Outrageous anti-Polish comments

Some Internet users have recently posted a great number of hateful comments about Polish people and Poland on one of Lithuanian information websites, alfa.lt. One of the users under the pseudonym “Katyna” (Katyn) published a multi-stanza poem of his own, in which he straightforwardly and repeatedly incites others to murder Polish people.

The shower of hostile comments, including those written by the user under the pseudonym “Katyna,” has been triggered off by an article published by alfa.lt titled “Kto zaprzedaje interesy Litwy” (in English: “Who betrays Lithuania’s interests”). In this article the author refers to the emotions aroused by Giedyminas Kirkilas’s recent visit to Warsaw. Kirkilas was formerly Lithuania’s Prime Minister. Today he is the deputy Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and the co-chairman of the Polish-Lithuanian Parliamentary Assembly.

The website presented the opinions of a publicist from alkas.lt, which is notorious for anti-Polish sentiments. The opinions are the consequence of a recent – alleged – betrayal of Lithuanian national interests in Lithuania. Alfy.lt cites Kirkilas as he answers the charges. This all boils down to Polish-Lithuanian talks about the situation of national minorities in Lithuania and Kirkilas’s declaration that the current Lithuanian government will aim to solve the deep-rooted problems.

The article has triggered off a shower of comments, most of which are hostile towards Poland and Polish people. The most outrageous comment was written by an internaut under the pseudonym “Katyne” (Katyn). He openly (in verse!) writes about organising a second holocaust for Polish people (“… the place of their [Poles’] “rights” is in the Ponary ditches (…) Zyklon B, a pesticide, will do. From the Oder all the way to the Dnieper River, there does not have to be a place for Polish people (…) Let’s fill the Ponary ditches with Poles once again…”). The internaut openly incites others to physical violence (“One only needs to take a saw to cut Poles’ heads off (…) If Poles bark at us, you can bark at them as well. But it’s even better to take a saw and hack their heads (…) If a Pole “wilenščyna” talks about Aukštaitija, let’s pitch his guts right at Pilsudski’s grave”). He uses exceptionally unrefined insults towards Polish people, Poland, and Polish national symbols (“Does some Pole adulate the white hen? Bang such a Pole with a hammer so that his or her brain splashes”).

The button “I think this comment is offensive” placed right below the comment, which is supposed to be of use in removing any unwelcome content, sounds ridiculous… The same comment was posted again on Saturday, just after the dispatch about the Polish procession in Vilnius.

Probably the editing staff of alfa.lt has already been notified about the comments breaking the law, however, the comments have not been removed from the website yet.

We would like to thank our reader for posting this “masterpiece” of Lithuanian Internet “poetry” together with the translation into Polish (the fragments of which we have taken the liberty to quote!).

Based on Inf.wł.

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/szokujace-antypolskie-komentarze

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