Estonia removes Red Army statue after riots

TALLINN, Apr 27 (Reuters) Estonia took away the controversial statue of a Red Army Soviet soldier from the centre of the capital early today after violent riots against its removal in which one man was killed.

Russia reacted furiously and its upper house of parliament voted to ask President Vladimir Putin to sever relations with the small Baltic state.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would ''take serious steps'' against Estonia, Russian news agencies reported.

The 2-metre (6 1/2 ft) high bronze statue of a World War Two Red Army soldier was spirited away overnight after the worst violence seen in years in Estonia, including vandalism and looting by mainly Russian-speaking protesters.

''The aim of the government decision was to avoid further possible actions against the public order,'' the government said, and the president called for calm.

Television pictures from inside a large tent erected over the site showed a long muddy patch where the statue, set up in 1947, and its wall had been.

Russia, which has had troubled ties with Estonia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, has protested against moving the monument as an insult to those who fought against fascism.

''Yet again, we can qualify the actions of official Tallinn as sacrilegious and inhuman,'' Interfax news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying.

He said the move was harsh ahead of the May 9 anniversary of the end of World War Two, a popular public holiday in Russia.

CALM RETURNS Estonia has said the monument is a public order problem as it attracts Estonian and Russian nationalists. It has also said it is more respectful to the dead to be buried in a cemetery.

Removing it angered some Russian-speakers, a large minority of around 300,000 in the country of 1.3 million. Estonians tend to view it as a reminder of 50 years of Soviet occupation.

''Estonia's government promised to leave the monument intact for the time being, but they suddenly removed it,'' said Juri Zolotorev, 65, standing near the site of the statue.

''For me this monument means a lot, it is a memory of my father, who fought in the war. No one should touch people's memory. It was like spitting into people's souls,'' he said.

By mid-morning the area around the statue was calm and traffic was flowing. Estonia said the statue was now somewhere under police control. People cleaned up the streets and windows in many residential and office buildings nearby were smashed.

Student Andrej Frolovo, 17, said he had heard Russians from all over Estonia were coming to the capital.

''I am sure there will be more protests,'' he told Reuters.

The vote by Russia's upper house of parliament on severing diplomatic ties with Estonia reflected Moscow's anger.

''We've seen enough of this mocking the dead and scoffing at the victory in World War Two,'' Russian news agencies quoted Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov as telling the chamber. The senators then backed the non-binding decision.

Mikhail Margelov, head of the foreign relations committee at the Federation Council, said the events in Tallinn showed that ''the war against fascism did not end on May 9, 1945''.

Estonia said one man died in the disturbances, which began after more than 1,000 people gathered to protest yesterday, after being stabbed in the subsequent violence.

Police arrested 300, while 44 protesters and 13 police were hurt.

Looters broke windows, began fires and turned over cars.

REUTERS KK PM1645