AP News, April 26th, 2007
Police clashed with protesters Thursday at a Soviet war memorial in Estonia's capital as authorities prepared to remove the bodies despite Russia's angry objections.
After largely peaceful rallies throughout the day, a group of protesters tried to break through a line of police officers guarding the grave and the Bronze Soldier statue next to it.
Some protesters said police fired tear gas, but police spokeswoman Tuuli Harson said they used a type of foam for crowd control. "People tried to break through line and attacked police officers," she said.
Dozens of police had formed lines to keep some 600 protesters away from the monument after workers erected a tent over the memorial to shield the excavations from public view.
Estonia's government intends to relocate the Soviet grave, believed to contain the remains of 14 soldiers, and the statue next to it.
The Baltic state's ethnic Russians _ about a third of the population _ see the memorial as a tribute to Red Army soldiers who died fighting Nazi Germany and have vowed to protect it. Many ethnic Estonians, however, say the memorial is a bitter reminder of five decades of Soviet occupation.
Eleven people were detained, Harson said. Some protesters shouted, "Estonia is a disgrace," and one was detained after trying to jump the police barrier. Three others were detained after locking themselves in a car and refusing to obey police orders. Officers smashed the windows of the car.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The dispute over the monument has aggravated tensions between Estonia and Russia, which has repeatedly called on its small neighbor to halt the plans to move the grave.
"We express deep anxiety in connection with the plans of the Estonian government for transferring the buried soldiers of various nationalities who gave their lives for the liberation of Europe from fascism and for tearing down the Soldier-Liberator Memorial in Tallinn," Russia's Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov called for economic sanctions against Estonia and rerouting the transit of Russian exports to other countries.
Soviet troops invaded the Baltic countries _ Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania _ in 1940, but were pushed out by the Nazis a year later. The Red Army retook them in 1944 and occupied them until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Anticipating unrest, Estonia's border guards this week stepped up security checks on the frontier with Russia and Tallinn's police force was beefed up with reinforcements from across the country.
The government has said it wants to identify the remains in the war grave and then relocate the entire monument to an undecided location. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said the excavations would last up to two weeks.
