Neo-Nazis in Riga, Latvia are attacking Roma (also known as Gypsies) with increasing regularity, according to a March 4, 2008 article in the local Russian language newspaper "Telegraf." One neo-Nazi was arrested earlier this month and charged with attacking two Roma girls last fall, but the majority of anti-Roma crimes remain uninvestigated because most Roma fear contact with the police.

The attack last October took place in the girl's apartment building. Skinheads followed the 13 year old girls from a nearby store and beat them with chains. One of the victims still refuses to go out of her home six months after the attack as a result of the emotional trauma she suffered. Police have other suspects in relation to this attack, as well as a subsequent assault on two Armenians during which the suspects allegedly screamed racist abuse. Anatoly Berezovsky, a local Roma leader, was quoted in the article as saying that his community is now suffering regular attacks from neo-Nazis and that earlier, neo-Nazi violence was not a problem. The press spokeswoman for the Security Police, Kristine Apse-Kruminja, confirmed that information and characterized the skinheads' motive as "both hooliganism and xenophobia." The neo-Nazis are both Russians and Latvian, she added, united in their hatred for Roma, whom they view as defenseless because of their fear of the police. The newspaper added that neo-Nazis also conducted a raid against Roma homes in the same area as the earlier attack.

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