The Associated Press

RIGA, Latvia -- Dozens of aging veterans from a Latvian Waffen SS unit celebrated Mass in Riga's Dome Cathedral on Thursday before heading to a World War II cemetery to honor 50,000 comrades who died in battle.

The group held their annual commemoration in the village of Lestene, some 70 kilometers west of Riga, instead of their traditional march through the capital, which has provoked clashes between Latvian nationalists and pro-Russian demonstrators in recent years.

Later Thursday, about 200 nationalists rallied near the Latvian Occupation Museum in downtown Riga, defying a city council ban. They shouted "Latvia, Latvia," and sang patriotic songs as a wall of riot police tried to separate them from a group of some 70 Russian-speaking counter-demonstrators replying "Fascism won't prevail." There was a minor scuffle between some demonstrators, but no other violence.

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga and Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis have urged people to forego demonstrating on March 16 and to remember all of Latvia's war dead on the country's official memorial day, Nov. 11.

Some Latvians regard the Latvian Waffen SS as heroes who fought not for the Nazis, but for Latvian independence against Soviet occupiers. Some of the veterans, most of whom are in their 80s, say they regarded the Nazis at the time as the lesser of two evils.

Soviet forces occupied the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in June 1940 but were driven out by the Germans a year later. The Red Army retook the Baltics in 1944, and reincorporated them into the Soviet Union.

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