- August 13, 2013
- 248
The EAPL’s statement: The incident in Poznan – another premeditated provocation
The Lithuanian-Polish relations were significantly improved after the last parliamentary elections and the establishment of the center-left coalition with the Social Democratic Party, the Labour Party, the Order and Justice Party and the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (EAPL).
The bilateral relations have aggravated as a result of certain decisions made by the former conservative-liberal majority, including the abrogation of the Law on National Minorities and the adoption of the edited version of the Act on Education, which discriminates against students from schools which use Polish, Russian, and Belarusian as their languages of instruction. It is regrettable that the former ruling majority’s representatives do not care about the good relations between Lithuania and Poland. Moreover, they notoriously contribute to the deterioration of the situation, inciting conflicts in Lithuania, as well as drawing courts (e. g. the appeal against Minister of Education and Science’s regulations) and the media into these disagreements.
The media connected with the conservatives (LNK, BTV, alfa.lt, Info žinios), and the liberals (Lietuvos ryto TV, lrytas.lt, lrt.lt), are responsible for spreading the conflict for the last 6 days. The poster hung at the Poznan stadium is the reason behind such escalation. It is sometimes difficult to resist the impression that what has been unleashed in the Lithuanian media, it is happening not only on somebody’s order. It also smells of a plan to incite hysteria in Lithuanian society.
The Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania unites representatives of diverse nationalities: Poles, Belarusians, Russians, Lithuanians, as well as other citizens belonging to different social strata of our country. The faction condemns this incident, as well as other similar ones. At the same time, it emphasizes this having been a premeditated provocation. The EAPL believes that the insistence upon constant repetition of the poster’s content is the instigators’ aim. This is why parties should ignore such provocations. After all, they happen almost on daily basis. The investigation conducted in Poland will detect the perpetrators, although it is clear that the incident is a well-planned and executed provocation. Such instigations happen very often of late.
1. A year ago, the inscriptions with place names in Lithuanian and Polish were painted over in the Puńsk region; this offence was commited during one night in different locations, separated by hundreds of kilometers.
2. A poster with a threat against W. Tomaszewski, the leader of the EAPL, was “unnoticeably” hung at often-visited Rasos Cemetery.
3. The poster measuring 50-metres (according to the media) and probably weighting a lot, was hung at the Poznan stadium, despite an impossibility of carrying in a larger object.
As evidenced by the scope of these provocations, it would not have been possible to perform them without the secret services’ knowledge. It seems obvious that spreading material connected with the incident in the various mass media is also a kind of a planned action. It is inconsistent with the Public Information Law, which imposes an obligation to inform society in an objective way. What we witness right now – the constant, simply hysterical dissemination of provocative and irritant content – goes against the Public Information Law as well. It is worth remembering that the slogan “A Lithuanian churl, and a Polish master” was created 10 years ago, and has been frequently repeated in the TV show „Dviračių žinios”. It is broadcast on the LNK channel that supports the conservatives. This fact points to the true author of the slogan. Why did neither individual politicians, nor representatives of the media react to the exacerbating TV shows? The question remains unanswered.
The EAPL Press Office
Tłumaczenie by Agata Weronika Chrobak w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Agata Weronika Chrobak within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.
