News2022.11.22 11:24

Vilnius to remove Soviet monument despite UN’s objection

updated
LRT.lt, BNS 2022.11.22 11:24

Vilnius authorities say they will start removing the Soviet-era Red Army monument in Vilnius Antakalnis Cemetery this week despite the United Nations Human Rights Committee maintaining its protection.

“The Justice Ministry has informed us that the UN Human Rights Committee has taken a decision on the statues in Antakalnis Cemetery, leaving the interim protection measures in place,” Valdas Benkunskas, Vice-Mayor of Vilnius, told BNS on Tuesday.

“The decision is hardly comprehensible. It seems that either the committee did not look into the context and arguments presented by Lithuania, or there is simply a lack of understanding of the overall situation,” he added.

Lithuanian Justice Minister Ewelina Dobrowolska said Vilnius may have to wait for two to five years for the committee's final decision on the removal of the statues.

The removal of the six grey granite sculptures featuring Soviet WW2 soldiers was unanimously backed by Vilnius City Council in early June after they were removed from Lithuania's register of immovable cultural property by heritage officials.

However, in October, the UN Human Rights Committee put interim measures in place after it received complaints from several individuals who called themselves “ethnic Russians”. The Justice Ministry then sent explanations to the committee, and Vilnius municipality decided to cover the statues until the matter was resolved.

Read more: Vilnius postpones removal of Soviet monument as UN human rights committee intervenes

According to Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius, the sculptures will be removed despite the UN committee’s decision.

“Yesterday we received the position of the UN Human Rights Committee. it is very unfortunate that they have been misled by the completely wrong arguments of the pro-Russian actors and continue to propose to protect these Soviet constructions while they carry an investigation for two to five years,” the mayor wrote on Facebook.

“We do not have that much time, the war – both on the Ukrainian battlefield and in the information space – is happening now, so we will not wait. The committee does not allow us to go into cemeteries and destroy gravestones and monuments, and we will not do that. We will safely remove and protect the Soviet propaganda statues. The graves and tombstones were never intended to be touched, and they will not be touched,” he added.

Šimašius said he will inform the government of the plans to remove the Soviet monument on Tuesday: “I trust that the government will not put the brakes on at tomorrow’s meeting.”

According to him, the removal of the Soviet sculptures at the Antakalnis Cemetery will start on Wednesday next week and is expected to be completed by mid-December.

Commenting on the UN committee's decision, Dobrowolska said that “all legal and diplomatic means to enable the committee to understand the arguments and facts have been exhausted”.

“Some of the interim measures are not in line with reality, because they speak about the reburying of the graves, which is something that the municipality has never planned to do,” she said.

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