-year-old died after being stabbed during the first night of violence, which officials have said was the worst unrest to rock Tallinn since Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The statue was moved to a secret location in the early hours of Friday, in a bid to prevent further unrest.
Concrete bollards have been set up on the road leading to the parliament building after around 60 youngsters demonstrated outside, shouting "Fascists" in Russian and calling on the prime minister to come out.
The last time the Estonian parliament was barricaded was in 1991, when Soviet tanks were advancing towards Tallinn to crush the independence drive of the Baltic state.
A monument to Estonian writer Anton Hansen Tammsaare, located in a park in central Tallinn, was daubed in white paint in Cyrillic letters, prompting anger from Estonian youths.
Police managed to keep the Estonian and Russian groups apart at the vandalised monument.
Source: AFP
