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Aftermath of the Bronze Night


Aftermath of the Bronze Night refers to the reactions and consequences of the Bronze Night, the controversy and riots in Estonia surrounding the 2007 relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, the Soviet World War II memorial in Tallinn.

 Estonia — President Toomas Hendrik Ilves appealed for calm and denounced the rioters as criminals due to the damage they had caused:

"All this had nothing to do with the inviolability of graves or keeping alive the memory of men fallen in World War II"... "The common denominator of last night's criminals was not their nationality, but their desire to riot, vandalize and plunder".

 Estonia — Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said in a televised address, in Estonian and Russian, that he was forced to remove the statue after the first riots on Thursday night. He said the statue was under police guard and was safe. It and any remains would be moved to a military cemetery.

"We must not let the sowers of hatred become the ones to split the nation or to plant prejudice", he said. "All nationalities were respected" ... "but violence was not". The memory of dead soldiers was not served when "a picture of a drunk shoplifter is being shown all over the world."

 Estonia — Mayor Edgar Savisaar of the City of Tallinn has expressed concern that removal of the monument might have constituted a breach of city property rights and have violated the Constitution of Estonia. As of May 10, no known legal claims to the effect have been made by the City of Tallinn against the Ministry of Defence, or the Government of the Republic of Estonia, neither through courts of law nor through the Justice Chancellor.


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