A 16- year-old boy beaten because of Polish language.

Last friday in Vilnius, near the House of Polish Culture, an unpleasant incident has happened, it was propably against the background of nationality issues.

A group of agresssive people assaulted a 16-year-old Daniel Cz., a student of John Poul II High School in Vilnius. As the witnesses say, the incident could be caused by the Polish language, used by Daniel.

The assaulting of Polish high school student happened on last Friday, in the late evening, near the Polish Culture House in Vilnius. According to one of the witnesses and, at the same time, participant in the incident – Darek W., the incident took place after disco party in the House of Polish Culture.

“Around 10:30pm, me and my friends, we were going to the benches near the House of Polish Culture. That was the place where we had to wait for our parents to pick us up. Everything started  when the group of  about 15 young drunk people passed us by.  They heard us talking Polish to each other, then a few of them started to shout the vulgar curses about our origins, “- said to “Wilnoteka” a incident witness Darek W., a student of Polish Secondary School of Wladyslaw Syrokomli in Vilnius.

Continuing the story, witness Darek W., said that after a few minutes, three drunk man at age about 30-40 approached to a group of six Polish young people. The attackers said to the boys „Nu ka, chebra? ” (“What’s up, guys?”), and attacked the ones who were seating the closest to them. Darek W.,  a witness, was hit in the head and neck, but he said that the force of impact was reduced by a thick cap, which he had on his head.

“If the attackers were younger, our chances would have been more or less equal. There was nothing we could do against a well-built men, two times older than us. When I realized that we have no chance, I started to run, along with several friends to the gas station, located near the House of Polish Culture. After a while, when we returned to the place of incident, we found just beaten Daniel Cz. and no trace of the aggressors “- said Darek W.

Darek W. does not reject the possibility that attacks could be caused by the Polish language, that boys were using. He added that there is a chance that there were also some of disco security staff (hired to secure the disco in the House of Polish Culture) who witnessed the incident. Unfortunately, none of them came with help for aftacked boys.

As we know from representatives of the Second Vilnius City Police Commissariat, parents of beaten teenager reported that incident. Police launched an investigation, but meanwhile,  they denied to give any information. Leonard Talmont, the Member of RL Parliament from Electoral Action of Poles group in Lithuania, had expressed his concern about the fact of assaulting polish teenage boy. Politician said that he will take this case under his guardinship.

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/szesnastolatek-pobity-za-jezyk-polski

Tłumaczenie Katarzyna Słowik w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka,www.efhr.eu. Translated by Katarzyna Słowik within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu