www.hipakistan.com -- TALLINN, Estonians expressed shock and sadness after news broke across this small, close-knit Baltic nation Sunday of their first casualty in Iraq.
"Estonia is in mourning,'' President Arnold Ruutel said in a statement Sunday. "The death of this brave young man in Iraq is an irreplaceable loss to his family and to all of Estonia.''
As people gathered at church services, Prime Minister Juhan Parts urged them to pray for 21-year-old Andres Nuiamae. The junior sergeant was the first soldier in Estonian uniform killed in combat abroad since 1920.
Estonians also filed into the Defense Ministry in Tallinn, the snow-covered capital, to sign a book of condolences _ set in a hallway next to a candle, a picture of the sandy-haired, blue-eyed Nuiamae, and a blue, black and white Estonian flag.
"This is shocking for Estonians,'' Marko Mihkelson, chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee, told The Associated Press.
'Everyone understood the potential dangers, even this soldier. But for such a small country that hasn't seen this loss before, it is especially upsetting.''
Nuiamae was killed late Saturday in Baghdad while on patrol near the Abu Ghuraib market. No one else was hurt in the explosion of a makeshift bomb that reportedly killed Nuiamae instantly. He was the first coalition soldier killed by hostile fire in Iraq since Feb. 19.
The U.S. government expressed condolences through a statement from its Tallinn embassy.
"Nuiamae fell in the service of his country while performing a globally vital mission in bringing stability to Iraq, serving side by side with American forces,'' it said.
Estonia's pro-U.S. government said it had no intention of pulling out its 45 soldiers, who all volunteered for Iraq duty. The prime minister said the government would go ahead with plans to ask parliament to extend the mission into 2005. A vote is expected in two weeks.
"What happened is an inevitability of military work,'' Parts said. "But this is not a reason to abandon the goals we have set ourselves in ensuring Estonia's security.''
A replacement for Nuiamae has already been chosen and will soon head to Iraq, said Peeter Tali, a spokesman for Estonia's military, which numbers under 5,000 troops.
The Defense Ministry announced that, in accordance with national law, the dead soldier's family would be paid 2 million Estonian kroons (US$160,000) in compensation.
His death could prompt debate about whether Estonia should scale down its presence in Iraq or end it entirely.
"Emotion will be up,'' said Mihkelson, a backer of the Iraq mission. "And it is a natural question to ask why we're there and it should be asked. The government should answer the questions again.''
Thousands of people left messages Sunday on the country's popular www.delfi.ee site, with commentators evenly split about whether Estonia should stay in Iraq or leave.
Several Estonian draftees died fighting in Red Army units during the nation's 50 years under Soviet rule, which initially started in 1940. Tens of thousands of Estonians were also drafted by the Nazis during the 1941-44 German occupation, and thousands died.
But the death Sunday was the first of an Estonian fighting for an independent Estonian army since 1920, when hundreds died in the struggle to free Estonia from Russian rule.
The Baltic state of 1.4 million people regained independence amid the 1991 Soviet collapse. Since then it has firmly allied itself with the United States and the European Union, which it will join in May.
Governments in the Baltics, including Latvia and Lithuania, have been outspoken supporters of U.S. policy in Iraq, all three dispatching forces last summer. Latvia has about 100 soldiers in Iraq, while Lithuania has around 90. No Latvians or Lithuanians have been killed.