Dear Ambassador Pinkus

 

Lithuania's Embassy to Iceland

Att. His Excellency Mr. Vytautas Pinkus

Dear Ambassador Pinkus,

On February 16, I sent a letter of protest to you as the Lithuanian representative in Iceland. My protest was aimed at the Lithuanian State for allowing neo-Nazi marches in Kaunas. While I was in the Netherlands, I received news about another Icelandic citizen, who also sent his personal protest to you. You responded to his protest, but my letter you didn't bother to reply to. You might, dear sir, want to explain this difference in your attitude toward two Icelandic citizens who are concerned about Lithuania.

You informed my countryman, who protested against the march, that the protest in Kaunas last Sunday was only attended by a fringe group protesting against the EU. To quote your information to my friend: "The demonstration this year in Kaunas was mainly anti-European (anti-EU) and focused on the possible referendum on the right to sell land to foreigners." Why then, Mr. Ambassador, were the protesters carrying a large banner praising Juozas Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis the puppet prime-minister of Lithuania in 1941, who signed laws which removed the rights of Jews and enabled the killing of Jews in Lithuania during WWII?

 

I know very well the aims of the groups represented at the march, one of which has had representatives in the EU, where they have mainly used their presence to express their hateful views towards minorities in Lithuania.

The Lithuanian Government funded the reburial of the remains of Juozas Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis in Kaunas in May 2012, as well as a conference in honour of him. I was in Kaunas, where I attended a conference on the legacy of the Danish-Jewish-Icelandic philanthropist Aage Meyer Benedictsen. I paid a short visit to the conference on Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis sponsored by your government. In my first letter of protest to you, I added a link to my eye-witness account from that conference. Please read my account and be assured that both your government, members of the Lithuanian Church and neo-Nazis praise the memory of Lithuanians who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII. You cannot blame the objectives of the participants in the 16 February March on their EU-antipathies.

Lithuaninan Police checking identies of Lithuanians who protested against the neo-Nazi march in Kaunas. Photograph from www.defendinghistory.com

 

Furthermore, I find it frightening to see how the Lithuanian Police acted towards young Lithuanian natives, who gathered in protesting against the march last Sunday. They were harassed by the police. The police demanded their personal information, names and addresses. That conduct is not acceptable in a democratic state. At the same time Latvian nationals participated in the march. No Lithuanian police checked their identities.

Please, Mr. Ambassador, realize that the praise of the Lithuanian collaborators in the Holocaust is not an acceptable behaviour in the 21st century. Please forward my protest to your government, which must know that there are Icelandic citizens, who do not find it acceptable that Lithuanian streets bear the name of Iceland (Islandijos Gatvé), while Nazis and anti-democratic groups can march the streets of Lithuania and praise murderers!

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson

Albertslund, Denmark