The ruling conservative party of Lithuania wants the Lithuanian Communist Party to be recognized as a criminal organization, writes LRT.
The State Security Committee (VDK) and the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) have already been recognized as criminal organizations. Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (HU-LCD) believe that the Communist Party of Lithuania should also be added to the list, as it was the body that organized the strengthening of the Soviet occupation policy in the country.
According to the proposal, all high-ranking members of the Communist Party who were active before 1990 would have to list their ties to the Soviet regime in their biographies if they wanted to run for office. HU-LCD MP Audronius Ažubalis said:
«We must know who the masters, the inspirers, and the organizers of all these terrible things that happened in Lithuania were.»
Historian Regina Statkuvienė said that the initiative is important but late. Social Democrat Julius Sabatauskas also noted that the proposal is late, because many of the members of the Communist Party are no longer among the living or have long ceased to be active in politics.
A few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of Lithuania announced its separation from the Communist Party of the USSR.
Dainius Žalimas, Dean of the Law Faculty of Vytautas Diža University, said: «There are no objective grounds for declaring the independent Communist Party of Lithuania, founded in 1989, a criminal party. On the contrary, its members voted in favor of the 11th of March Act.»
The promoters of the initiative, meanwhile, point out that it is not too late, because the modern version of communism is reborn in Russia today. However, according to Žalimas, modern Russia cannot be equated only with communism – its ideology is based on a combination of Nazism and communism. According to him, it would be much more important to identify persons who have been involved in various neo-Nazi and pro-Kremlin organizations since 2000.
Read the full article here: https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1936986/needed-but-overdue-mps-want-communist-party-of-lithuania-labelled-criminal-organisation