HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
[If a governing coalition based on popular vote - such as it is in apartheid Estonia which denies between 20-30 percent of its citizens basic human rights, including the right to vote - is impeding the expedient accession of the strategically crucial nation into NATO, then it has to go. Orders from Brussels. Updated, post-Operation Allied Force, NATO doctrine stipulates that an allegedly democratic internal political system, although it disenfrancises 30% of the population, is both a precondition for joining NATO and an inducement for neighbors to do likewise so as to fence in and neutralize the 'Russian bear.' Regarding NATO candidates Estonia and Latvia, which tolerate neo-Nazi thuggery of every kind but refuse citizenship to ethnic Russians and others of Slavic language background, let all of us imagine in our own countries a similar mass exclusion and disenfanchisement based on the presumed cultural and historical sympathies of various demographic groups. Given NATO's 'North Atlantic values' it's no surprise that the hellhole that is Kosovo looks like it does some thirty months after it became a colony.] Tuesday January 8, 8:19 PM Estonian PM resigns after infighting threatens EU, NATO bid Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar resigned after his center-right coalition failed to patch up a political row which has jeopardized the country's bid for EU and NATO membership. "Prime Minister Mart Laar resigned on Tuesday the 8th of January, announcing his decision at the government session," spokesman Priit Poiklik said in a statement. Laar said last month he planned to step down as political infighting in the government coalition jeopardized Estonia's prospects of joining the European Union and NATO, the Baltic country's top foreign policy goals for 2002. "In the coming year, which is so important for the state, Estonia does not need a government that is incapacitated by lack of trust and engaged in campaigning against the partners," Laar said last month when announcing his plans to resign. The three-party coalition led by Laar's Pro Patria Union has made Estonia an EU and NATO front-runner since taking office in 1999, but some of its policies are deeply unpopular. In a move seen as distancing itself from those policies before general elections next year, the Reform Party struck deals with opposition parties to take over municipal councils of several major cities, triggering the collapse of the national coalition. While all of the major parties in the parliament support Estonia's Euro-Atlantic integration, the country appears headed for a power vacuum just as key decisions need to be taken to wrap up EU entry negotiations this year and secure an invitation to join NATO. "There is now a power vacuum -- the best way out would be early elections but they are not very likely," said political analyst Juhan Kivirahk. The process to call early elections is very difficult under the Estonian constitution, he noted. "The most probable coalition partners, the Reform Party and the (opposition) Centrist Party, have quite contradictory views on many issues so this does not promise stability," said Kivirahk. Should they agree to form a government the two parties would have 48 seats in the 101-member parliament, but could probably count on the support of several independent deputies. Laar was due to submit the government's resignation to President Arnold Ruutel later Tuesday and was scheduled to hold a press conference at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT). __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
