The human rights group of the Estonian parliament denounced the racially offensive utterances of Martin Helme, a board member of the Conservative People's Party, on a recent talk show of Tallinn TV.
Estonian parliament's human right group condemns racist statements
4th June 2013, 16:33
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"According to Article 12 of the Estonian Constitution, nobody may be discriminated against on the basis of nationality, race, color, sex, language, origin, religion, political or other opinions, property or social status, or on other grounds," the group said in a statement. The same article says that incitement to hatred is prohibited and punishable. "A call to treat dark-skinned people differently from others is unambiguously racist," the group said.
"Racist sentiment is not widespread in Estonia and we hope it will not have any basis here in times to come. Of political forces, only movements with marginal support have expressed racist views. Nonetheless, statements calling for discrimination must not be overlooked because they harbor a clear threat to human rights. We are calling on all people to respect constitutional values and human dignity and refrain from statements that offend other people," the group said.
Appearing on a talk show of Tallinn TV on May 28, Helme called to deny asylum to dark-skinned people. He reiterated his views in an interview the daily Postimees carried on Monday, arguing that Estonia's demographic situation does not allow the country to pursue a liberal immigration policy.
The far-right politician's remarks on the talk show raised a storm of indignation. He was criticized by gender equality and equal treatment commissioner, Mari-Liis Sepper, chairman of the board of the Institute of Human Rights Vootele Hansen and head of the Human Rights Center Kari Kasper.
Helme's sentiments were echoed by Olari Taal, a businessman and member of several previous Estonian governments, who in an interview with the weekend supplement of Eesti Paevaleht said among other things: "In any case, a normal Russian, Ukrainian or anybody else is better than some sort of 'pigi' [tar]. 'Pigi' is not a racist term, 'neeger' is a racist term. I'm not afraid of inciting racism, in any case a Ukrainian is better than 'pigi'."