- June 12, 2012
- 251
An open letter: Do not let the Lithuanian authorities to build the artificial relations
The representatives of Polish Universities and Polish artists signed an open letter defending Polish minority in Lithuania. The letter was written and signed as reaction to establishment of the Forum of Dialogue and Co-operation with Lithuania.
A few weeks ago hundred of Polish intellectuals signed the declaration aiming to establish the Forum of Dialogue and Co-operation with Lithuania. The initiators were Robert Kostro, the head of the Polish History Museum and Adam Pomorski, the chairman of Polish PEN Club.
“Polish-Lithuanian relations shouldn’t be official only. Mutual understanding means building of good neighbourhood community as well as of democratic culture and civic civilization” – that’s what their declaration stated.
The authors of the current open letter would like to support the idea of establishing the Forum and at the same time they would like to warn against the immitation of the real dialogue. “We hope that actions of the Forum aiming to improve Polish-Lithuanian relations will focus not on effects but on reasons of bad atmosphere concerning these relations. Within over twenty years of both countries independence, the Polish party has had a constant political concept towards our neighbours” -that is what was written in the letter. “In order to improve Polish-Lithuanian relations, we appeal to the Forum not to succumb to suggestions of the Lithuanian part about encouraging to build artificial relations at the cost of violating Poles in Lithuania rights” – added the authors. The need of dialogue between the Polish minority in Lithuania and the Lithuanian State was pointed out.
The letter criticized the Polish policy towards Lithuanian state for last 20 years. As it was suggested, the soft-hearted attitude towards Lithuania has been used by the other party for its own purposes. “We hope that actions of the Forum aiming to improve Polish-Lithuanian relations will focus not on effects but on reasons of bad atmosphere concerning these relations. Within over twenty years of both countries independence, the Polish party has had a constant political concept towards our neighbours”-stated authors of the letter.
The authors of the letter accuse Lithuanian authorities of 20 years of Poles in Lithuania constant rights violating. “Lithuanian part lack of good will showed by uncompromising attitude and ostensible actions imitating dialogue could be recently observed by Knut Vollenbaek, the OSCE High Commissioner. Let’s remind here that Lithuania during its OSCE presidency infringed the minorities rights instead of guarding its standards” – stated the authors.
Especially the attitude of Gintaras Steponavicius, the Lithuanian Minister of Education and Science was criticised. “The example is an attitude of Gintaras Steponavičius, the Lithuanian Minister of Education who after mutual talks failure, was afraid of K. Vollenbaek visit during the debate. Steponavičius suggestion is to meet the Polish Minister with OSCE High Commissioner absence. Unfortunatelly, the only interpretation is that the presence of objective witness could cause pointing the fault of the party who ceased negotiation” – stated the initiators of the letter.
The letter was signed by over 300 people including the scientists, artists and actors.
Tłumaczenie Dorota Szewczyk-Madejewska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Dorota Szewczyk-Madejewska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.
