Aftermath of the riots in Riga
News of the riots in Riga reached the international media early this morning.
The BBC has footage of the events on its website:
Apparently the same as available on the Delfi TV website:
And more photos of the events: http://www.tvnet.lv/zinas/galleries/gallery.php?gid=577340
According to the BBC, yesterday’s riots are the largest the Baltic country has seen since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Around 126 people (mostly youngsters) were arrested following last night’s events.
Now, what is rather puzzling is that the police seemed baffled and surprised at the rioting and looting that took place after the peaceful protests. Even though there had been reports of websites calling for violent action well before January 13th. Giving more than enough time for the police to prepare for last night’s events. It is pretty obvious for anyone that if you gather 10.000 or more people in a mass demonstration against the government, some of them are going to end up drinking more than they should and spread a bit of havoc and damage. And that was exactly what happened last night. Around 300 people went in front of the parliament and started shouting for the dismissal of the government and parliament. There seemed to be only around 10-20 police officers initially to protect the parliament, and things got ugly quickly.
Now (and according to a comment on this website) the prime-minister has called on a ban on all protest actions. Not a very clever move. Is there no capable leadership in this sinking boat? Was there no foresight into what could’ve happen yesterday?
I’ll try to follow these events closely.