Lithuania condemns Polish soldiers' graves vandalism

Audronius Ažubalis

“This is not an attack on a national minority, but on all humanity,” he said.

The damage took place on Tuesday night, when as yet unidentified vandals smeared black paint on fifty graves belonging to Polish legionnaires and swastikas were daubed on memorial plaques.

The incident comes just days before All Saints' Day, when Catholics tend to the graves of ancestors, lighting lanterns in their memory.

Tensions concerning Lithuania's Polish minority came to a head in August when Polish minority schools threatened to strike, owing to their rejection of new laws that seek to ensure that Lithuanian is the language of instruction in certain academic subjects.

A meeting between the prime ministers of both countries temporarily defused the situation, with a bi-national commission founded to look into the matter.

Meanwhile, anti-Lithuanian vandalism has taken place in Poland in recent months. Twenty-eight road signs in Lithuanian were defaced near Bialystok, north east Poland, in what appears to be a rash of racist vandalism in the region (Jewish and Muslim sites were also targeted over the summer).

Cleaning of the graves in Svenconys (Polish: Swiecany), Lithuania, began yesterday, and authorities are confident that the damage will rectified by All Saints' Day. (nh/pg)

Source: PAP