The Baltic states (catch all)

[Stan]

Amnesty's row with Estonia over minorities heats up
By Ben Nimmo Mar 1, 2007, 17:53 GMT

Almost a third of Estonia's 1.35 million inhabitants are ethnic Russians, but the state's only official language is Estonian. The inspectorate's job is to maintain the national language's status.

When Estonia declared the renewal of independence in 1991, it decided to only grant automatic citizenship to those families which had been citizens before 1940. All other residents could achieve citizenship by passing exams in Estonian language and history.

This is a 16 year long battle here. In order for me to legally work here, I had to learn and be tested in Estonian Language, Culture and History. The ethnic Russians have lived here for 50 years and can barely muster a 'thank you' in Estonian. How much time do you need ? I had 13 weeks in 95

But officials at the inspectorate dismissed the claims, saying that the amendments simply change the organization's legal status.

'The amendments don't make a difference to our work. What they mean is that while we worked under a government regulation before, we're now regulated by law,' inspectorate spokeswoman Hele Parn told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

'It is a bad piece of work, ahistorical and unbalanced. It echoes Kremlin propaganda in a way that Estonians find sinister and offensive,' wrote Edward Lucas, the Economist's regional expert.

More on this here: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe