Riga, Wednesday
THE Pope, starting a visit to Latvia, today backed the Baltic
country's demands that Russian troops should leave its territory, a
spokeswoman for Latvia's president said.
President Guntis Ulmanis met the Pope after he arrived to start the
second leg of his first visit to countries of the former Soviet Union.
Spokeswoman Anta Busa said they discussed the issue of some 16,000
ex-Soviet troops remaining in Latvia.
''The Pope said he understood the situation, that these are foreign
troops and should leave the territory of Latvia,'' she said at a
briefing.
The last Russian troops left Lithuania four days before the Pope
arrived there but neither Latvia nor Estonia, where the Pope makes a day
trip on Friday, has agreed terms with Moscow for a pull-out.
On his arrival in Latvia, the 73-year-old Polish Pope said he hoped
the country could meet the challenges inherited from five decades of
Soviet rule.
He appealed to a crowd of thousands at an open-air mass to forgive
their oppressors in a ''courageous, far-seeing gesture of fraternal
peace''.
Moscow has accused the Baltic states of discriminating against ethnic
Russians by denying them the automatic right to citizenship.--Reuter.
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