News Highlights from June 29—July 6, 1998
Ex-KGB need not apply to a wide range of jobs in Lithuania after the country’s parliament passed a law imposing severe restrictions on where former agents of the Soviet secret police can work.
The bill, which the Seimas adopted by an overwhelming 68-7 vote on June 30, bans one-time spies from virtually all government jobs and also from many jobs in the private sector, including banks, security firms and law offices.
The new restrictions were prompted by a wave of press reports alleging that former officials of the KGB have entrenched themselves in key government and private institutions, and that they may be using their intelligence skills to engage in criminal activities.
Police recently charged several former KGB staff with trying to smuggle millions of counterfeit dollars into the country, saying the scheme could have seriously harmed Lithuania’s monetary system had it succeeded. Others accuse former KGB of still spying for Moscow.
Backers of the law estimate that there are some 4,000 ex-KGB workers in Lithuania, about 2,000 of whom hold government jobs and could now be subject to dismissal.
“This law is needed because the KGB existed and still exist in Lithuania,” said Loretta Zakarvicene, spokesman for Parliament Speaker Vytautas Landsbergis, who drafted the legislation. “No one can be sure that these KGB workers have stopped their activities. And we know very well that, as a group and working together, they can be very dangerous.”
The employment bans appear to have wide support among Lithuanians, many of whom still have fresh memories of the KGB, which was responsible for stamping out political dissent and repressing religious worship during fifty years of Soviet rule.
But Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, a former U.S. environmental regulator who came to power earlier this year preaching greater tolerance in society, has expressed strong reservations about the law.
A day before the legislative vote, the president’s press chief told journalists the law was too vague. She also raised questions about parliament’s right to dictate to private companies who they could and couldn’t hire.
“Lithuania’s constitution ensures freedom of economic activity and private ownership, so such restrictions might go against the fundamental laws of the country,” Violeta Gaizauskaite said.
Since Lithuania regained independence 1991, the issue of how to deal with the legacy of the KGB has been hotly debated. Vytautas Landsbergis, an outspoken anti-Communist and former president, has led the drive for tough restrictions on former agents.
Government leaders and parliamentarians in Lithuania are already required to take an oath swearing they never worked for or cooperated with the KGB.
* A leading Nazi-hunting group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, has blasted Lithuania for not acting fast enough to bring accused war criminal Aleksandras Lileikis to justice.
Lithuanian prosecutors charged the 91-year-old with genocide in February, but pre-trial hearings have dragged on for months. Last month, a Vilnius court fixed a trial date of Sept. 1—which the Wiesenthal Center said was too long to wait.
“Given the serious charges faced by the defendant and his advanced age, it is obvious that such delays reflect negatively on the willingness of Lithuanian authorities to try Lileikis,” Efraim Zuroff of group’s Israeli office said in a letter sent to Lithuania’s President Valdas Adamkus on June 28.
Zuroff said the slowness of the courts reflected a general reluctance among Lithuanians to confront their past under Nazi occupation, when over 90 percent of Lithuania’s Jews, or around 200,000 people, were massacred.
“One can understand why such a trial, which will expose the important role played by Lithuanians in the mass murder of Lithuanian Jewry, might prove difficult to your country,” Zuroff said. “Yet the repeated and unjustified delays in starting the trial, are making a mockery of the initial and praiseworthy decision to bring Lileikis to justice.”
Earlier, the Wiesenthal Center has said Lithuanians were hoping Lileikis would die before his trial begins, thereby avoiding the bad publicity for Lithuania that a war-crimes proceeding might bring.
Lileikis, who headed the notorious Vilnius security police during World War Two, is accused of ordering the arrest of scores of Jews and then handing them over to be killed. He has maintained his innocence.
While Lithuanian prosecutors insist they have enough evidence to convict Lileikis, defense lawyers have continually asked for more to time to prepare their case. They also say Lileikis is too ill to stand trial.
Lileikis lived in Norwood, Massachusetts before being stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 1996 and moving back to Lithuania.
Earlier in the week, the Simon Wiesenthal Center also criticized a recent decision by Latvia’s parliament to declare March 16 a day to commemorate World War Two soldiers, including those who fought in an all-Latvia division of the Waffen SS.
The Wiesenthal Center said that the decision showed Latvia has failed to face up to the country’s mixed record under Nazi occupation, from 1941-1944, when most of the country’s Jewish population was wiped out.
Many Western diplomats in Riga have also said that parliament’s move could be received badly abroad and could even complicate the country’s bid to join the EU and NATO, the Baltic News Service reported.
Latvians have argued that Latvia’s history during the World War Two era is misunderstood, and that the Waffen SS was not akin to SS divisions charged with carrying out mass murders and guarding concentration camps.
Historians confirm that the Latvia’s Waffen SS was primarily a fighting force used on the Russian front in the waning years of the war. They say non-Germans were barred from fighting in the regular German army. Many Latvian veterans say they wanted to fight for their independence against the advancing Red Army and had no choice but to serve in the Waffen SS. Thousands of others were conscripted into the unit.
*
A popular Catholic priest in Lithuania has disappeared after an apparent robbery at his home, and may have been kidnapped.
Ricardas Mikutavicius, who gained fame for recently baptizing a tiger over the objection of Church authorities, was reported missing from his apartment in Kaunas by his maid.
A collection of valuable art owned by the priest, including some 50 paintings, were also missing. The artwork, some of it dating back to the 16th century, has been valued at 4 million dollars.
Police said there was no sign of a struggle in the priest’s apartment and that the paintings, including several by well-known European masters, had been carefully cut from their frames.
In addition to a possible abduction, investigators said they were also looking at two other scenarios, but refused to say what they were.
The 63-year-old priest said earlier that he intended to turn his art collection over to Lithuanian state.
Despite criticism about him from the Church hierarchy, a recent poll voted him one of the most popular persons in Kaunas-a city of 430,000 some 100 kilometers west of the capital Vilnius.
Mikutavicius is chaplain at the Lithuanian University of Agriculture, and has authored several books of poetry.
*
The London-based Observer newspaper on June 28 released its human rights index, which included ratings for the Baltic countries. According to the survey, there are fewer human rights abuses in the three Baltic states than in the United States, which has been criticized abroad for maintaining the death penalty.
The index allots scores on various human rights abuses, from torture in prisons and restrictions on press freedom to a lack of children’s rights and discrimination against minorities. According to the scoring, the higher the score the worse the human rights violations; the first country listed is considered the worst human rights abuser. The scores follow:
Ranking Country Human Rights Index score
1 Algeria 110.55
2 North Korea 105.27
3 Burma 99.560
9 Yugoslavia 79.980
17 Cuba 64.347
28 Belarus 54.002
32 Russia 50.292
53 Israel 38.346
92 United States 25.434
106 Nicaragua 22.790
109 ESTONIA 21.728
114 LATVIA 20.974
125 France 17.974
139 Poland 15.012
141 United Kingdom 14.896
143 LITHUANIA 14.478
168 Germany 8.316
180 Denmark 4.635
183 Norway 4.243
185 Sweden 2.808
190 Finland 1.880
194 Tuvalu 0.700
News Highlights from June 23—June 29, 1998
*
In a move that it hoped could lead to improved relations with Russia,Latvia’s parliament has given final approval to amendments softening thecountry’s controversial citizenship law.
After eight hours of heated debate, the Saeima voted 49-26 on June 22 toaccept a package of amendments making it easier for Russian-speakers in thecountry to acquire citizenship.
Out of a population of 2.5 million, some 700,000 people in Latvia arestateless—most of them Russian-speakers who immigrated to Latvia in thedecades after the Baltic-coast nation was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940.
After regaining independence in 1991, Latvia granted automatic citizenshiponly to those who lived in the country before World War II and theirdescendants—leaving virtually all Soviet-era immigrants and their childrenstateless.
The Kremlin has accused Latvia of using citizenship laws to permanently disenfranchise Russian-speakers, who, without citizenship, can neither vote in national elections nor hold certain government jobs. A long-running-dispute between Latvia and Russia over the issue intensified in recent months, with Moscow even threatening trade sanctions. The new amendments end a much-criticized quota system and also grant automatic citizenship to all children born in Latvia after independence in1991. An estimated 25,000 children will now become immediately eligible for Latvia citizenship.Adults, however, will still have to pass language tests proving proficiency in Latvian—which most non-citizens do not speak.
In the months prior to the June 22 vote, deputies came under heavy pressure from the West, with the European Union and even NATO publicly urging Latvian legislators to adopt the changes. National Minorities Commissioner for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OCSE) Max van der Stoel—who made the initial recommendations about modifying Latvia’s citizenship laws—welcomed parliament’s vote.
“Once the law has come into force…the key elements of my recommendations regarding citizenship and naturalization will have been fulfilled,” he said in a press statement. “Together with the implementation of [a national program teaching Latvian to Russian-speakers], these steps can serve to promote the process of integration which is presently under discussion in Latvia.” While official praise poured in from Europe and the United States, Moscow reacted coolly to the legislative vote, saying the changes to Latvia’s citizenship law were not substantial. Russian leaders have long said they also want the language requirement for citizenship to be waived. Many Latvians are still bitter about the influx of Russians during Soviet rule and say softening of naturalization rules is a threat to the ethnic Latvian majority. Those opposed to the amendments passed this past week said Latvia was caving in to pressure from Russia and the West. The right-wing For Fatherland and Freedom, the largest party in parliament and a member of the ruling government coalition, led opposition to the amendments, saying it would try to delay enactment of the changes and force a national referendum. But Latvia’s president and foreign minister have argued that making citizenship laws less stringent was the key to improved relations with Russia, and would also boost Latvia’s chances of winning European Union membership.
*
After repeated delays and criticism from abroad that it was acting too slowly, a court in Lithuania has finally fixed a trial date for alleged Nazi war criminal Aleksandras Lileikis.
Judge Viktoras Kazys said in a Vilnius court on June 26 that the trial of the 91-year-old Lileikis would begin on September 1 this year. It would be the first Nazi war crimes trial in Lithuania since the Baltic-coast nation won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Lileikis, who headed the war-time Vilnius security police, is accused of sending scores of Jews to their deaths during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, from 1941-1944. He has denied the genocide charges. Prosecutors expressed confidence that they had enough evidence to convict Lileikis, who lived in Norwood, Massachusetts before being stripped him of his U.S. citizenship in 1996 and moving back to Lithuania.
The lawyer for the defence, however, insisted that Lileikis is ill and not fit to stand trial. “I do not see how it’s possible that this trial can go on,” Algimantas Matuiza told journalists. “Lileikis is seriously ill and he can not attend the sittings.” The defendant was not in court, and has also not attended other pre-trail hearings.
During the German occupation of Lithuania, over 95 percent of the Baltic nation’s Jewish community—or some 200,00 people—perished at the hands of the Nazis. Since the country broke with the Soviet Union, five emigres, including Lileikis, have been stripped of their U.S. citizenship for lying about their Nazi past and have returned to Lithuania. Lithuania has vowed to prosecute Nazi war criminals, and genocide charges are pending against several other Lithuanians.
But Lithuania has been closely scrutinized by Nazi-hunting groups and also by Israel for what many critics say has been the country’s failure to act swiftly to bring alleged war criminals like Lileikis to justice.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has repeatedly accused Lithuania of dragging its feet, saying many Lithuanians wanted to avoid the upheaval of a trial and were hoping the frail, aging Lileikis would die before actually going to court.
*
A majority stake in Lithuanian Telecom, the largest state company ever auctioned off by Lithuania’s government, has gone to a consortium set up by Sweden’s Telia and Finland’s Sonera.
The decision to offer Lithuania’s telecommunication’s giant to the Swedish-Finnish consortium was made by privatization officials and confirmed by the government on June 24.
The consortium, called Amber Teleholding, will receive a 60-percent stake in Lithuanian Telecom at a price of 510 million US dlrs. The Swedish and Finnish buyers will also pump in another 221 million dlrs of investments over the next two years.
The Swedish-Finnish consortium beat out Danish Tele Danmark, which was also in the running to buy Lithuanian Telecom.
The sale is considered fulfillment of a promise by the country’s conservative government, which came to power in late 1996 vowing to speed up large-scale privatization.
Some observers had doubted the resolve of the government, which came undersome political pressure to delay or even abandon the privatization of such large state companies.
There were demonstrations in the country earlier in the year by Lithuanians who feared the privatization of Lithuanian Telecom would lead to steep rises in phone costs. Others said such a large infrastructure company should be kept entirely in Lithuanian hands.
*
A congress of pagans on June 25 called for pagan unity around the world, and also appealed for greater tolerance of their beliefs.
A resolution adopted at the close of the five-day World Pagan Congress in Vilnius said pagans should network and become more active in the societies in which they live.
“We encourage pagans of the world to strengthen their solidarity, and seek membership in international institutions, and we urge societies to be tolerant of our beliefs,” the statement said.
Some members of the congress complained that their beliefs were not accorded the same respect as established religions, and said pro-pagan organizations were often unable to secure any official recognition.
The gathering brought together about 150 pagan enthusiasts from 15 countries, including India and the United States.
Lithuania, the site of the congress, was the last nation in Europe to be converted to Christianity. Before its conversion around 1400, Lithuanians worshipped many different deities—including Perkunas, the god of thunder.
Since regaining independence, the predominantly Catholic country has seen a rise in groups advocating pre-Christian beliefs. Romuva—one of the largest, most outspoken pagan groups in Lithuania—says it is dedicated to founding a pagan university in Vilnius.
