- Tallinn (AFP) - An Estonian man has offered a reward
for $20,000 for information on Jewish officers of the Soviet KGB involved
in repression against Estonians, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
"For my part, I am offering 20,000 US dollars to everyone whose honest
confession brings about a fair court's verdict of guilty on criminals
of the Jewish nationality who while serving in Soviet repressive bodies
in the 1940s committed genocidal crimes in Estonia, Heiki Kortsparn was
quoted as saying in the weekly Kesknadal.
The offer follows a $10,000 reward announced last week by the Nazi-hunting
Simon Wiesenthal Centre for information on residents in the three Baltic
states who collaborated with the Nazis in the holocaust.
The $20,000 reward offer was published in a letter to the editor of the
newspaper of Estonia's Centrist Party, which is in a two-party coalition
government, but the party has not discussed the issue.
"We've published all sorts of letters representing all sorts of views.
The party doesn't discuss all letters before publishing them. Kesknadal's
editor-in-chief, Heamar Lenk said.
The Soviets deported over 30,000 Estonians to Siberia when they took over
the country at the outset and after World War II. Many of the deported
Estonian citizens suffered from disease and deprivation and died from
the inhumane conditions.
Estonia prosecutors have brought cases for crimes against humanity against
several ex-KGB officers for their involvement in the deportations.
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