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The act on general lustration no longer on the Seimas agenda

An appropriate draft law has been registered in the Lithuanian Parliament on 12th April by deputy Zbignev Jedinskij from the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance. The draft law had to be considered by parliamentarians on 3rd May, but the law on the disclosure of secret KGB associates disappeared from the agenda of the Seimas. 
‘Half a year ago I presented in the Seimas a draft of the so-called lustration act. It provides for the disclosure of all secret collaborators of the special services of the former Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the draft was rejected without the possibility of its improvement,’ said deputy Jedinskij on Monday when answering to journalists’ question regarding his movie that has been available on the internet. As he emphasized, the aim of the draft law was to counteract the possible blackmailing of these people by the structures or people who have access to the archives.

The politician pointed out that during the first half of 2018 there were many events related to the issue of possible cooperation of some known persons with the KGB. Therefore, he believes that carrying out full lustration becomes a big problem.

‘Quite recently, while presenting threats to national security Darius Janiškis, the Director of the State Security Department, confirmed that former secret collaborators of the KBG have indeed been blackmailed. When asked by the journalist what should be done in this case, he replied: ’Unfortunately, there is a lack of full lustration’,’ added Jedinskij.

He also reminded that the names of well-known actors, priests who were allegedly recruited by the KGB, were made public by the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania in January. This caused a great stir in the media and society.

In turn the so-called ‘Tomkus’s list’ (list of people who probably collaborated with the KGB) published in the ‘Respublika’ weekly magazine quite recently, was, as Jedinskij noted, concealed by other media. ‘It is suspicious. For example, there is a name of deputy Arvydas Anušauskas, who, when he was still a candidate for the Seimas, had to point out in a survey that he did not cooperate. We all know well, that the media ‘persecute’ every deputy even in the matter of very slight suspicions. Surely, we all know why the deputy Mindaugas Bastys resigned. Because he was probably meeting with a former KGB agent. The media wrote about it almost every day,’ said Jedinskij. Therefore he is surprised that the media remain silent in the case of the latest list of revealed probable KGB collaborators. No one asked neither Anušauskas nor the Central Electoral Commission why such things happen and why Anušauskas did not go to court,’ Jedinskij considered.

‘That is why we presented the draft law on lustration in the Seimas one more time. The presentation had to take place on 3rd May. Unfortunately, the question has disappeared from the agenda. We suspect that it happened, because the signatory Česlav Okinčic had to give a speech during the meeting, and his name appears on the list of KGB associates,’ said the deputy.

We would like to remind you that EAPL-CFA is seeking to reveal the names of secret collaborators of the special services of the former Soviet Union. The draft law on lustration has been registered by EAPL-CFA faction in the Seimas in September 2017, but it was rejected during the first reading. Now the faction renews the draft law and proposes that the names of KGB co-workers would be disclosed as of 1th January 2019. Deputy Zbignev Jedinskij is the rapporteur of the draft law.

2018-05-01