- January 29, 2013
- 377
Daszkiewicz: bilingual plates have been present since Soviet times
The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities guarantees the bilingual naming of the streets, said Boleslaw Daszkiewicz, the director of administration in Šalčininkai district municipality, in an interview for the programme “The Political Salon” aired on “Znad Willi” Radio.
“There is one authority to which I can make an appeal against the sentence. This is the Chief Administrative Court to which I can appeal against the court’s decision within 14 days,” Daszkiewicz commented on the District Administrative Court’s decision about removing the bilingual plates in Šalčininkai district municipality.
The director emphasized that so far everything was all right except for the fact that he has already paid a fine of 2,000 Lithuanian litas.
“The first reprimand cost me 450 Lithuanian litas, the second 1,000 Lithuanian litas, and another will cost even more. I pay for them out of my own pocket,” Daszkiewicz explained.
The director of administration did not count how many plates there are in Šalčininkai district municipality and emphasized that they have been on houses since Soviet times, and nobody has paid attention to them.
“People travel around the Europe and they see bilingual plates, for instance, in Slovakia near the Polish boarder. The same can be observed on the Polish-Germany boarder. People can decide whether to place such plates or not,” says the director.
“Plates are translated into Polish; so if the street name is “mokyklos” in Polish it will be “szkolna”. This decision is accepted by house owners. All plates are bilingual. There are no plates written only in Polish. Names in mother tongue have priority, and then under the Lithuanian name there is a name written in another language,” Daszkiewicz stressed.
“Recalling the project planned by Kubilius’ government, which proposed to stand poles with street names, it is important to mention that in Vilnius those poles have plates with bilingual names, both in Lithuanian and in English. In my opinion, if those Lithuanian-English plates were placed on houses in Šalčininkai district municipality, no one would blow the problem up,” states the director.
“I hope that the new government will pass the Minority Act before the final court’s verdict about removing bilingual plates is pronounced,” emphasized Daszkiewicz.
Tłumaczenie Patrycja Olszówka w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Patrycja Olszówka the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.
