PARAMILITARY EXERCISE IN ESTONIA RECALLS ANTI-SOVIET RESISTANCE.

The “Erna Raid-98” international paramilitary exercise is being held from August 5-8 in Estonia, with the participation of units from ten countries and several Estonian units. The exercise, considered one the world’s most strenuous in this category, features guerrilla operations in swamp and forest terrain, complete with day-time and night-time mock battles with an invading army. The exercise commemorates the Estonian volunteers’ Erna battalion, which was formed in Finland in 1941, landed in Estonia, and staged what became a legendary operation in the rear of the Red Army. Most of the Estonian volunteers were killed during that raid.

On the side of the Erna exercise, veteran Estonian Forest Brothers are holding a gathering which has become an annual event since 1991. The Forest Brothers were guerrilla groups that resisted the Soviet occupation from 1945 until well into the 1950s. The survivors are now entitled to pensions for the years spent fighting the occupation forces. (BNS, August 5)

BELARUSAN LEADERS RESIST PROPOSAL TO SWAP PROPERTY FOR RUSSIAN GAS.