Estonian Arnold Meri charged with genocide

Known at home as former President Lennart Meri's Soviet-sympathiser cousin

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Estonian Arnold Meri, 88, has been charged with genocide for participating in the preparations of the deportation to Siberia of Estonian citizens from the island of Hiiumaa in March 1949.
      More than 20,000 civilians were deported from Estonia to Siberia and other parts of the Soviet Union between March 25th and 27th, 1949. The purpose was to intimidate the rural population and to accelerate the collectivisation of Estonian agriculture.
      Arnold Meri, the cousin of former President of Estonia, Lennart Meri, is alleged to have been in charge of the deportations on Hiiumaa.
      In an interview with the Estonian daily Eesti Päevaleht on Wednesday, Meri again publicly acknowledged his involvement in the deportations.
     
"It is clear that I participated in the deportations. But not in the role of which I am being accused", Meri argued.
      According to Meri, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia had authorised him to see to it that the deportations on Hiiumaa were conducted in accordance with the laws of that time. In practice, he had no possibility to do that.
      Meri also reported on his involvement in the deportations in the recent documentary film and book entitled Torjutut muistot ("Memories Denied") by Imbi Paju, dealing with the suffering of Estonian women during the Stalin years. While being interviewed by Paju, Meri did not express any remorse.
      Arnold Meri, a decorated Red Army veteran and a former Communist Party official in Estonia, has defended the Soviet system during Estonia’s entire period of independence since the country threw off the Soviet yoke in 1991.
     
Russia still remembers Arnold Meri as a war hero, and he was invited to Moscow in May when the country celebrated its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
      Arnold Meri is the 15th Estonian to be charged in connection with the deportations of 1949 since Estonia regained its independence. The punishment for those convicted earlier has been suspended prison sentences.


Links:
  Arnold Meri (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat