A riot - but mind the town square cleaners!

Last night in Riga we had a riot. Well it was not exactly a real riot, I know because I have been on the wrong end of these in Northern Ireland when I served there. This was something else again.

The evening started with a standard political rally organised by Aigars Stokenbergs of the main opposition party, Sabiedriba Citai Politikai (SCP) to gather support to get the President to dismiss the Saeima (Paliament). Over 10,000 people turned up from all over the country to brave the sub zero temperatures and today a petition is on the Internet with double that number signed up already.

After the rally the nearest group to the Saeima headed off to protest pecefully in front of the building. The police had made no attempt to block off the road at all so the crowd of 400 or so just walked down there easily. There were no civil police around to stop them. The military police who guard the government buildings realised they were in deep trouble and cut this crowd off from the larger mass with a land rover barricade.

The mainly middle class crowd who got through were focused on their political aim of removing Prime Minister Godmanis. They were noisy and excited throwing eggs, oranges and empty drink cans and bottles at the building. This progressed to the odd firework and brick or two. Generally they were a model of restraint considering the dire financial situation of the country. If this had been all that happened it would have been worth only mild comment.

On the other side of the barricade the action started much the same. There were several groups of youths at the front and they were being aggressive, trying to overturn one of the land rovers and throwing empty beer cans. Most of this was watched by several hundred families and children who joined in by throwing the odd egg or two. But a more sinister element appeared and a team of very hyped up young men in their 20s (almost like on drugs) started with more aggressive action throwing bricks, shouting loudly and making very provocative gestures. One of them walked back out of the crowd 50m to smash the windows of an unatended police van totally innoring ignoring the private cars around it. These men were controlled, if this is the word, by a very well dressed man around 30 watching from the side. None of the youngsters realised they were being manipulated so they just followed these more aggressive leaders and became more daring and aggressive themselves, eventually starting to pull bits off the land rovers. But now spurred on by a cheering crowd the youths started to throw bottles at the nearby windows breaking them (to loud cheers) and then the odd bottle close to the military police as well.

I have to say that I was deeply proud of the young military police NCOs who stood tall and defiant throughout. They kept their heads even when there was a short spell of violence and the lone civil policeman on the barricades was forced to throw a smoke grenade and fire rubber bullets.

The amazing thing at this point was that there were no police evident on our side of the barriers at all. After the rubber bullet incident one of the SCP organisers went looking for the police. Less than 100m away and round the corner there were 6 of them chatting. On being confronted they said "we have no equipment and no leaders here so we cant do anything". They then went back to chatting.

After about an hour of this and some politically targeted window breaking in side streets, the public order police appeared in riot gear and pushed the 100 or so aggressive youngsters back into the square. Now the really bizarre part of this riot took place. The police were making small charges into the crowd of youths who ran away each time and then came back to taunt them. About 2-300 people stood back and watched the action like they were at an ice hockey game. But at the same time and right next to the action, the fencing around the square was being dismantled, the band stand and sound equipment was being taken down, and - wait for it - the lady cleaners in their yellow and orange fluorescent jackets were sweeping up the square in and around the riot as it was happening. Only in Latvia are cleaners treated with so much respect!

Then to add to the nonsense, two blue light flashing police vans drove through the crowd, going where we know not, and the crowd parted in good nature, and let them through. Minutes later, the municipal sweeping van also parted the crowd doing a couple of back and forth runs across the square. Unarmed and equipped municipal police then came to block off the square and the riot police eventually chased about 50 youths, with few aggressive but still fairly gentlemanly thumpings, out of the exit roads and into the old town. The chase continued sporadically for the rest of the evening.

As I walked through the square on my way home just before midnight, the cleaners were still there and amazingly the bandstand equipment, now packed up, was waiting there neatly for the lorry to take it away.

At the main entrance to the old town I saw two lines of riot police waiting, but clearly relaxed and virtually off duty. Another line just 40m away was facing the freedom monument (defending McDonalds I thought) against 20-30 youngsters still bent on their sport of police baiting. The general public just walked through the whole thing as though it was a normal evening. I walked past lots of municipal police and standing groups of youngsters, both Russian and Latvian speakers and most of them clearly very very poor. Bad teeth were visible in many mouths.

This morning on the way into the office I walked past the key area of damage. There was virtually nothing beyond a dozen or so large broken windows. The main Parex Bank office had been attacked and damaged. The two liquor stores opposite it and the Tax office over the road had had their main windows smashed. I saw one car with a broken window. But this damage was all too politically neat for a riot. The windows were all smashed exactly in the middle, The nearby restaurant, expensive women's dress shop, other major banks and expensive cars, including those within 20m of the barricade were all left totally untouched. Apparently over 100 youths were arrested and several people were hurt, at least one badly. A miltary spokesman said that outside the Saeima the trouble was caused by Russian speakers. But from where I was standing, the three trouble making groups of youths including those trying to make a serious riot were all Latvian speakers so I hesitate to draw a nationalist conclusion from this.

So what conclusions have I drawn from it all? Firstly the strength of opinion against this government from the general public is high and that came across clearly from the diversity of people at the rally and the petition. Secondly there are a lot of disaffected people, especially youngsters, of both Latvian and Russian background who showed their unhappiness last night. We were lucky, the Latvian character stopped them behaving really badly and they demonstrated more to vent their own frustrations than against the country in general. This was no Paris. We may not be so lucky with them again though. The country has been warned.

The police come out of this with both roses and brickbats. The normal Riga police mainly operated with restraint and common sense and did much to keep the general situation from getting worse. Many of them however were clearly out of their depth with the whole thing, and the mainly academic police training needs a serious rethink. The public order police could have been much harder with those they faced and there are some very lucky young men today. But they almost certainly made the evening worse by being aggressive too late rather than being visible and active before the rioting youngsters became confident. The Interior Minister also needs to go. The Saeima should have been properly protected and cordoned off even before the rally and the police were just not ready for trouble even though the Internet had been full of warnings for days. Overall the police management was found to be completely out of its depth. A major shake up is required.

But what is the worst thing is that there is a politically inspired minority in the country who were ready and willing to deliberately risk peoples lives by inciting riot just to further their own political aims. They failed because they tried to be too clever and their nasty actions were made to stand out by the sheer goodness of the general population.

So God bless Latvia - and God bless our wonderful little cleaning ladies too - they should give the country great hope.