Lithuanian Foreign Minister: Lukashenka doesn’t fulfil promises

Lukashenka’s promise on assistance in the case of January 13, he gave in Vilnius, remains unfulfilled, Vigaudas Usackas said commenting on Belarus’s refusal to extradite General Uskhopchik.

“We regret that Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s promise he gave during his visit to Vilnius to render assistance to Lithuania in investigation the case of January 13, especially important for our people, hasn’t been fulfilled,” the Lithuanian Foreign Minister told news agency BNS.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Prosecutor’s Office will apply best efforts for the criminal prosecution to go on. We hope Belarus won’t estimate those actions in accordance with the laws of then existed totalitarian state, which brought much harm, pains and many victims to citizens of Belarus, and follow the principles of respect for human rights, democracy and good neighbourliness,” Vigaudas Usackas said.

We remind that the General Prosecutor’s Office of Lithuania informed Tuesday it had received an answer of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus saying assistance in the case of January 13 wouldn’t be rendered to Lithuania. The second request to perform appropriate procedures in relation to suspect Vladimir Uskhopchik and Stanislava Juonene was sent to Belarus in autumn 2009.

Belarus still refuses to extradite to Lithuania General Vladimir Uskhopchik, who is charged in the case of the coup on January 13, 1991. He was appointed deputy minister of defense of Belarus in 2000.

Lithuanian prosecutor Algimantas Kliunka Tuesday the negative response of Belarus wouldn’t change Lithuania’s legal estimation: “the actions against freedom defenders in Lithuania in January 1991 are a crime. These actions fall under criminal responsibility not only in Lithuania but also in other EU countries”.

According to Kliunka, the Belarusian prosecutors repeated their position: actions by the suspects are regarded in accordance with the USSR law, effective at that time, as an intention to defend the constitutional system and the territorial integrity of the Soviet Union, so the prosecutor’s office cannot render legal assistance in this case.

President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite said in September 2009 after a meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka that Lithuanian prosecutors should apply more efforts to get legal assistance from Belarus.

As charter97.org reported, in 2009, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said earlier he had been among the people supporting independence of Lithuania.

“Do you know where Lukashenka was in the hardest historical moment when there were shots in Vilnius? In Vilnius, in the Supreme Soviet. We have been making our way through barricades to the Supreme Soviet, to Vytautas Landsbergis, to express solidarity. We want peace in Lithuania,” Lukashenka said.

Notice of charter97.org: General Vladimir Uskhopchik has been on wanted list of the Lithuanian procuracy for many years for involvement to civilians’ massacre. In January 1991 Uskhopchik was a commander of Vilnius garrison, and his soldiers killed fighters for independence of Lithuania.

Vitautas Landsbergis, a former chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania, gave the court recorded phone talks with Uskhopchik, when he was threatening to use force. Landsbergis many times stated that “General Uskhopchik was an active participant of January events, he was in command of Vilnius garrison, and on his order tanks and armoured personnel carriers attacked unarmed civilians”.

Since 1992, representatives of the prosecutor’s office of Lithuania, have regularly demanded Belarusian authorities to extradite Uskhopchik. But instead of surrendering the suspect to the authorities of the country in which he is charged with commitment of numerous crimes, including grave ones, Alyaksandr Lukashenka appointed Uskhopchik deputy defense minister in May 2004. On February 23, 2004, he awarded General Lieutenant Vladimir Uskhopchik with the Order for Service to the Homeland of the First Class.